Audio Review: Safe Place by Jay Northcote, Performed by Hamish Long

15 December of 2019 by ButtonsMom2003

Story: 5

Performance: 5

5.0Overall score

Fantastic narration, a good HFN

Safe Place By Jay Northcote, Narrated by Hamish Long

Genre: Contemporary Romance, GLBTQ, MM

Released: audio December 6, 2019; ebook August 31, 2018

Publisher: Jaybird Press

Series: Rainbow Place, Book 2

Cover Design: Garrett Leigh @Black Jazz Design

Synopsis

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 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.

Review

Reviewed by ButtonsMom2003

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.

* * * * * * * *
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.

Story: ♥♥♥♥♥

Narration: ♥♥♥♥♥

O Factor: Spicy

Rainbow Place Series

♥ Amazon US ♥ Amazon CA ♥ Amazon UK ♥

About Author

Jay Northcote

Jay lives just outside Bristol in the West of England. He comes from a family of writers, but always used to believe that the gene for fiction writing had passed him by. He spent years only ever writing emails, articles, or website content.

One day, Jay decided to try and write a short story—just to see if he could—and found it rather addictive. He hasn’t stopped writing since.

Jay writes contemporary romance about men who fall in love with other men. He has five books published by Dreamspinner Press, and also self-publishes under the imprint Jaybird Press. Many of his books are now available as audiobooks.

Author Links