Where do you go when your home is no longer a safe place?Alex is about to turn eighteen and is firmly in the closet. He’s been biding his time, waiting to escape to uni, and finally come out away from the oppressive influence of his homophobic father. When he flunks his exams, he’s stuck in the small town of Porthladock—and what’s worse is that he’s working for his dad. The only thing that makes … that makes it bearable is Cam.
Cam’s comfortable with his bisexuality, but he doesn’t broadcast it. Young, free, and single, his social life revolves around playing rugby and hanging out with his mates. He’s attracted to Alex, but with the six-year age gap, Cam’s wary of getting involved. Plus, he thinks Alex needs a friend more than he needs a lover, and as their friendship grows, Cam decides he’s not willing to risk ruining it for casual sex.
When Alex’s dad finds out about his sexuality, Alex is suddenly both jobless and homeless. He finds work at Rainbow Place, the local LGBT-friendly café and Cam lets Alex stay in his flat for a while. But Alex would rather be sleeping in Cam’s bed than on his sofa. With them both living under one roof, their feelings for each other grow stronger, and the sexual tension is hard to ignore. Will giving in to it ruin their friendship and complicate things for Alex even more?
Although this book is part of a linked series, it has a satisfying happy ending, and can be enjoyed as a standalone.
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I love the fact that Cam is patient and is thinking not just about himself but what impact it would have on Alex. There are some strong scenes regarding Alex which I don’t want to do any spoilers but again how Cam reacts is really great to see. This story while having the fun Rainbow Place vibe it seems a little more intense.
I listened to the audio version and really enjoyed it.
It is good to see younger main characters this time. They highlight the versatility of both author and narrator. Hamish Long nails the younger, lighter tones of Alex and Cam perfectly, while making them very different too.
The attraction between Alex and Cam was immediate and obvious in Book One, but Cam was wary because of Alex’s age. When this is no longer a problem, the next stumbling block is who Alex’s father is. I love how Alex responds in a quite immature fashion, which then sets of a domino effect that leaves him homeless. It is all just so real. Once again, strong emotions are invoked by a character…Cam this time…but he eventually redeems himself. Between the author and narrator, I live these books, which is just as it should be.
The next book, Better Place, is already downloaded.
Audio book review:
Fantastic narration, a good HFN
It’s happened again… I enjoyed this book very much when I read it last year and it got 4 stars from me. After listening to the fantastic performance by Hamish Long I’m upping that rating to 5 stars across the board.
Rainbow Place was the first book I listened to performed by him and I immediately became a fan. His performance of Safe Place didn’t change my opinion. His British accent is very pleasing and easy for this American listener to understand. The various voices he uses for the characters are perfect and his pacing and vocal inflections are great.
I was particularly happy to learn the correct pronunciation of several words that I had pronounced differently in my head while I read the book. I just can’t say enough good things about this new-to-me narrator and this story by Jay Northcote.
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Below is my original review when I read the book last year:
Safe Place is book two in the Rainbow Place series but it can be read as a standalone with no problem. Book one, Rainbow Place, sets up the location of the Rainbow Place series and how the cafe got started. It’s a good story but don’t be afraid to read Safe Place if you haven’t read book one.
The blurb perfectly describes the story so I won’t go over it again. Cam and Alex’s friendship is important to both of them but Cam is afraid to jeopardize their budding friendship to act on his more-than-friends urges. Alex agrees to stay just friends because he doesn’t want to lose Cam.
The pacing of the book was just a bit slow for me. The main conflict for the story, when Alex’s dad learns he’s gay, didn’t happen until about 58% of the way through the book. It was good that we got a lot of background on Alex and Cam so I didn’t really mind this as I enjoy a good slow burn romance. What bothered me just a bit was that things escalated fairly quickly for Alex and Cam from that point on and I would have preferred that this part of the story was at the same pace as the beginning and perhaps just a bit longer.
We learn something about Alex’s mom near the end of the book and I felt like I wanted to know more about her situation. I know that this book was about Alex and not his mom, but I still wanted more about her. I’m one of those readers who always wants more.
In any case, this was a very good story and I hope to see a bit more of Alex and Cam as the series continues. I know they probably won’t be main characters again but perhaps we’ll get a glimpse of them at some point.
This may sound funny but I’d also like to say I love how “British” this book is. I like reading stories that are written differently from the way we speak in the U.S. and I’m enjoying getting an education in British English by reading Jay’s books.
***Reviewed for Xtreme-Delusions dot com***
*I received the book in exchange for an honest review*
Once again I am at a loss where to start, except to say I absolutely loved the book. After reading Rainbow Place (my review of it can be found here), I was really excited about the next book, and even more so when I found out that the next book would feature Alex and Cam.
I loved the characters, and I just want to hug Alex and protect him from all the crap he’d had going on. As his father was in a way responsible for people vandalising Rainbow Place in the first book it came as no surprise that he’d stay the same asshole even when it came to his son. I hated the guy in the first book already, but in this one, my hatred of him reached previously unknown levels.
I loved the community though. When Alex is homeless, his friends take up the slack. Cam and Wicksy let him stay with them, Seb is also prepared to give him a place, and also offers him a job. Like in the first book, the actions of the community cheered me up, and gave me hope.
And Cam? Oh what a hopeless dude. He was attracted to Alex from the beginning (and it certainly was reciprocated), but ugh! his doubts and noble intentions were occasionally so frustrating I just wanted to punch him. It was noble of him when he saw who Alex’s dad was and didn’t want to add extra complication in the mix, for Alex to deal with, especially with exams looming.
But once shit hit the fan and everything, his reasons were less noble and more…based on fear. He doesn’t want to risk the friendship he and Alex had because of one bad experience years ago, and even when it’s obvious it’s too late for those kinds of hang-ups.
But I loved the ending and the epilogue and WHOA did they have a huge surprise in them. It was so amazing!
Anyway, the book CAN be read as a standalone but…the first one is too good to miss out.
This is a NA friends to lovers story set in the wonderful new world created in Rainbow Place, the first book in this series.
I usually love friends to lovers stories, but I was a bit bummed by how this particular friendship started out. Cam and Alex have noticed each other already in the first book in the series, with Alex crushing on the cute, slightly older guy who seems way out of his league.
Cam is equally drawn to Alex, however, and they spend a lovely evening together.
Everything seems to be going great, until suddenly it doesn’t anymore, when Cam finds out Alex’s father is a local, prominent homophobe and does a sudden about-face. This really rubbed me the wrong way.
Ostensibly it’s about protecting Alex, but to me it felt more like Cam wanting to avoid complications, giving in to his own fears and running away from a potentially great relationship. This doesn’t exactly scream romance. Throughout the story he rejects Alex more than once, while giving him mixed signals. Cam’s extreme reluctance to act on (or even admit to) his feelings for Alex makes it hard for me as reader to believe in the strength of his love.
I did like that Cam and Alex became friends under difficult circumstances and I was completely charmed by the secondary characters… seeing Seb and Jason again was amazing and the others like Sophia, Amber, Hayden and Wicksy are a great bunch of friends and I’d love to see more of them in the following books.
Still I would have liked to have seen more of Alex and Cam as an actual item. They only get together at the very end of the story, so we don’t really see them grow as a couple.