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A review by karentje
Safe Place by Jay Northcote
4.0
*3.5 stars*
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.
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.