Reviewed by Marieke
TITLE: Patience
SERIES: Forbes Mates #2
AUTHOR: Grace R. Duncan
PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press
LENGTH: 266 pages
RELEASE DATE: March 7, 2016
BLURB:
Jamie Ryan was almost ready to accept he’d never find his destined mate. They’re uncommon to begin with, and same-sex versions are downright rare. Since his gay best friend found a destined mate, Jamie figured he was out of luck. Until end-of-semester stress forces him to go through the full-moon shift early. Stuck in wolf form, he runs into none other than his destined mate. Who’s human.
Chad Sutton has always had good instincts. They served him well as a detective and continued on when he went private. Those instincts tell him there’s something about the dog that comes up to him while running away from animal control that isn’t quite right. He works to put the pieces together, but is unsuccessful until his dog turns into a human before his eyes.
Jamie has no idea what the mate bite of a shifter will do to a human. He’s terrified to try—and possibly kill his mate. They hunt for answers while working together on one of Chad’s cases. It’s easy to see they belong together, but Jamie fears the gods gave him someone he can’t keep.
REVIEW:
We met Jamie Ryan in the previous Forbes Mates book as the young man who was in love with Finley, but Finley was the destined mate of Tanner. In this story Jamie is in college in the city and forgets to let his wolf out often enough, so when the moon is almost full, his wolf breaks out and Jamie is unable to shift back.
When animal control is after him he runs (literally) into his mate, who saves his hide by lying. Chad takes Jamie home and thinks he’s just a big friendly dog. But soon enough he notices things that make him believe there’s more to it than just a runaway dog that happened to bump into him.
Some hilarious situations arise because of the way Jamie keeps forgetting to act like a dog and when he’s finally able to shift back Chad isn’t even surprised all that much. Of course that leads to the question about mates and the mating bite, which is dangerous for humans. Chad and Jamie go on an investigation for more information about how to claim a mate and it leads them to Italy. There they find what they need, plus a whole lot more. Back home they have to deal with what they found out and this isn’t as easy as it seems.
This story is very funny and at times pretty thrilling, yet it misses something. The whole acceptance of werewolves and being a mate by Chad is way too easy. Chad’s mom knowing about—and more––werewolves is too convenient. It’s not that the ideas aren’t used in other stories and are too far fetched, it’s just the way they’re used here, almost skated over, is just too much for me.
I love Jamie and Chad, they’re very likable and funny. They have good hearts and good minds, but they could have been a tad more complex, have a little more depth.
Finley and Tanner’s role is cute yet expected, but I do love that they’re very much there throughout the story.
The people they meet in Italy are a hoot and I hope they will appear in the next book too, especially the twins…. The traveling to Italy through Europe was sweet and again very funny, but maybe a bit too long for something that’s basically a scene to get from A to B. I did like it, though, so maybe I’m just nitpicking here.
This was a nice read and I’m not sorry at all that I got to review it. Would I read it again and again? No, not really, but it did make me curious for the next book. (which is about Miles and Quincy and you get a little taste of that in the Epilogue)
RATING: 
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