Product Description

Sometimes love just catches you by the tail. Chayton Winston is a veterinarian. He is also a werewolf. Much to his Native American parent's chagrin, he has always dreamed of a fair-haired, Caucasian mate. However, he never imagined his mate would be male. As a heterosexual man, he's not quite sure what to do with a male mate, but more than willing to find out. Keaton Reynolds wakes up, in wolf form, and finds himself with a mate. He's instantly attracted, but not so thrilled to find out the man is straight. Having been in a relationship once before where his partner professed to be "Not gay" left a bad taste in his mouth. Keaton wants to make a break for it and pretend he never set eyes on Chay-but Chay is not ready to let him go. Together the two work to solidify their shaky relationship and battle the prejudices against homosexuals. Chay must deal with not only his mother's prejudices against gay men but also her hatred of white people. When a power struggle in Keaton's pack threatens Keaton's life, the two men learn to depend on one another and their relationship to get them through it. Warning, this title contains the following: explicit sex, graphic language, violence and hot man-love.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #112611 in Books
• Published on: 2007-04-01
• Released on: 2007-04-17
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 268 pages

Review
Recommended Read! "From mysterious murder attempts to the loving bond between mates, Without Reservations has it all...Ms. Langley has written a beautiful love story between two very sexy men who refuse to let the ignorance of others prevent them from having a happy and loving life together. Hunky men, passionate love scenes, and the unbreakable bond between these men make Without Reservations an absolutely fabulous read!"--Water Nymph, Literary Nymphs Reviews

5 Blue Ribbons! "I loved the plot-touching and very well written...WITHOUT RESERVATIONS was immediately put on my keeper shelf. While homoerotic love stories might not be for everyone, I found myself immersed in an extremely passionate love story that I will want to read over and over. I can't wait for the next installment of this new series!"--Natasha Smith, Romance Junkies

5 Lips! "J.L. Langley has a knack for picking totally gorgeous hunk protagonists and setting them up in tension-ridden conflicts, both within themselves, between each other, and between their relationship and societal mores...The eroticism between the two men is sizzling and scorching but underneath the reader knows that the romance is the foundation for the intimacy, and that such a romance must eventually prove its own fulfillment."--Frost, Two Lips Reviews

Customer Reviews

Fabulous!
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.

Just for fun
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.

If you want mushy domesticity and lots of sex, this is your book. If you're looking for something more, well...
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.