• The One Who Saves Me

  • Home, Book 6
  • By: Cardeno C.
  • Narrated by: Alexander Collins
  • Length: 6 hrs and 45 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (85 ratings)

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The One Who Saves Me  By  cover art

The One Who Saves Me

By: Cardeno C.
Narrated by: Alexander Collins
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Publisher's summary

At 14, Andrew Thompson and Caleb Lakes become best friends. As the years pass, they stand by each other through family trauma, school, and the start of their careers. They share their first sexual experiences, learning and experimenting, and they talk each other through countless dates and breakups.

Decades of trust and loyalty build a deep and abiding friendship, one that surpasses any relationship in their lives. But when the parameters of their unique friendship change, neither man knows how to break out of their established roles to build something new. After all, boyfriends come and go, but best friends are forever.

©2013 Cardeno C. (P)2016 Cardeno C.
  • Series: Home, Book 6
  • Unabridged Audiobook
  • Categories: LGBTQ+

What listeners say about The One Who Saves Me

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Home series book 6

What did you love best about The One Who Saves Me?

The way that Caleb and Andrew are always there for each other regardless.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Drew with his piercings and tattoos. They are a form of battle scars in a way, marking every failed relationship or low point in his life.

What three words best describe Alexander Collins’s voice?

Emotional, light, different

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

The One Who Saves Me.

Any additional comments?

Caleb Lakes and Andrew Thompson became best friends when they were barely teenagers, spending summers together at Andrew’s family’s vacation home. Over the years they developed a bond based on friendship and trust. As the years go by there is one constant in each man’s life, each other. They seriously re-define the term ‘friends with benefits’ and are a rock for each other through jobs, moves, break-ups and family drama. And then one look at a New Year’s party changes just one thing, their commitment to each other.

I first listened to this audio book about two years ago, the version that was narrated by Paul Morey. While the narration for this book wasn’t bad, it wasn’t Paul Morey, so I had a hard time giving Andrew Collins a chance. Once I let my perception shift, I was able to enjoy Collins narration. He does a good job with changes in tone and inflections from one character to another, and he really conveyed the emotions of the characters well.

The story is told almost like reading from a journal of Drew and Caleb’s lives. Spanning over more than a decade, the reader is taken on a journey through summer vacations, college, emotionally absent parents, boyfriends, break-ups and much, much more. The two of them continue to live their separate lives, but they always have time for each other. I think that Drew probably realized he wanted more from his relationship with Caleb before Caleb did, and that was fed into the story through the tattoos and piercings Drew got every time another guy bit the dust, because he couldn’t compare to Caleb. The passion and angst were palpable, but rarely was there awkwardness. In fact, when things did become awkward was when they finally figured out that the reason neither of them were lucky in love, was because their heart had been given away long ago.

What I enjoy about this series is that there is a connection between the books and characters, but not in a way that they must all be read or read in order. The story is sexy, emotional, occasionally intense but light-hearted when it needs to be. Definitely worth your time in my opinion.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Friends to lovers

Any additional comments?

Told in alternating POV, this is a friends to friends-with-benefits to lovers story with most chapters bringing a new year in the lives of best friends Andrew Thompson and Caleb Lakes. They've always had an unconditional love for each other, sharing all their firsts including their first kisses and all their first sexual moments.

I really enjoyed Alexander Collins' narration. Though he doesn't do a huge difference in the Andrew and Caleb's character voices, he does a good job overall with the tone, pacing, and other character voices.

The genuine love, respect and affection between Andrew and Caleb is so wonderful to witness.

Unfortunately, there's a period in the story where miscommunication comes by to play.

Thankfully, their relationship gets back on track. Once they begin communicating, and sleeping with each other again, the story realigns and I was happy again.

This friends to lovers story has humor, romance, hot sex, and lots of wonderful feels.

Recommended.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great narrator for this

Andrew and Caleb are best friends from early on who begin to explore their sexuality with one another as teenagers. When they split up for college, they continue their relationship as best friends who hook up if neither is in a relationship.
Years pass and neither manages to find a permanent relationship that sticks. Caleb never really even tries, but Andrew yearns for a forever-man. However, Andrew is the most screwed up when it comes to his expectations of forever because his parent’s relationship was so dysfunctional.
Eventually, Andrew settles down in an “open” relationship with a very self-destructive man who ends up dying from AIDS. Though Andrew is safe from the disease, it hits him hard that he, as a doctor, couldn’t save his live-in-lover from the disease.
Crushed, Andrew moves back home and Caleb moves in with him to help him heal.
At this point both men are dancing around their previous “friends with benefits” relationship and something about the situation keeps them from starting that up again.
After a lot of misunderstanding and angst, they finally admit how important they are to one another and start a real relationship together.
**
This was my least favorite of the series.
I just couldn’t get into it. I think that the fact that they kept coming back to each other then seeing other men felt like a betrayal over and over. My sentimental heart couldn’t take it.
There were also so many side issues that didn’t get explored fully enough for my taste. Caleb’s body issues. Andrew’s self-mutilation issues. The whole AIDS thing. Andrew’s commitment issues. Caleb’s willingness to put aside everything for Andrew without taking for himself…
I felt that Caleb was mostly true-blue throughout the entire book and just willing to accept Andrew’s crumbs. Even the new Epilogue Ending didn’t satisfy but instead served to emphasize how far they still needed to grow to be in a healthy relationship.
It had a much darker, less sentimental feel than the other books in the series and as a result felt out of place to me.
That being said, I still enjoyed reading it, just not quite so much as the others.
Overall Impression:
3 of 5 stars

Audio

Alexander Collins has done the re-make of all the books in this series. He adds some unique sound effects that I enjoy and is always good at the emotions in these books. I really love his take on this and thought he did a great job – especially with all the various characters in conversation together. I really hope he does the next ones, too!

Narration 5 of 5 stars

Overall 4 of 5 stars

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

This might be my favorite of the series

I love how the relationship played out from friends to lovers much like Where He Ends and I Begin it starts from a very young age and they remain friends throughout so much unlike the previous these to maintain a FWB kind of relationship for years and I like how this one was set up much better. It moves along at a nice pace with good narration.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars
Listener received this title free

Friends-to-Lovers Romance

I totally forgot that Mark Westfield is Alexander Collins! What a wonderful bonus to hear him perform The One Who Saves Me. I'm sure he produced this one too, it's got his style all over it, just great.

This friends-to-sex buddies-to-lovers is very enjoyable, and filled with tons of humor. Caleb and Andrew have so much fun with their banter, and their friendship is wonderful. They've got great chemistry in the bedroom, and it started driving me nuts pretty early why they couldn't figure out they should be a couple, but that's kinda the point lol.

I like how Cardeno C. always slips some serious stuff in, but in the most appealing way so that it flows with the story. Weight and body image issues, depression, fidelity, HIV, and the anti-gay sentiments Andrew comes up against in his career as a doctor. Things which are a part of life and seeing how the characters deal with them just makes them more real.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars
Listener received this title free

Friends to lovers.

The narrators were perfect. The storyline was super. The characters were real. I enjoyed the book.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Ok

Any additional comments?

This story was ok. I kind of wanted more time getting to know and go through some special moments with the main MC's that didn't include them together all the time but eh..

Story wasn't bad but I was bored that each year was mainly them having sex, talking about this by or that be and how that relationship needed. I wanted time spent on their life without each other for a bit.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Captivating!

If you could sum up The One Who Saves Me in three words, what would they be?

Emotional, light, different

Who was your favorite character and why?

Drew. I love all of his tattoos and piercing. He had a lot of emotional scars to work through.

Which scene was your favorite?

When Drew admitted his true feeling about Caleb.

Who was the most memorable character of The One Who Saves Me and why?

The One Who Saves Me

Any additional comments?

I had the audio version of this story. This story was so captivating. It was great! I fell in love with Drew and Caleb. This story had a lot into finding out about each other. I love how they knew each other since they was 8 and then reconnect with each other at 14. Been best friends since then. It was definitely a heart warming read. Can't wait to read Cardeno's next book. Would recommend this book to everyone.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

One of my favorites...

*** Audiobook provided to Bayou Book Junkie in exchange for a fair and honest review. ***

This audiobook is one of my favorites for sure! Not only is the story trés hot, but I just adored listening to the different voices Alexander Collins came for the different characters. He managed to show us both the sizzling chemistry and the love that Andrew and Caleb felt for each other, and how perfect they were for one another even if it took them so long to realize it. Highly recommendable!

Rating: 5 Stars!!!

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

If you liked the movie Groundhog Day...

The vocal performance for this book was decent. He had distinguishing voices for the main characters and a couple of the side characters. He isn’t one of my favorites, but I didn’t stop listening because of it.

This is another Cardeno C book that just didn’t work for me. I felt like I was listening to a ‘Groundhog Day’ story. The bulk of the story is back story, flashbacks over the years establishing Andrew and Kaleb’s relationship. They would date other people, break up because the guy either of them was dating just didn’t work out so they’d get together, have sex and make each other feel better. It was a hard pill to swallow that for 20 years neither of them realized that the reason no other guy worked for either of them is because they loved each other and they were it for each other. I even started rolling my eyes as it happened time and time again. I seriously wanted to scream by the end of the book.

And this is minor but his name is spelled Caleb in the synopsis but Andrew called him ‘K’ in the book. That confuses me a bit…is that a misprint in the synopsis?

I usually like friends-to-lovers stories but this one is the exception.

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