Title: Safe in His Heart (Safe #2)
Author: Renae Kaye
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Release Date: May 2, 2016
Genre(s): Contemporary
Page Count: 270
Reviewed by: Vallie
Heat Level: 4 flames out of 5
Rating: 1.5 stars out of 5
Blurb:
Andrew and Paul learned about God and Jesus in different churches and realize their views of spirituality are worlds apart.
Andrew was raised Catholic and was told his homosexuality was a sin. For his entire life, he hid the truth. He married and had children to present a façade to the world—that of a straight man. It’s not until he has an affair with Paul, who shows him a different side of Jesus, that Andrew realizes he can be gay and still believe in God. Paul’s Jesus is one of acceptance and love, and in Paul’s church, being gay is not a problem.
For Paul and Andrew, falling in love is the easy part of their journey. They must make it through the fires of cheating, being discovered, Andrew’s wife leaving, the necessities of childcare and family life, the demands of their jobs, and working on their commitment to each other. Only then can they be safe in each other’s heart.
Although I loved the first book in the series, Safe in his arms, the second instalment wasn’t quite as much of a hit with me.
The main characters were Andrew and Paul. Andrew was a closeted, 30-year old married man with two kids, as well as a successful CEO of a mining company. Andrew had made a deal with his wife: they would present the image of the perfect family to the world, they would have kids, but there would be no relationship between them. Andrew, whose family was deeply religious and would never accept his homosexuality, found relief from the pretending when he opened ” The Vault.” -that was when he let himself feel attraction towards other men and acted on it.
Paul was a 33-year old nurse, a member of the gym Andrew visited, out and proud, and with a supportive family. Paul was deeply attracted to Andrew and Andrew’s insistent pursuit eventually wore Paul down. Even though Paul did not want to be a home wrecker, he agreed to an affair with Andrew and accepted that they would have to hide.
Soooooooo many problems. I was upset and irritated for the majority of the book. Cheating in my books? It makes it all the more difficult for a character to redeem himself. No matter how “justified” it comes off as and no matter how “victimless” the tryst seems –considering the wife knew Andrew would have affairs, I just could not forgive Andrew for it because he refused to grow a pair and own up to it. Andrew was a character I simply failed to warm up to. Not just because of the hiding, but his attitudes were infuriatingly self-serving. Women were meant to be good little housewives with no ambition in this story, a view that was perpetuated not only by Andrew, but by his personal assistant. Here she is talking to Paul about her boss: “He employs thousands. He’s respected far and wide. You’ve got yourself a rich and powerful man there. That man doesn’t have time for childcare and wayward wives.”
Goodness no. Childcare would be so beneath such a powerful man, wouldn’t it?
And when things went wrong with the wife, Andrew was so ridiculously hypocritical about it all. How dare she hurt his children? How dare she upset his world? A world, which, by the way, he practically wasn’t part of, considering he did not know a single fucking thing about the day-to-day life of his “family.” He did not know where his kids day care was, who did the shopping, or even how much groceries cost. The hell dude? You call yourself a CEO and you’re so out of touch, you don’t even know the price of mince?
I think Paul deserved better and although I have to give it to him for calling Andrew out on his BS on a couple of occasions, I think Paul got his happy ending out of sheer luck and not because Andrew took the reins. It honestly could have gone the other way around, with Andrew pretending forever and ever and chickening out from leaving his wife.
Andrew’s main issue with accepting his homosexuality and coming out was a verse from the bible that had been drilled into him as a child. He felt ashamed and like a sinner for the majority of the book. I have read books with religious characters before and books where religion is portrayed as harmful and oppressive. Again, it was a bit OTT. All this religious mambo jumbo started sounding quite pedantic after a while and I was over it.
It was nice seeing glimpses of Casey and Lon from book 1 but it made me wonder why they came off so dramatic and over the top. Were they like this in book 1 and I can’t remember for some reason? Who knows.
I personally found some of the views adopted by characters in the book offensive. I suggest you read other reviews before deciding whether to give this a shot or not, but I cannot recommend.
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