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Book Review of Fated Dates and Mating Addiction, by Abraham Steele

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I downloaded Fated Dates and Mating Addiction  (by Abraham Steele) from Amazon when they were free. They are the first and the fifth book in the Fated Date Agency series. I’m not sure why I only had one and five, but I did.

Fated DatesDescription from Goodreads:
Bryant had always known that Cade was straight. After years of crushing on his best friend, the bookish young omega was ready to move on. Cade would never be interested in him like that. It was time to move on – time for Bryant to get matched by the Fated Date Agency.

The agency’s response only showed Bryant how cruel fate could be. His sexy jock friend wasn’t just a crush – he was the only one for him. But Cade was still straight. Bryant couldn’t let him know that they were fated mates.

And yet… he couldn’t let him go.

Review:
WTH? This plot had more holes that a mesh screen! Seriously, I spent the whole book being confused about how it was still holding together at all. It was also repetitive, self absorbed, and the writing had a painfully naive quality to it. I didn’t like either of the characters. Being on the receiving end of anal sex was explicitly equated to being a woman. The happy ending was forced and unbelievable. The characters blithely broke the one rule of being a shift the reader was told about (more than once) and it was originally published in three parts, which makes no conceivable sense at all. Thank goodness I had a compilation.

Mating AddictionDescription from Goodreads:
Disowned by his family, cut off from his pack, Raymond Fusco lives for the next conquest. And he’s definitely making one tonight. There’s no way he’s going to close off the weekend without pumping his cum into a hot, willing asshole. Any of the anonymous guys messaging him will do. The young alpha’s standards aren’t exactly high – there’s no point when he’s only going to see them once. The new guy who just emailed him stands out, though. Not only does Diago have a gorgeous face and cock, his way with words is also intriguing. Why would he refer to Grindr as an “agency”?

A week after breaking up with his first and only boyfriend, Diago Ayling has finally heard back from the Fated Date Agency. The lovelorn omega just got his heart stomped on, and now he’s ready to find the real thing: his fated mate. Even though Raymond told him to come straight to his place, Diago is picturing flowers and candlelight for their first date.

Diago is about to get a whole lot more than he bargained for. Then again – so is Raymond… 

Review:
What the hell did I just read? MPreg, shifter romance, sure I’m familiar with the trope—fated mates, knotting, male pregnancy. I knew what I was in for in that respect. But this book was just…well, it’s just a big fat nope for me. The dual first person narratives were painful and the writing style is one I don’t enjoy.

Raymond and his sex addition (more like sex frenzy) was a jerk until the magic peen cured him. Or that’s not quite right, he didn’t get the magic penis because he’d the alpha they don’t get dick. They give the dicking, cause they’re The Man. So, I guess he got the magic ass. Either way he was magically cured of his sex addiction by having sex with Diago. I bet all sex addicts wish they’d known all they needed to beat that demon is the right sex and lots of it. This book is predominantly sex, but really rushed frantic sex that wasn’t in the least satisfying.

I somehow only had book one and five in this series this one is better than the first and both stood alone just fine. Though I don’t understand the breaking into three parts. I think they may have been initially published as serials. If I’d read these as serials instead of a compilation I’d have been furious. Also this (and the first one for that matter) is listed at 200+ pages in length. I have a hard time thinking it’s really that long.

Home Is Where You Are

Book Review of Home Is Where You Are (The Alphas’ Homestead, #1), by Alex Jane

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Home is where you areAlex Jane sent me a copy of Home is Where You Are for review.

Description from Goodreads:
By the winter of 1870, Caleb Fletcher has carved out a sheltered existence for himself in a simple cabin, outside a small town in the backwaters of Nebraska, resigned to living out his days as a solitary wolf. But his quiet life is interrupted when another werewolf lands on his doorstep on the eve of a snowstorm, brutalized almost beyond repair, with nowhere else to turn.

When Caleb reluctantly welcomes Jacob into his cabin, and eventually his bed, it forces him to face up to the traumas he’s been running from; the shame that made him leave his pack behind, and the horrors of war he endured.

As the weeks pass, it seems that Jacob’s arrival might not be the coincidence it first appeared. Jacob has an agenda. One that involves Caleb. And if Caleb agrees to it – if he can let go of his past and his prejudices – it will change Caleb’s whole world. Maybe even for the better.

Without a mate – a family, a pack – a wolf has no home. 
But what if home finds you?

Review:
I thought this was really quite cute. I quickly came to appreciate both Caleb and Jacob. I thought the narrative voice was pleasing, the story satisfying, and the writing crisp. Basically, I enjoyed it.

However, I am not without complaints. I thought the first half took a long time to finally setting into a romance. Then, past the halfway mark, the story simultaneously dragged (in the sense that every time I thought the story had come to and end something new cropped up and the book felt overly long) and rushed (in the sense that all those bullet points, happily ever after events were relayed in a hurried and perfunctory way that didn’t at all match the style of the first half of the book). I also would have liked a deeper understanding of the world.

In the end, I’d call it a success, though. I enjoyed it, and that’s what I look for in a book.

Edit: The author later sent me a copy of the follow-up story for this book. It’s not quite a sequel, more like an add-on. You can see my review here.

returning home coverDescription from Goodreads:
Three years after Jacob Carpenter landed on Caleb Fletcher’s doorstep, the Alpha mates return to the city they grew up in to be married.

Aside from the sheer exhaustion of traveling across the country with three children in tow, both men step foot back in New York filled with apprehension about what kind of reception they will receive from their families after abandoning their respective packs.

At first it seems they are welcomed home with open arms and much excitement about their wedding but it soon becomes clear that not everyone is so happy to see the prodigal sons return.

Indeed, Caleb finds himself wondering if Jacob will go through with the ceremony at all, or whether it would be better to pack up his mate and their children, and head back to Nebraska before the situation does irreparable damage to them both.

Sometimes you have to leave a place to realize it’s exactly where you ought to be.

Review:
This is a sweet little add-on to Home is Where You Are. However, I wouldn’t recommend reading it if you haven’t read book one. It would be a spoiler. But if you have read the first book, this has all the feels you finished wanting, but some seriously cute kid-speak.

Having said that, it’s a little too schmaltzy for me; the obstacle felt both artificially created and solved, and the dialogue felt a little stiff at times.

It’s still a cute read, though.

 

Book Review of The Omega Prince (The Kingdom of Pacchia #1), by Lia Cooper

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The Omega Prince

I picked up a copy of The Omega Prince (by Lia Cooper) when it was free on Amazon. It was still free at the time of posting.

Description from Goodreads:
The Tri-fete, an opportunity for the alphas in Pacchia to show off their strength, stamina, and martial prowess, comes once every three years. This is the first time the competition has been held since the Crown Prince Aubrey of Lyle and Wescott presented as an omega and there is much speculation he may take a mate from one of the alphas competing. 

But there is more than friendly competition underway as the mysterious Lord Riven returns to court for the first time in nearly a decade and assassins plot against the King. 

Prince Aubrey must find a way to balance expectation and personal desire in THE OMEGA PRINCE, the first story set in Pacchia, a mythical kingdom based on the a/b/o gender structure. 

Review:
I really quite enjoyed this, though I’m annoyed at it (the series that should be the book, IMO) being broken into so many small pieces and ending on a cliffhanger. Why do authors insist on breaking books into serials? I hate this with a burning passion.

Outside of that issue, I enjoyed the authors voice. I liked Aubrey and Riven as characters. I liked the plotline. I liked that the alpha/beta/omega universe is explained, or at least addressed. So often it’s just presented and not explored and I’m left wondering why pairing have to work the way they do. I also liked that alpha (as well as betas and omegas) could be both male and female.

There was a lot to enjoy here. Granted, the editing is a disaster and, again, it’s pointlessly incomplete. At just over 100 page, it could easily have been expanded into a COMPLETE work. But I’d read the next installment if it crossed my path.