48 of 53 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Just for fun, July 26, 2007
I'm female, straight and over 50 -- does that disqualify me from enjoying this story? I hope not because I found it a flat out fun read. How can you not like a book where the hero finds his soul mate and the mate is the wrong gender? I loved the line "you're my mate, I just haven't figured out what to do with you yet". Not classic literature but nice characters with enough of a plot line that you keep reading. If this was chick lit, it would be called "great beach read." So read it, already.
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51 of 58 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fabulous!, April 23, 2007
This is a wonderful paranormal gay romance! The main characters have great chemistry, and the story is fast paced. And, despite the tag line, this isn't about a straight man being "turned gay" by true love. Chay has had relationships with women, but he has also experimented a little with men. Once he gets over the suprise of having a male mate, he works to make a life with Keaton. The werewolf aspect of the story is not the main focus, but it provides a great backdrop.
Like many gay romances, there is a lot of angst as the men overcome obstacles, but there is also a lot of humor. Langley is an excellent writer. There is frequent hot sex, but the two men also build their relationship outside the bedroom. This is part of a loosely connected series called the "With or Without" series. The first story, "With Love" can be found in the anthology "Hearts from the Ashes" and feature alpha werewolf Devlin and his new mate, the omega Laine. The next book, "With Caution" is coming soon. I highly recommend all the books by this author.
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35 of 44 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
If you want mushy domesticity and lots of sex, this is your book. If you're looking for something more, well..., November 2, 2007
I purchased this book because it had two of my favorite things; werewolves and male/male romance. It made valiant attempts at both, and even some effort toward plot, but the end result were repeating dull scenes of overdone "happy home life" interjected with decently written porn and shallow drama easily resolved by the next chapter.
The book does have a strong start; the author does a good job setting up the characters' personalities and the outlining the potential future conflicts of their relationship. There's racial tension and the expected homophobia tension. The author is also obliviously trying to avoid the "stereotypes" of fictional gay couples having a wimpy "female" role and a strong and controlling "male" role, and does so admirably. Alas for my tastes, the supernatural angle of werewolves is used as a plot device for explaining how quickly the two guys fall for each other.
It begins to loose it's "oomph" after that, as the next several chapters center around the two characters getting hard-ons for each other and their relationship being held up by the infamous "I'm gay, but you're not, even though you say it's okay and you love me anyways, I refuse to date a straight guy" scenario. Once they resolve this, everything quickly moves into them living together, having sex, and cute moments with the their pet puppy. Oh yeah, and the one guy nearly dies a few times.
For myself, the characters did not have a distinctive enough voice or enough spark to their relationship for the Happy Family Life moments to really hold my attention. They weren't bad, there just wasn't enough too them; they revealed nothing new or interesting about the characters themselves and showed no changes or development in their relationship. Conflict was, as stated above, easily resolved, and conveyed no real depth of feeling. I couldn't connect with the seriousness of any given situation because I couldn't really believe how strongly the characters were feeling it. Instead of coming off as a well-rounded, occasionally unstable, developing relationship, it instead felt like I was reading someone's opinion of what they thought a relationship SHOULD be -- complete with kissy moments, cute pet names, snappy dialog, and a clever joke to round up each scene.
All that said, if you like brain fluff and good man-on-man porn, than you might get into this one. The overall writing isn't bad and the characters aren't annoying. But if you're looking for substance and engaging characterization, this isn't it.
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