"Safe in His Arms" Review

Having been raised by her father on a Texas cattle ranch, Margaret O’Brien has never felt like a normal girl. She prides herself in her ranching abilities and would rather be out riding the range than holed up in the house. But suddenly Margaret’s father has decided that she needs to find a good man and settle down.

When her father hires a new foreman for the ranch, Margaret can’t help but be suspicious. She can’t see how this man, Daniel Cutler, could possibly run the ranch better than she can. When she overhears a conversation that connects Daniel to a gang of bank robbers, Margaret is determined to get to the bottom of it.

As a series of events and accidents take place on the ranch, Margaret is conflicted over who she can trust. She might have to trust Daniel for her life, but can she trust him with her heart?

One thing that stands out to me in all of Colleen Coble’s novels that I have read is her ability to create characters that almost everyone can connect with in some way. Although my personality is not completely like Margaret’s, I was able to empathize with how she felt different from other women. As someone who would rather spend a Saturday watching college football instead of going shopping, I could definitely relate.

I also liked Daniel and his story, although I thought he was entirely too forward with Margaret when they first met. This kind of took him down a notch in my mind at the beginning of the story. I also thought that his back story was somewhat confusing at first. 

To me, Safe in His Arms was very much a fiction story. I really liked the twists and turns that occurred in this book. It’s just that so many horrible things happened to these poor people in such a short amount of time that it sometimes came off as a bit much. (How many times are these people going to get kidnapped?)

It is my opinion that Colleen Coble’s books always tend to go much more toward the fiction side of the scale rather than the historical side. This doesn’t mean that I didn’t enjoy the setting or that the historical portion of the novel didn’t fit. I actually like both types of historical fiction books – those that focus very much on historical events and those that seem to just tell a story set in a particular time period. This novel seemed to be the latter.

At the same time, however, I actually like the more ‘fiction’ aspect to Colleen Coble’s books, even if they are a bit far-fetched. It’s nice to sit back and relax every once in a while with a novel and not have it be too realistic. I like having a mystery to solve, too. With this one, I figured most of it out, but not all of it, which boosted my overall enjoyment of the novel.

Another good thing about this novel was how faith in Christ played such a major role and how the characters grew in their faith over the course of the novel. There was an overarching theme of God’s unconditional love for us as well as His never-ending grace and mercy. It was also a great reminder that we should be thanking God every day for His many blessings.

I greatly enjoyed the first book in this series, Blue Moon Promise, and this second offering was good as well. I think if I had to pick, I would have to say that I liked Blue Moon Promise a bit better than this one, probably because I related more to Lucy than to Margaret. If you haven’t read the first book in this series, this novel gives you enough information about that first story so that you won’t be too lost if you read this one as a standalone novel.    

The second in the Under Texas Stars series, Safe in His Arms is filled with twists, turns, and danger around every corner, making it a fun adventure ride. 

I will give Safe in His Arms … 4 BookWorms.

Disclosure of Material Connection:  I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this is accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255:  “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”