Unforgiven

De: Ruth Clampett

Narrado por: Eric London, Iggy Toma

Would you live a lie to hold onto the one you love?

Dean and Jason are best friends, like brothers since boyhood, now architecture students and college roommates. They've always had each other's back, but when one walks in on the other with another man, everything changes. How do you explain to your best friend that he's the one you've always wanted, that until now your life has been a lie?

Desperation and shame are two dirty words that run through Jason's veins. He carries the scars from a wayward priest who stole his innocence and left him shattered. Meanwhile for years he's watched Dean pursuing woman after woman, as his own heart slowly breaks.

When their world blows apart, they learn the powerful bond between them has more fire than either understood. Can two broken souls find the light in their darkness and come together to make a whole, or will sins of the past be forever unforgiven?

©2017 Ruth Clampett (P)2017 Tantor

Hooked

Loved it! Loved it so much I stayed up hours past bedtime to finish it. Narration was good and drew me in. Loved the storyline. Love Dean and JJ. Great wrap up! I would love to watch the movie!

Too much is never enough

This is my second, and definitely last book by Ruth Clampett. While I’m rating it one star higher than my first book, if her’s, it was an unbearable mishmash of ideas that become a series of predictable burdens to bear.

While I found that the combination of Iggy Toma and Eric London worked on a higher level, I was so disappointed in London’s limp voiced reading of this story that I couldn’t believe he was the same narrator I loved in Clampett’s other MM romance. His dithering, nearly passive voices for both characters were in complete contrast to their descriptions. I wanted to stop several times but managed to persevere.

The book itself. This book was published several months before Encore. I despised Encore for giving an incredibly unlikable main in Charlie. While Jason isn’t as horrible as Charlie, he is nearly as unlikable, more exhausting.

The premise should be simple. Jason is a college senior who is rooming with his childhood best friend Dean. On the surface, both guys are busy ladies men on campus, and sharing a dream of becoming architects. However Jason has a secret. Well, he has many, but the one that is set to cause the most trouble is that he is secretly gay and in love with Dean. In most MM romance, that is enough.

However, Clampett prefers to literally drown her readers in storyline. Jason is also keeping secrets about being abused by a priest, and that he also has a short lived encounter with a camp counselor - all while a minor. Add in his overbearing religious mother and Jason is the full package.

Elements of the story work, but Clampett doesn’t seem able to help herself. The preview blurb informs the reader that Dean walks in on Jason. Well, he sure does. Mere pages into the book. We begin the dance. First Dean is repulsed and angry. He’s cruel to Jason. Then Jason begins playing games with Dean, putting Dean in awkward situations. All the while Jason is having graphic flashbacks to his abuse.

There is so much sex in this book. Dean with women, Jason recalling being with women, their childhood circle jerks, Jason and fellow student Ramon (who I am convinced shows up in the other book), then Jason and Dean, then add in Jason’s very graphic recollections. It’s too much.

Jason also falls into that trap of a trope that he’s unworthy of being loved, that his abuse was his fault. Had Clampett wanted to explore this seriously, great. Instead there is a side trip to a dungeon. He becomes so cringey that I flipped to preferring Dean - who was a tiresome douche for much of the first part of the book. I think she believes going all in all the time is the right recipe. That works for people who need to be constantly stimulated and pulled back and forth. But I think most of us want a bit more substance.

I do not recommend.

omg

this story was so amazing!!!
I listened from start to finish in 1 day!
for sure saved in my favorites

good

great book. had me crying at some parts of the book. but over all its one of my favorites.

Good!

Loved my first adventure with this author. The story was well paced, the characters had depth and growth from begining to end, a ND it took me on a journey. I can't wait to see what this author has in store for me next!

Pleasant surprise

I had this book on my TBR list for a long time. I finally listened and I’m so glad I did. I hated Dean through half the book, but then he turned it around. He was there for Jason when he needed him most. You won’t regret it if you spend a credit on this book, go for it.

intense, sexy and at times downright scary!

i would absolutely recommend this book to anyone that likes romance novels with substance. it reminded me of Felice Stevens "Through Hell and Back Series" which you will like if you enjoyed Unforgiven and vice versa. Chapter 50 was a nail biter and it nearly overwhelmed me emotionally.

So much better than I had hoped for

What did you love best about Unforgiven?

This book was so much more than I had bargained for. I picked it up because it had good ratings and the description sounded intriguing, and after a few chapters I had already decided to give it a 5* rating because it had delivered so esquisitely on the HOTNESS level. I am a sucker for jealousy (the healthy kind), and it was so delicious. But then it turned into so much more than a story about 2 hot guys. They come across like real people, with so much baggage to work through, and you can't help but root for them and forgive them even when they make stupid decisions. This book will break your heart and then put it back together in a better way. Definitely reread worthy.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes, and I nearly have. I couldn't put if off after I started, I was too immersed in the lives of the characters and rooting for them with all my heart.

YIKES disturbingly good

This was so good, so realistic. I know there are people out that there this could be a biography of. The feelings are so raw and laid bare. For one, a story of overcoming a horrible trauma and finding love. For the other, realizing your best friend has always been your other half.
The narration was very good as well. Their voices are simular, but one has a little gruff to it, so it wasn't an issue.

Really good book! Highly recommend

Listen , there are triggers (abuse & drug use) and the MC Dean is difficult to relate to at first - but that’s the point of a book right ? Life is messy, people don’t. Always make the right choices the first chance they get ... and that’s the point! Stick with the book. It’s very good (although there’s a few events that happen that She could have researched a little more) the MC struggle and have angst .... as do all of us.
Don’t listen to the reviews that complain “they could have solved a lot of the problems by just talking”. Duh of course they could have but then 1)the book would have been only 4 chapters and 2) just because you would handle a situation a certain way doesn’t mean everyone will.
The narrators were good but I felt like the voices were a little too similar and didn’t quite reflect the bravado that Dean has ..
it’s a realistic coming of age / coming to terms with sexuality story with depth and meaning. (Says the het white girl lol) the events are not pretty but they are also handled carefully . Reading this book helped me look at the world from a different perspective and I am so so so so glad that I didn’t pay attention to the negative reviews !