Narration by Savannah Peachwood & Connor Crais
Triple Creek Ranch, Book 1
From the publisher:
From New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Kristen Proby comes an emotional romance where two best friends reunite at Triple Creek Ranch, proving that home is where love finds its way.
Fifteen years ago, my best friend found salvation at the Triple Creek Ranch, transforming from an angry foster kid into a hockey legend. Now, with his adoptive father’s death forcing him home, Ryker’s trading his hockey stick for ranch life—and I’m not sure my heart can handle having him this close again.
I’ve spent the past decade raising my troubled nephew alone while building my career as an audiobook narrator. When my boy needs a fresh start, Ryker offers us sanctuary at the ranch. But living under the same roof with the man who’s always owned my heart ignites feelings I’ve tried hard to bury.
Between helping manage a struggling ranch, watching my nephew find his way, and dealing with the shadows of Ryker’s fame, we discover our connection is stronger than ever. But when threats from his past surface, we’ll have to decide if our second chance is worth fighting for.
Ryker and Gideon are fifteen-year-old foster kids who luck into a life-changing placement with Ray and Deb, owners of the Triple Creek Ranch. The couple also frequently cares for their niece, Willow, and when they adopt the boys a year later, the three kids become inseparable. Growing up on the ranch, they learn the value of hard work and responsibility — and watching Ray and Deb together, they learn what love is supposed to look like.
Years later, Gideon is a Secret Service agent and Ryker is a star NHL player, but they drop everything when Ray is hospitalized. They make it in time to say goodbye, and his loss hits them both hard — this man who became their father in every way that mattered. Having already lost Deb a few years earlier, they know Ray spent his remaining time missing her terribly, and that knowledge softens their grief, just a little; Ray and Deb are together again.
At thirty-five and nearing the end of his playing days, Ryker takes Ray’s passing as his cue to retire from hockey and come home to the ranch. Meanwhile, Willow has become the legal guardian of her teenage nephew, Aiden, who has been testing her patience and her limits. When he gets suspended for fighting at school, she reaches out to Ryker and asks if Aiden can spend the summer working on the ranch. He agrees without hesitation — but quickly realizes that Willow driving an hour each way every day isn’t going to work for anyone. So while he’s already in the middle of remodeling the house, he quietly adds something extra: a professional recording studio, built out for Willow.
Willow is a successful audiobook narrator who works from a studio she had built into a closet at home, so when Ryker first suggests she stay at the ranch for the summer, she turns him down flat. That changes the moment she sees what he’s created for her — a beautiful, fully equipped studio tucked into one of the ranch house’s spare bedrooms. She agrees to move in, Aiden gets set up in the bunkhouse with the other ranch hands, and suddenly the arrangement works perfectly for everyone. Well, almost everyone. Willow’s feelings for Ryker have shifted into territory that is decidedly unsisterly, and to her surprise, she’s not the only one struggling with that.
The more time they spend together, the harder it becomes to pretend otherwise. Aiden is thriving — so much so that Willow starts wondering whether leaving at summer’s end makes any sense. Gideon watches it all unfold with nervous eyes, knowing that if things go sideways between Ryker and Willow, the fallout will ripple through all of them. But happily, no such disaster comes. They find their way to each other and to the life that was always waiting for them on the ranch.
Crais and Peachwood bring these characters to life with warmth and depth, making it easy to fall into this story and hard to leave it. I loved every minute, and I’m already looking forward to the next book in the series, due out in April.
2/2026 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch
SAFE HAVEN by Kristen Proby. Narrators: Connor Crais & Savannah Peachwood. Brilliance Audio (February 17, 2026). ASIN: B0FGF9JQFV. Listening Length: 7 hours and 44 minutes.
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