Safe by Shara Azod and RaeLynn Blue

Safe by Shara Azod & RaeLynn Blue


My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This was a very sexy story about a forbidden love between a man and his sister-in-law. Fortunately (that sounds awful to say) the brother is out of the way when this story begins.

Quentin is one intense hero. He had better calm down or he's going to have blood pressure problems. I would classify him is a stalkerific hero, in fact. I really liked this about the story. I also liked that Briony reciprocates his love 100% (although she's a little more even-tempered than he is). This story is more from Quentin's viewpoint, which is fun with a romance, especially when the hero is so far gone like he is. You really get inside his head and see just how much he loves Briony and how most of what he does is about her. It makes his intensity a lot less scary.

The sex scenes are frequent and very descriptive. I could have done without the one scene with a little bit of butt play and discussion of certain acts I really don't like to read about in a romance (thankfully that did not occur in this book). But otherwise, they were pretty spicy in a good way. Quentin sure does like to do a certain kind of oral act on Briony. He does that a lot. The language is pretty raunchy. Not only in the sexual moments, but because we are dealing with law enforcement types and also lowdown criminals who aren't exactly the type to avoid use of profanity.

I liked some of the police procedural aspects as they try to find out who killed the lowlife husband (Quentin hated this guy, even though he was his brother. I can't say I blame him. He does something to his grave that is just wrong, but knowing what an intense guy Quentin is and how badly he wanted to throw his brother a beating for being such a lousy husband and especially when he found out that he sold his wife to pay off a drug debt, I gave Quentin a little slack on that).

I liked that although this was an interracial romance (Briony is Black and Quentin is White), it wasn't a major focus. It was about two people who loved each other deeply, but met each other later than they should have. His brother even gloated to Quentin that he married Briony because he knew that Briony was a woman that Quentin would have wanted for his own. That's cold! I have mad respect for the authors that they did not have Quentin and Briony cheating together while her husband was alive. That's a big turn-off for me.

All and all, this was an enjoyable read, definitely erotic, and I still enjoyed it although I wish it had no butt play or anything along those lines because that is not sexy or appealing to this romance reader at all. I have no desire to read about butt plugs in a love story. While I feel that would be unfair to take a star off just for that, I wasn't enjoying that aspect of this story, but I was glad it was very brief. I'm just saying for any writers or editors out there who want to know what an avid interracial romance fan thinks (hint, hint). Despite that, I would recommend this book to readers who like/tolerate their romance a little steamy.

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