Title: With Abandon
Author: JL Langley
Cover artist: Angela Waters
Publisher: Samhain
Buy Link
Genre: Paranormal M/M
Length: Novel (206 PDF pages)
Rating: 4.25 stars out of 5
*This review contains what could be considered spoilers*
Summary Review: I liked this story and the characters but I would have loved more focus on Matt and Aubrey rather than the secondary characters.
THE BLURB
Love was never part of his plan…until it pounced.
With or Without, Book 4
As heir to an old and proud heritage, Aubrey Reynolds works and lives for his family, his employees and his pack. Agreeing to watch after a visiting werewolf is no big deal—until he discovers the newcomer is his mate. His very male mate…which is a very big deal, indeed. Revealing his sexuality was never part of Aubrey’s well-ordered life plan.
Much as he loved caring for his eight younger brothers, Matt Mahihkan knows it’s time to grab the opportunity to attend college in Atlanta. Realizing Aubrey is his mate should have been a delightful experience…except Aubrey treats him more like a dirty little secret than a lover. Yet Matt is a patient man. Aubrey can’t stay in the closet forever. Can he?
In time, they settle into a comfortable, if complicated, routine. Until a rogue werewolf with an axe to grind forces Aubrey to add to the wedge of secrets driving him and Matt apart, leaving Matt exposed to danger…and Aubrey forced to choose between love and duty.
THE REVIEW
Aubrey Reynolds lived his life in the closet, with the occasional one night stand to satisfy his sexual urges. His parents had no idea about his sexual orientation and expected him to marry and carry on the family dynasty since his younger brother Keaton was gay. As the eldest son he felt it was his duty to comply with their wishes since his father was gradually transferring his responsibilities for the family owned business to him as well as that of Alpha of their wolf pack.
Matt Mahihkan, a friend of Keaton’s who would be attending Georgia State, was going to be staying at Aubrey’s apartment while he was at college and he and Aubrey had became online friends. Everything seemed to be proceeding as it should and they had a lot of fun texting each other. When Matt arrived he was met at the airport by Tara, Aubrey’s best friend, and initially he thought that she was his mate because of his extreme reaction to her which was a huge shock. But it turned out she was wearing Aubrey’s hat and his smell was everywhere on her body, which accounted for Matt’s reaction to her. When Aubrey and Matt met in person they realized immediately that they were mates – no mistake this time. Poor Matt was prepared to find other accommodation sooner rather than later since he thought that Aubrey was straight and Tara was his girlfriend and he didn’t want to come between them. Obviously there could be no future for him and Aubrey so there was no point in prolonging the agony.
However, matters came to a head a lot earlier than either man expected because living with their mate under the same roof was not something they could ignore and their sexual urges would not be denied. The other difficulty Aubrey faced was how could they be in such close proximity in his apartment without Matt finding out that he was gay? If his secret were revealed Matt would expect them to be together, something that was not possible for both business and family reasons. Before he found his mate it wasn’t a problem to agree to his parents’ wishes to marry but how could he marry a woman and make her happy while knowing that Matt was his mate? He would have to hurt someone and it looked like Matt was the one who would end up with a broken heart. But before he could explain his situation Matt found out that Aubrey was not straight, which meant that they had some major trust issues to overcome. Since Aubrey wanted to have his cake (Matt) while looking for a wife, he was prepared to gain his trust and to do so he would promise almost anything to get him in his bed. Unfortunately Aubrey’s promise of total honesty in the future came back to bite him in the ass when Matt discovered that he was planning to be married as soon as a suitable woman could be found.
Aubrey was between the proverbial rock and a hard place. In the Deep South gay men were not respected, as being gay was associated with weakness. If the companies with which he conducted business refused to accept him that would place his family’s operations in jeopardy and could result in the loss of millions of dollars. Even though he was now the face of the operations on his family’s behalf, his father’s reputation was the core of the business as owner of the company and head of the pack, and if Aubrey revealed his sexual orientation the company most likely would suffer heavy financial losses. On the other hand, how could he keep Matt as his lover while actively looking for a wife? He would be using him for sex knowing that they had no future together.
In the meantime a number of threats were emerging that involved employees of the company and others, which could pose a significant danger. When Matt found out he had been played by Aubrey he returned home to face a crisis in his own family. Then the situation with the threats escalated and Matt disappeared. It was then that Aubrey realized too late how much Matt meant to him and that without him his life would be empty.
This fourth book in the series is complicated by three disconnected sub plots. In addition to the external conflicts, the protagonisgts had to deal with the reality of a 10 year age disparity which career-wise would put them in different cycles of their lives. At 20 Matt was just starting college and looking toward a future, while at 30 Aubrey had been running his family’s business and the pack almost singlehandedly for years. Even if they decided to stay together how would Matt respond to being chatelaine of the Reynolds’ estate and Aubrey’s partner which carried with it a lot of responsibility, including dealing with pack issues?
I felt that some of the external conflicts which took up a fair portion of the book, while interesting, could have been reduced or even eliminated altogether since I didn’t think they added anything material to the story or the relationship between Matt and Aubrey. I can appreciate that authors like to add complexity to their stories by introducing different characters or sub plots, but I didn’t understand the purpose of the external conflicts in With Abandon other than the one dealing with Matt’s disappearance. My other issue is I didn’t believe that Aubrey redeemed himself enough for lying to Matt twice for his own selfish reasons; this made me feel that he was unworthy of him and needed to grovel a bit more. Not acknowledging Matt also seemed to go against what Aubrey believed in. This is what he said to Matt when he discussed the difference between a born wolf and a made one :
“… they can ignore it easier. being a wolf to us is ingrained. We grew up knowing what we are, they didn’t. We accept our instincts and trust in them, they fight them.”
I did enjoy With Abandon but not as much as WR or WC . I wish I could have spent more time with Matt and Aubrey as a couple to see how they were resolving the differences in outlook and life experiences. I loved Matt’s character and the way he cared about his eight younger brothers. He was also naive and a lot of fun, even klutzy, which balanced Aubrey’s more austere and serious outlook, and they seemed to be a great match in bed. 🙂 I’m still not a fan of Aubrey since Without Reservations even though he saved Keaton.
This book can be read as a standalone but you would enjoy it a lot more if you read it as part of the series. Definitely recommended.
Very happy I bought this yesterday. From your review it sounds like I picked a winner. Thanks!
Hi Lasha
Thanks for commenting. I did enjoy this book and my only reservations relate to Aubrey’s character and the number of sub plots. 🙂
I hope you enjoy With Abandon. Please let me know what you think after you have read the book.
I love all books by J.L. Langley, but since “Without Reservations” was my first real M/M book I´ve lost my heart to this series.
I’m really looking forward to reading Matt´s & Aubrey´s story. Sadly I have to wait until it is available as a printed book in Germany. 🙁
Hi Susanne
I don’t know if you want to read regular PDF files on your computer but I have both the links to Samhain, the publisher, as well as the amazon link – whichever is your preference, unless of course you want to wait for the print book.
I can’t comment yet because I just started it. But I am very happy as always to go back to these wolves! I will read your review when I’m done. 🙂
No problem Lisa. I understand not wanting to spoil the anticipation. LOL. Let me know how you like it after you have read the book. 😀
I found Aubrey the least attractive of J L Langley’s heros . I didn’t get all the fuss about Bambi- another book perhaps.I also knew who the baddie was straight away.
Having said that I loved Matt, a real sweetheart and it was good to revisit J L Langley’s wolf world.
Overall I think I was a little disappointed.I probably had too high expectations.
If you read between the lines Raine you will see that I’m not a fan of Aubrey. I think that was since Without Reservations.
This was definitely not my favourite book in the With and Without series and I was on the fence about the rating – hovering between 4.25 and 4.5. I might still change my mind after I re-read it which I’m doing now. I loved the other books a lot more.
Matt was way too good for Aubrey.
Ditto Raine. 🙁
Ingrid
We all had high expectations for this book but Aubrey is not Keaton who I loved. I also hated all the lying to get Matt into bed.
Like Raine I’m somewhat disappointed. WA is a very good book but it doesn’t have that WOW factor JL Langley’s best books have. Then again I’m very partial to Keaton so it was kind of inevitable that Aubrey would be a bit of disappointment 🙂
I love Keaton and I re-read Without Reservations last night, which is a much better book as indicated by my rating.
I was never a fan of Aubrey’s since WR and this book didn’t endear him to me. I’m still on the fence about the rating. I’m re-reading the book now.
I wish that the next book in the series is Sterling’s and Rhys’s story – I’m sure that Bambi is fine but everyone wants to read about Sterling and Rhys.
After reading rest of the comments I think my main problem is the structure of the book. Now it’s mostly about Matt, which is fine in a way since Matt is an adorable character, while it should be mostly about Aubrey. Matt is in a way an uncomplicated character and there are no major issues to resolve, whereas Aubrey is nothing BUT issues. We know him through Keaton’s eyes so he needs to redeem himself and we should have more insight into him, why he is what he is, how he copes with his sense of responsibility etc. We get a glimpse of this but there should be more since he really is a fascinating character. He just keeps getting pushed into background by Keaton and Matt 🙁
In case you can’t tell, I like when a villain from one book (even if Aubrey really wasn’t one) redeems himself in another one. It needs to be well done though 🙂
I definitely see what you mean about Aubrey, but I thought Matt was adorable – his character really made the book for me.
Hi Pea
The high rating is all because of Matt – certainly not Aubrey. Matt was such a sweetheart and I think that Aubrey needed to grovel a lot more. 😀
I know I’ll buy it just because… but Matt could have done so much better.
I did have the issue of Remi’s total character change between the other books so I’ll read it with an open mind.
Hi Sue
Matt – I just love him, and as you said, he could have done much better than Aubrey. However, you need to read the story to enjoy Matt. As for Aubrey, I still remember him from how he treated Keaton initially in Without Reservations so he will never be a fave.
Didn’t Aubrey kill Jonathan for Keaton? I’ll go to bed and have a read. Remi was the real nasty one to Keaton. I could talk about these books for ever.
I won’t get to read this one until the paperback comes out.
Yes he did. However, before that he and 4 other wolves tried had jumped Keaton when he was 16 because he was gay and tried to beat him up, but Keaton was too powerful for them or he would have been dead.
Yes, Remi was also nasty to Keaton.
You don’t like ebooks? I have both the Samhain and Kindle links so you can get it from either source. Samhain takes 10 months from the release of the ebook before they release the print version.
One Kindle broke and I lost another one in the space of a month. Also I like books. Real proper books to store under my bed.
It occurs to me that if every member of the pack is gay apart from Gadget how are they going to have cubs?
I really need to stop thing about this.
Owh I loved this book! It was worth the wait! Like you I did have some reservations about Aubrey and the ending. I missed some of the redemption It was too easy. To me nothing is really solved about why Aubrey had this reservations in the first place. His family is one thing, but there was nothing about work.
Matt made up for a hell of a lot of things though! He was wayyyyyy too cool!
Overall, definitely a wicked awesome Langley book, though the ending felt a bit sloppy.
*must get some sleep now*
Hi Larissa
Thanks for letting me know how you felt. It was too easy on Aubrey in terms of how he treated Matt. As I said in the review, he should have grovelled a lot more. He either cared about Matt or he didn’t.
I’m glad you thought it was worth the wait, although I wanted some more excitement between the main characters. 🙂
Tell me about it! Though I loved the different scenes. Langley also showed the little things, something you don’t always get to see with other stories.
I’m hoping for a sequel. The ending was open enough!
Wave, I just finished WA today and just now read your review, and I couldn’t agree more with all of the points you make. Much as I adored Matt, Aubrey’s character had a few too many inconsistencies with left me aggravated with him more than not. That line you quoted, about accepting instincts and trusting them? It bothered me as well because it didn’t flow with Aubrey’s subsequent statements about needing a wife for public status reasons. I probably would’ve been able to appreciate the characters more if we’d seen more of a resolution and aftermath. In my opinion Aubrey had a lot of making up to do, and the story ended before it got there.
All in all I must admit I was rather disappointed with this installment, though mostly because I’m growing tired of the same-old central m/m theme of: “We can’t be together because society says it isn’t socially acceptable!”
I did, however, love Matt’s character, his family connections, and his connections with friends new and old. They were well-developed…so much so that it may have detracted a bit from Aubrey and Matt.
Of course, I may be speaking from a standpoint of higher expectations, largely because I’ve placed JL Langly in a higher category of m/m authors, and I know she is capable of fantastic work.
Sorry for the ultra-long response. 🙂
Hi Remi
I did a post recently asking whether M/M authors had lost their imagination and this was one of the themes I thought we should move away from. However, this is a central theme of M/M books because so many authors love it.
Re the wolves, I love all of JL’s books but this one didn’t resonate with me as much as the others in the series. I don’t know if it was because one of the protagonists was Aubrey who was not loved in WR. Matt was definitely my favourite and I really liked Tara as a character in the book. I wish that the next book is Sterling’s and Rhys’s because so many fans of this series love their romance and can’t wait to read about how it plays out.
I kept hoping that we would see a bit about how Aubrey and Matt eventually resolved their issues e.g. the financial issues for the company now that everyone knows that Aubrey is gay, and how Matt handles his new responsibilities with the pack. But it was not to be.
I adore JL’s wolves, and have been waiting for Matt’s story since he first appeared in With Caution, cause I thought he was adorable. I enjoyed the book, though I do think that Matt may be too good for Aubrey. I liked the humor, and their interaction was great as long as Aubrey didn’t THINK lol! I didn’t mind the outside stories, and the scenes with Matt’s younger siblings were precious. I agree with your rating. With Abandon was NOT disappointing, but I am still so impatient for Sterling and Rhys’ story that maybe I didn’t have as much of an open mind as I should have ;)…so I think I will read it again this weekend.
Elaine
We all love JL’s wolves who are almost all adorable except for Remi who I still don’t love and probably needs a kick in the nuts 🙂
Matt is definitely way too good for Aubrey. Although I understand Aubrey’s issues about the family business, lying to Matt the way he did to get him into bed is not the way to start a relationship.
Although I don’t regard WA as disappointing I didn’t love it as much as WC and WR. As for Sterling’s and Rhy’s story? I wish it was here already. LOL
I too liked this book, but it isn’t my favorite. While Aubrey didn’t bother me as much, the side story of Carson did. That drove me nuts. I would have rather had Jordons sub plot more developed. His friendship with Matt. And I would have liked more of Matts brothers in the story too. But Matts playfulness was fun to read so he made the story. Lime green socks too funny. An rnjoyable read. (But sorry Wave I actually like Remi.)
Hi Patty
Thanks for commenting.
Maybe Remi is too fresh in my mind because I’m re-reading WR. LOL
I agree that the sub plot with Jordan made a lot of sense and perhaps should have been more developed than the one about Carson. I didn’t understand why Carson was important other than being a former f**kbuddy of Aubrey’s. Matt’s brothers were beyond adorable. 🙂
Patty o,
I agree with you. The Jordan story needed more development, and though I figured out what was going on with Carson before Aubrey did, that part didn’t seem necessary.
I also like Remi, and wish I’d liked this one more. I don’t dislike Aubrey, the story just didn’t really grab me. I finally felt like I was getting into the story near the end, but that was disappointingly late.
And Wave, I think it has been shown that Keaton’s perceptions of people’s actions aren’t always correct. Aubrey may be an uptight cipher, but he’s not quite the asshole Keaton thought he was.
Hi Patty
I love this quote. 🙂
I don’t dislike Aubrey (okay he wasn’t a fave, but I don’t dislike him) I just felt that he got off easy for the way he treated Matt.
Now if the Jordan sub plot was explored further or he was the one to save Matt in the end, Aubrey might have appeared in a more favourable light to me.:)
As everyone else, I liked it but not a favorite. Aubrey’s accent UGH, it just killed me, he didn’t sound southern he sounded stupid. We in the South may talk with a slow drawl, but good gosh we don’t sound that stupid. I loved Matt, I could poor some sugar all over him and lick it up. 😯 Carson so didn’t get that storyline but she may have future plans for it.
Hi Laura
Not being from the south I had no idea whether the accent was legitimate or not. I took it at face value.
You’re right about Matt, we could all do the same to him. LOL
First off I really liked the book. I liked Matt, I thought Tara was a great supporting character (the banter and the text Matt got while they were working on the car had me laughing – maybe we should get Tara and Logan in the same room to just to see what happens, could be interesting), even Aubrey kinda grew on me by the end of the book, even if he was an ass at times. 😀
That said I did have some problems with it. (some SPOILERS ahead)
As far as Aubrey goes I had a hard time liking him, even when we got the glimpses into his past (him realizing he’s gay and feeling stuck when Keaton came out, the reason he instigated the attack on Keaton) while I kinda got his state of mind and why he felt he couldn’t be gay I still felt it wasn’t right the way he treated Matt. The thing that bothered me the most with their relationship was that the whole time Matt’s thinking yeah ok this sucks but in a few years thing will change, he’ll come out and things will work out, while Aubrey is all doom and gloom I’ll have to send him away, I’ll have to get married, I have to provide heirs to the family fortune/pack, I can’t be with him. And it took the whole book and that bloody fight for him to get his head out of his ass and come clean with himself. Not once did it cross his mind that the kids factor can be addressed in other ways, that he’s the alpha and Matt’s his mate so the rest of the pack can bloody well deal with it. All in all I’d say Aubrey’s a complicated character. Or in other words he’s :nuts:
Also what was up with the whole Carson sub plot? I admit it was nicely tied up at the end of the book, but I don’t know that it contributed much to the development of Matt and Aubrey’s relationship (well except for Carson’s slip up at the begining 😉 ). Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind it was in the book but at the same time I think we should have had more of Jordan thrown in.
Speaking of Jordan. Am I the only one who thought he didn’t deserve what happened. Yeah, I get that he was the bad guy, but a real bad guy would have shot you know who and not the person he did shoot. (Those who’ve read it know what I’m talking about, the rest of you get on with the :reading1: ) Personally I would have liked to have seen Jordan's character built up more than it was. This way, for most of the book I was left thinking what's up with Jordan. Why mention him at all if we see him only a couple of times. So when he turned out to be the bad guy it wasn't so much unexpected (after all the other suspect was out of the picture by then) but it didn't sit right with me. I really thought he'd be given the chance to redeem himself. Maybe I'm just a softy at heart. Plus the whole thing didn't make much sense to me since he himself said that Jonathan was a selfish and greedy SOB who didn't care for him one bit so what was the point then in him revenging him. As you can see I'm still confused about the ending. 😕
Oh, and Bambi, what's up with that. Were those hints at a possible future story? If so bring it on. Otherwise shame on whomever broke his heart. Although, I have to admit that for a second there I thought maybe he and Gadget were mates, even if it wouldn't make much sense seeing as they've been BFF's since forever, but hey there's plenty of room in the closet so anything's possible.
Oh and one last thing. I want to read about Logan. (Sorry Wave, I know it's not proper reading material here at this site but I can't help it.) And I'd like to know what happens to the piercings when he shifts ^^
Eva
I agree with just about everything you said buit I don’t understand this
Why isn’t it proper reading material on this site? Am I missing something? BTW I, too want to know what happens to the piercings when he shifts. LOL
I agree that we both wanted more of the Jordan sub plot which made a lot of sense except for the way it ended. Also I don’t get why so much time was spent on Carson.
JL loves flawed heroes so I can understand Aubrey’s characterization, specially since I remember him from WR and the fct that he was jealous that Keaton was able to leave the family unscathed (no thanks to him, after he and 4 of his friends tried to beat him up).
A chapter or two about how Aubrey and Matt were faring a year down the road would have been a wonderful end to this book and closed off a lot of loose ends and questions that I had.
I guess we will have to wait for the next story to find out and from what I’m sensing, it probably won’t be Rhys’s and Sterling’s but Bambi’s. 🙁
Wave,
Maybe proper was the wrong word.
I was just thinking of the fact that Logan is apparently straight therefore his mate would be a girl, so the book wouldn’t be m/m and it couldn’t be reviewed here on your site.
“I guess we will have to wait for the next story to find out and from what I’m sensing, it probably won’t be Rhys’s and Sterling’s but Bambi’s.”
Yeah, it seems like a real possibility. And while it doesn’t bother me since I like the series and am sure Bambi’s book will be a great read, I am also impatiently waiting for Rhys and Sterling’s story. In the meantime I keep re-reading those free snippets about them on JL’s site 😉
“A chapter or two about how Aubrey and Matt were faring a year down the road would have been a wonderful end to this book and closed off a lot of loose ends and questions that I had.”
:yes: I agree, the ending did seem a bit rushed and that could have rounded it up a bit.
I’m about halfway through and really enjoying it but I’ve had a few more issues with this one than with the other two books. The accents are horrendous and the can’t be gay vibe is overdone. The other characters do have a lot of screen time but that hasn’t bothered me too much so far.
I really like both Aubrey and Matt and am looking forward to finishing it.
Whenever I comment about the emphasis on how straight people view gays in the US I’m told that it’s different there, especially in the south because of the churches and the ingrained views of southerners, so I didn’t mention it in the review. Being Canadian and living in a city that’s San Francisco north, 🙂 I guess my POV is different.
Re the accents, again not being from the south I have no idea about whether they are overdone. However I believe that JL lives in Texas so I’m not sure how familiar she is with the accents in Georgia.
I really wish there was more time spent with Aubrey and Matt to get more of a sense of their love for each other outside of the mating call, but that’s just me.
OK I’ll comment again. I didn’t think of Jordan as a bad guy. I found him sad and hurt. That is why I wanted more of his and Matts friendship in the story. Also I think there was something more between Bambi and Matts Dad than being BFFs. Wouldn’t be suprised if they were meant to be together as mates.
It’s good to see I’m not the only one whose thinking went in that direction 🙂
Though, the more I think about it, the more it seems like a soap opera plot, so I doubt Bambi’s story would/will go in that direction. Who knows? :crystalball:
I too didn’t think of Jordan as a bad person and I wish he didn’t end up the horrible way he did because he didn’t hurt Matt.
As for Matt’s Dad and Bambi, there definitely seems to be something between them, but why wait until 8 kids later?
Hi Wave!
I just read the review after finishing the book this weekend. You did a great job with this review! This was very conflicted story.
I’m glad I read it for the info on the series. This book was kind of a meh (shrug shoulders) for me. Lack of focus was a good way to describe it! I felt it was out of balance. Too many disfunctional people without enough positive elements too balance it out. I was left emotionally neutral.
I’m glad it worked for others though!
Again, great Job!! 8)
Hi Reggie
Thank you for reading both the book and the review. I appreciate your comments.
As I said in the review, I thought that the book should have stayed with Aubrey and Matt rather than the number of sub plots, which frankly I didn’t find that interesting, except one.
However while some of the fans of the series did share my view, many others loved the story, so it’s always a matter of personal taste.