Title: Devotion
Series: Forbes Mates 01
Author: Grace R Duncan
Narrator: Joel Leslie
Genre: Paranormal
Length: 9 hrs, 12 mins
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press (23rd June 2017)
Heat Level: Explicit
Heart Rating: ♥♥♥♥ 3.5 Hearts
Blurb: Finley Cooper is tired of waiting for his destined mate to be ready to claim him. In deference to human laws, he’s already agreed to wait until he’s 18. But now his birthday has come and gone-and his mate has a new set of excuses. Finley doesn’t understand it any more than his wolf does, and he’s beginning to wonder if fate made a mistake.
Tanner Pearce wants nothing more than to claim his mate, but he worries that Finley is too young. Tanner will never forget what happened when his best friend mated at Finley’s age, only to have that mate end up feeling trapped and breaking their bond. While rare, it can happen, and the fallout Tanner witnessed as his best friend tried to deal with the break has haunted him for years.
When Finley finally has enough, he threatens to find someone who will claim him if Tanner doesn’t, and Tanner realizes he needs to come to terms with his fears or risk losing his mate forever.
Product Link: Audible US | Audible UK
Reviewer: Prime
Review: After reading the blurb I was really looking forward to Devotion by Grace R Duncan. I’ve read a couple books by the author in the past but I don’t really have a strong opinion one way or the other beyond liking the author’s writing style. This is the second book I’ve heard narrated by Joel Leslie and for me, it was his narration that totally made the audio for me – particularly when I was ready to skip chapters.
The story is about Finley Cooper and tanner Pearce. Finley thinks that his mate doesn’t want him sometimes. He agreed to wait until he was 18 to be claimed, but when his birthday comes around his mate doesn’t want to claim him yet. Seriously, it’s not difficult to feel for Finley in every way at this point. I was ready to not totally like Tanner but I knew that there was going to be sob story of some sort that would make me fall in love with him as well. And for Tanner that is the emotional scars of seeing a similar mating fail – but of course he had completely misunderstood that. I’m not going to say much more because this is essentially the bones of the story.
As I already said, Joel Leslie’s audio helped me a lot. There was plenty of romance, steamy sex and a good chunk of angst, so I suppose like many other reviewers for this story, the word “cheesy” seems apt. I’m not a fan of a lot of angst, but it went well with the rest of the story.
The one thing that I really had trouble with was that the entire story was predicated on, essentially, a series of misunderstandings and miscommunication. It is one of my pet hates when it comes to romance, so I have to admit that I was a tad bit disappointed about that. Overall this is your typical shifter love story and despite my rating I did enjoy listening because for better or worse, these guys were made for each other and they shared real chemistry on the page.