Forgiving Thayne

By: J. R. Loveless

Narrated by: Derrick McClain

A True Mates novel

Nicholas Cartwright has done everything in his power to forget that night six months ago in Senaka when his true mate rejected him, leaving him shattered and disillusioned. Burying himself in his work, he pushes himself to the point of exhaustion while finding the touch of another unbearable. Suddenly his mate needs his help, and he may be asking for more than Nicholas can find it in himself to give.

Thayne Whitedove has always been a wanderer, spending his days on the road and his nights wrapped in the arms of whatever random hookup he meets, until a fateful mistake sends him rushing for the comforts of home. To his utter dismay, the only way to correct his error in judgment is to accept the one thing he's never wanted: his mate. Thayne must decide whether to keep running or to stay and fight for Nick's forgiveness.

©2014 J. R. Loveless (P)2015 Dreamspinner Press

Forgive me, but....

I really tried to like this, but I failed. Thayne and Nick were too broody and whiny for me. I hated that Nick was portrayed as weak willed and needy and hate that Thayne was too pigheaded to call his best friend and discuss something that they agreed to as youths and selfish to boot. This premise annoyed me. The same points seemed to be reiterated over and over. The story could have probably been wrapped up in half the time. The concept of ' the Created' was interesting, but not used in the best way. The narrator was okay but couldn't save it.

4 stars for the story 5 stars for the narration.

Where does Forgiving Thayne rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

It was quite good, I'd listen to it again.

What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)

Loved the ending, more so than the book version I think.

Which character – as performed by Derrick McClain – was your favorite?

The Chapter where they have to face the created one.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Nope.

Any additional comments?

e-book review Nov 2013

Thayne Whitedove is a loner, he doesn’t rely on anyone but himself and pushes away anyone that threatens to get close. When he was a boy, he and his best friend and fellow shifter Dakota, found Dakota’s father dead by a self inflicted gunshot wound after the man’s mate had die. Thayne and Dakota swore an oath that day to never succumb to the mate bond, to never let themselves be that vulnerable because of their love and loyalty to another. So Thayne has spent his entire adult life hopping from one bed to another in a quest to quench the thirst the loneliness leaves in its wake. He’s brash, standoffish and contemptuous at best with just about everyone.

When Nicholas Cartwright steam rolled his way into Thayne’s life all those months ago, Thayne rejected him, rejected their bond and did what he does best, he ran. When Thayne’s past and poor choices come back to haunt him, he has no choice but to accept help from the one person he hurt more than anyone, Nick.

Nick is everything that Thayne is not, everything about them is a contrast of colors and personalities. Thayne is big and broad with long, dark hair and equally dark eyes that match his almost black personality. Nick is lithe and lean with dark blonde hair and mesmerizing green eyes. He’s smart, successful and committed to everyone in his life. He was the protector of his best friend Seth, Thayne’s brother Kasey’s husband, for many years. All Nick has ever wanted in his life was to find his mate, settle down and live their lives together, happy. Fate has a sick and twisted sense of humour sometimes, especially when deciding that Nick and Thayne were mates.

If these two can stop fighting and learn to actually communicate with each other, they just might make a deadly duo. But all they can manage to do is let their emotions get the best of them, fight like cats and dogs and continually deny the pull and the attraction to one another. Nick is an open book, he doesn’t hide his feelings from Thayne. But Thayne is so dead set against fulfilling his mate bond, so scared of a memory and an ages old promise that he very well might let his bad attitude cost him the love of his mate. That is if the worst mistake he ever made doesn’t kill them first.

I have waited for this story for over a year, and for the most part it was well worth the wait. The push and pull between Thayne and Nick was nerve wracking at best. I loved that Thayne didn’t fall over and submit, that he and Nick had to fight for their love story, for their happy ever after. But there comes a point where enough is enough, and Loveless crossed that line about mid way through this story. Were I not a fan of this author, these characters and this story, I would have thrown this book against the wall a couple times. I’m glad I stuck it out in the end, because the reward was worth it. But the constant lack of communication between these two did cause me to rate under 5 stars, because it was a strain on the overall content of the story.

If you can deal with the two steps forward, three steps back and almost teenage angst undertones in this story, then it’s a pretty good read. It’s very much an unlikely love story between two strong, stubborn and sexy alpha males that have to learn the beauty of compromise if they are going to stay together.

Audiobook August 2016

Derrick McClain did a magnificent job bringing these characters to life. I could literally hear the pain in both Nick and Thayne's voices at different times. Both shifters are confused for different reasons. Thayne feels like being mated will make him weak and vulnerable, he doesn't realize it will only strengthen him. Nick is beside himself with grief and the guy is seriously in agony over being rejected by the one person on earth that the fates have designed to be his. Subtle tones and inflections really took the story to a different level. And when the created one is taunting Thayne, calling his name, my skin was crawling, McClain really put as much menace and hate in that one word as possible.

Still though, as excellent a listen as this was, the two steps forward, three steps back drove me insane. I thoroughly enjoy this series and this Author, but good lord the angst needed to be dialed down a notch. 4 stars for the story 5 stars for the narration.

It was okay

I liked this story, however, I do have to agree with the other reviews about the main characters brooding too much, I found myself frustrated several times with the internal dialogue of doubt. that being said I did enjoy the book and the narrator was fine.

Mmmmm mmmmm

Well, if you like a merry go round, you’ll love this book. The story went on and on, round and round. So, glad it ended. I was getting a bit dizzy.

For Me It Was Hard to Forgive Thayne

Well Nick may have forgiven Thayne, but I did not. Overall, I didn't hate this book, but it was hard to like sometime. It is a really long listen, almost 12 hours and I think Thayne whines about 10 of those hours. There is a lot of angst (lasting throughout most of the book), misunderstandings, miscommunication and a couple of TSTL moments. Many times I just wanted to slap both MCs, as it is told from both POVs. I really enjoyed Nick and hearing from Seth and Casey as well.

I'm not sure what the author was going for with this book but if it was for the reader to have a visceral reaction to Thayne, mission accomplished. The basic story was introduced in Chasing Seth, the first book. Thayne rejects his mate, Nick, ostensibly because of some childhood trauma. It was a bit of a weak justification, IMHO. His actions have devastating consequences. He took and took from everyone and gave nothing; and even in the end, didn't give up anything, NOTHING. People around him suffered and even died because of his actions and he whines because he can't see his family as much as he would like. Are you kidding me?! I really didn't like Thayne. What does it say about a character when I feel more empathy toward the "bad guy" than the "hero." Even though this book has a HEA, I felt depressed at the end.

The major redeeming thing about this book is the narrator; he does a wonderful job. He kept me engaged and really brought the characters to life. 1000% better than the narrator from Chasing Seth.

Nice sequel, good narration

This is the sequel to Chasing Seth and it pretty much takes up right where that left off. Namely, Seth is settling in with his mate and Nick has just met Thayne (his mate) and been rejected by him.

Thayne carries lots of guilt and secrets, mostly about Created Ones and Mates. He absolutely doesn’t want a Mate, doesn’t think he deserves happiness, but isn’t in a position to stop the events that force him and Nick together.

Nick carries a bit of guilt himself over his involvement in making Taggart, a Created One, but is mostly excited about having a Mate and dumbfounded and hurt by Thayne’s continual refusal to complete the mating bond.

Danger chases Thayne and arrives at Senaka’s doorstep, forcing Thayne to reveal secrets and forcing him to complete the mating bond in order to save himself and others.

Nick, despite EVERY reason to turn his back on Thayne, agrees to help for the sake of the pack and his mate to complete the bond.

Once mated, the pair move back to California to join Nick’s pack, but Thayne continues to act like an a**hole and the two are as miserable in California as they were in Wyoming.

The danger is still present and in fact has followed them to California, forcing Thayne and Nick into close quarters which does much to bring them into a more real mating, but it takes violence and near death to make them realize how important they are to one another.

**
This is somewhat hard to rate and review because on the one hand I really liked the story. I thought the hurdles were somewhat realistic, the danger well plotted and the shifter world interesting and mulit-faceted.

On the other hand I thought the main hurdle: Thayne not wanting a Mate was way over-played. It didn’t make sense for him to continue to hang on this argument when over and over and over he was shown how a Mate is a good thing and not something to weaken you or cause you to be “enslaved”.

Nick acts like a door-mat the entire time, and this drove me bonkers. He should have booted Thayne out the door right from day one. I get that it goes against his mating instincts and his desire to help the pack, but Thayne does not make it easy to help him. Even when Nick gives up practically EVERYTHING to Thayne in order to help him, Thayne continues to act like a total prick-douche-bag and I, for one, wanted to punch him in the nuts!

The ending was very satisfying if a little rushed, and though I was happy to see the HEA for these boys I didn’t fully buy it. Sure, they have the Mating chemistry to pave the way and that covers a lot of romantic ground, but even with all those pheromones Thayne managed to be a big ole jerk to Nick, so I didn’t quite buy his immediate 180 from enemy to love.

Overall, if you enjoyed Chasing Seth you will definitely want to read this – Seth and Kasey play a big role in this book and this is more or less an extension of their story, too. If you like shifter romances this will satisfy but be patient. It’s a long book filled with a lot of (in my opinion) prolonged angst that doesn’t move the story forward but only serves to make Thayne look bad.

I liked it and give it a 3.5 of 5 stars.

Audio


Derrick McClain did a really nice job with the narration. He tries to differentiate the voices and I really liked his version of Thayne’s voice. Overall he added to the enjoyment of this book and I’d recommend listening!

4.5 of 5 stars

Overall 4 of 5 stars

Loved this sequel and can't wait for third book

I loved this book! I read Chasing Seth and had been waiting for this story...meaning Nick's and Thayne's story. I was not dissapointed I cannot hardly wait for the third book about Protecting Kai. I loved this book. Thank you for making it an audiobook because being disabled it is so difficult to read and understand, but with audiobooks it is like the books every character has their own voice and that is fantastic.

Deborah Banker

can YOU forgive Thayne?

The question of forgiving Thayne is more complicated than whether Nick forgives Thayne. With the Olympic level whning and bit ching going on, only the adult themes convinced me that Thayne was not a toddler. Life sucks. Adults pull up their pants and get on with life. Thayne runs, whines and pouts his way through the book. I leave it to others to decide if the HEA ending is worth the spoiled brat angst

Totally awful, completely unlike her other books.

The first couple chapters was mostly descriptions of the two Mc's screwing other people to forget about each other. That was a complete turn off. To me its no different than cheating especially since They've already met and slept with each other. What a big disappointment.

I did not like the story the narrator was okay

I purchased the first book of the Series Chasing Seth, I enjoyed the story between Seth and KC. but the second installment liucky a storyline. I didn't like it I hope the next installment of the series , it's a whole lot better than this one.