Title: With Caution
Author: J.L. Langley
Publisher: http://www.samhainpublishing.com
Genre: Paranormal, GLBT (M/M)
Length: Novel (288 pages print)
Rating: 5 stars out of 5
THE BLURB
A brother’s vow. A lover’s promise. Both could put them all at deadly risk. Remington Lassiter is trying his best to stay out of trouble while he learns the ropes of being a werewolf. When his little brother turns up covered in bruises, he is driven to finally bring their abusive father to justice.
Jake Romero, a crack private investigator with a bad-boy biker image, realizes he has his work cut out for him when Remi asks for his help. From the first moment he turned Remi into a werewolf in order to save his life, Jake has been fighting to keep his inner demons at bay. He’s torn between the desire to tell Remi they are destined to be mates, and the need to first let Remi get used to the werewolf life.
Jake will do anything to protect Remi and help him break the cycle of abuse he has endured all his life, but his investigation is about to uncover something far more sinister and deadly than they ever imagined.
THE REVIEW
This story opens at the end of Without Reservations. Remington Lassiter has just been turned and he is trying to cope with being a were at the same time as he is fighting his attraction to Jake Romero, the werewolf who turned him to save his life. He is deeply conflicted between what he wants and what he feels is right. To complicate matters he knows that if he does anything to offend his father, such as enter into a relationship with another man, both he and his younger brother Sterling would pay. But every time he sees Jake there is a bond and an attraction between them that he can’t overcome. After seeing how difficult it is for Remi to control his feelings Jake has no option but to tell him that he is his mate. At that point Remi realizes that he is fighting a losing battle and he gives in to his growing feelings for Jake.
When I first met Remi in Without Reservations he was the somewhat homophobic best friend of Chayton Winston, a veterinarian and mate of Keaton Reynolds. Initially it was difficult for me to accept Remi in a gay relationship as well as the change in his personality, however the author provided a plausible explanation for his change of mind about Chay’s and Keaton’s relationship as well as his major shift in his own sexual orientation. It seems that Remi had a deep, dark secret that he had never admitted to himself or anyone else until it’s almost too late.
Remi is the poster child for abused children. His father is a psychopath whose idea of fun is terrorizing his family and because he is a Rez Policeman with lots of power no one dared question him until Jake shows up on the scene. Remi’s character is very vulnerable and submissive and the hint of BDSM in the story went well with his persona. I really felt for him in his fight to protect his brother and his mother, while at the same time keeping his relationship with Jake a secret from his father. His turnaround in standing up to his father was precipitated when Sterling shows up with bruises on his body and he knows that he can’t close his eyes any longer to the abuse, so he asks Jake to help him bring his father to justice.
This book is extremely complex and the characters are much richer than its predecessor. The emotion throughout the book was at a very high pitch and at times I felt as if my stomach was in knots because the action was non stop. There is so much going on it’s difficult to know where to stop in terms of talking about the storyline because of the danger of being a spoiler. There is a murder investigation, extreme violence against members of Remi’s family, a horrifying incident in the past, collusion between law enforcement agencies in an investigation several years ago, as well as a recent tragedy, all of which heighten the pressure in the already intense love story between Remi and Jake.
The sex in this book is so emotive and wonderful between the couple that I could feel the air between them crackle. When J.L. Langley writes a love scene, and that is what she did with Jake and Remi because it wasn’t just sex, you are drawn into the minds of these three dimensional characters who tug at your heart strings. The other characters were engaging – from Rhys, Jake’s business partner and best friend, young Sterling, Remi’s brother who thinks Rhys is hot, and all the others who rounded out the story and made it such an incredible read.
This book is not a standalone and to really enjoy the series the stories should be read in order. Did I love With Caution? I have to give an unequivocal and resounding “yes”. Buy this book.
I’m completely ambivelent about this book. On one hand I completely adore it. Loved every minute of reading it…
except for the almost complete personality change that seems to happen to Remi between WithoutReservations and With Caution.
I’m not talking about the whole change in sexual oreintation (like you mention that is dealt with really well), for me Remi came across as a loud mouth smart-ass, albiet a loyal loud mouth smart ass, but we never see any of that in WC. He is this submissive do gooder in WC. For me it was too much of a jarring personality change.
So while I read the book and enjoy all the issues you highlighted, the great suspense storyline, the romance plotline and the compexity of the charcters and world building, behind it all, I still think….’Oh come on, Remi….where’s the wisecracks?’ Just my little personal niggle.
And becuase of that, Without Reservations stays my fav of the series so far…
There were a couple areas in the book where there were flashes of Remi’s old personality but as you said he became a total submissive in this book. I think it had to do with the BDSM aspect of the story – I rationalized it by thinking that because Jake was the ‘top’ Remi’s personality had to become a whole lot more submissive than before.
I did ask J.L. a couple of questions about Remi (she’s being interviewed on the blog next month) and maybe she’ll explain the personality shift.
But I really liked this book a lot because of the complexity of the plot (I love plot-intensive stories), as well as the characters.
I bought Without Reservatons based on your and JenB’s recommendation, I’d been steering clear because of the werewolf thing. But the same night I read it I ran back and got this one. LOL I read it the next day. LOVED it. I did like it better than the first one. It was more complex and while I initially didn’t like Remi once you knew more about him you couldn’t help but love him. I also highly recommend both but I’d say I give this one a very slightly higher grade.
I actually got the whole series at the same time and accidentally read this one first, since they weren’t labeled. I still think I like it best out of the group.
I was a bit surprised when I read the other two. I almost didn’t recognize Remi at all. I’m interested in reading the interview and finding out what the frick happened that Remi changed so much from one story to another. I mean, it was only over a few day’s time. Did he get whacked upside the head with an epiphany between books, and the author forgot to mention it?
Emmy
JL says that there’s a very simple explanation for Remy’s changed personality so I hope you can wait with bated breath until November 10th when her interview is posted *g*
By the way, because I love complex plots with a lot of action I loved this one more than Without Reservations.
Hi Tam
You don’t like werewolves? They’re wonderful *g*
I’m glad that our recs. worked out for you and I’ll try to think of a few books that you might like as well. Emmy reads a lot so she might have a rec. for you too.
Well, I do like werewolves in other genres but in m/m I tend to prefer just normal humans. LOL But it worked for me big-time in this case. LOL
I guess I saw the change in his personality as his real one coming out. Based on what happened in his childhood its natural that he would develop a defence mechanism but when forced to confront his true self he just fell into what he’d have been like if he hadn’t been abused. It didn’t bother me. People wear masks all the time.
I am one of those people who are firmly on the hetero side of things and it did make me wonder, could I switch teams if I really felt a connection to another woman, the way they did. I suppose if there was some supernatural element I might.
Werewolf books…I don’t mind them, particularly, although it always makes me laugh when I read one where there’s smexing mid- or full- shift. Seriously, who wants to rim a furry butthole? Talk about hair balls.
Anyways, one of my favorite shapeshifter books is Torquere’s Shifting. The first book, not the sequels that came after. The first Shifting has 4 long, well-written stories. The others (Shifting Again, Shifting Too, etc) went for quantity over quality. Only Shifting made it to my keeper shelf.
Note to self: must write review…
Tam
I’m glad you have an explanation about the personality change. As I mentioned to Sayuri and Emmy I asked JL about this in the interview questions that I sent her. She promised to answer.
Emmy
As usual you floor me. I can’t imagine smexing and rimming a hairy you know what. Also, I thought hair balls only occurred in cats? *g*
Please do write a review of Shifting and I made a note to myself to buy it next time I’m on TQ. Thanks for the rec.
oh emmy… I am planning to read these two after Dragean Lord series, now you give us this image of hairy butt! lol…
looking forward to JL Langley’s interview 🙂
Eve
Emmy does have a way of drawing pictures – she cracks me up 🙂 However, despite what she says I didn’t find any hair balls *g*
The Draegan Lords – another HUGE favourite of mine.
Wave
Hairy balls, yes. Hair balls, no.
I can’t remember mid-shift smexing beyond a few claws in any of the JL series, although Shifting has some full shift stuff.
Emmy
Hurry up and post the review of Shifting – sounds like my kind of book.
Did, some. Shifting is a collection of 4 novel length stories, so I have to break the reviews up or they get too cumbersome. Blah.
I do think you’ll like the anthology.