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Book Review of Omega’s Touch & Omega’s Fate, by Wolf Specter

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Since the last two books for my Omega Weekend Challenge turned out to both be short(ish) stories by the same person (Wolf Specter), I’ve just combined them into one post. Here are Omega’s Touch and Omega’s Fate.

Omega's TouchDescription from Goodreads:
An Omega who can kill with a Touch. An Alpha determined to save his son. Will they clash- or will they accept their bond?

Brilliant, indolent Dilyn spent years hiding his power as an Omega. He doesn’t want to bond to an Alpha, doesn’t want to lose control of his life, or his gift. But when called upon by his Alpha to do something useful, Dilyn reluctantly travels to a strange pack in order to Heal a dangerously injured new wolf.

Gwyr promises he won’t try and bond the Omega to him. But resolve flees when he sees the snarky young wolf for the first time. His wolf knows they were meant to be together- but Gwyr can’t break his word. And Healing his son, Tanner, is more important than convincing a skittish Omega that he is worth the risk.

Dilyn struggles to Heal, struggles to retain his independence in the face of unexpected temptation… should he trust that Gwyr isn’t a tyrant, but is an Alpha willing to allow Dilyn his freedom? Is a mate bond worth risking freedom?

Review:
Hmmm, simplistic and rushed but not all together bad. Characters seemed to  make instant, unprovoked changes in attitudes and the bit at the end, about dragons, seemed irrelevant (probably for a future book).

My main problem with this, however, was the way Dilyn was forced into something he didn’t want. It’s clear from beginning to end that he doesn’t want to mate, but he’s forced to anyway. And I simply couldn’t believe that love was supposed to have developed  (making it all ok in theory) when the whole danger to Dilyn in the first place was that ANY ALPHA WOULD BE ATTRACTED TO ANY OMEGA AND TRY TO CLAIM HIM, which suggests to me that there was nothing any more special between him and Gwyr that any other alpha and omega, no matter how hard the author tried to pretend that the world she set up didn’t work the way she set it up.

25633475Description from Goodreads:
The Mating Ball used to be a yearly event where bachelor Alpha werewolves meet potential mates, but now it’s a party mostly used to hook up with as many people as you can. 

Ethan, one of the humans hired to entertain the werewolves, goes into the event with only one expectation: getting paid for having fun. The prospect of maybe meeting an Alpha female is only a bonus. 

Max, a successful Alpha, has been getting pressure from all sides to settle down and prove his Alpha genes. Two problems: he doesn’t believe that the Mating Ball works and he is only interested in men. 

Once there, he meets Ethan, who catches his attention immediately, but the man insists that he isn’t gay, or interested in Max. As the ball comes to an end, the two men can no longer deny their attraction and take off together. Only to wake up to a very special surprise. 

Review:
You know how sometimes when you listen to an audiobook you can put it on faster than real life? That’s what this story is like. The plot rockets at an unfollowable pace. The characters morph from screeching harpy, to sulking child, to hesitant lover, to enthusiastic lover, to morning sickness at light speed. The Mpreg is thrown in at the last as unbelievable attempt at a twist. The world isn’t explained at all. I’m not even certain if Omegas are wolves or the humans who come to the party. I don’t know if they actually mated for life or just mated, as in had sex. The reader isn’t given enough information and the whole thing is just ridiculous. The idea could have been interesting if had actually been developed. But it hasn’t been and that negates any charm it might have had.

Book Review: Omega to the Ranchers, by Stephen Hoppa

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omega to the ranchers coverAbout the book:

After being beaten and left in the woods, Ryan wakes up in the bed of two powerful ranchers who are much more than they appear to be. Eric and Tyler say they don’t want anything from him, that they just want to help him recover from the horrible incident that nearly left him dead, but Ryan soon discovers that they need him much more than they’re letting on. As he learns to accept their supernatural nature and the role he has to play in saving their pack, Ryan also has to grapple with the question; can he learn to fall in love with the two men after everything he’s been through?

Review:

This is Porn With Plot…no, that’s an exaggeration. This is just porn. The plot is so thin as to be invisible. There’s a twist at the end that attempts to bring the whole thing full circle, but it’s a joke, really. It fails in the plot department.

This is basically just 115 pages of sex. And despite the fact that we’re told these individuals are supposed to be falling in love or forming a bond or whatever, this is basically just 115 pages of frenzied, no foreplay, no build-up, no communicating fucking. So, I can’t even stretch it to erotic romance. It’s porn.

Some of it was hot, but, for me, it failed even as fapping material, as the things these men said in flagrante were so freakin’ cheesy they ruined it for me. As did the repetition of “dominated,” “owned,” “used,” etc. It’s not that the character enjoying these feelings was problematic, even though they often seemed to counter his thoughts during the few non-sex scenes, and when the baddie told him that was what would happen, it was definitely off-putting; it’s the fact that the SAME exact words and phrases were used in just about every sex scene, of which, as I mention, there were a lot.

I guess this is a matter of taste. Maybe some people like this sort of thing. For those, just know the editing could use a little work, but beyond that, to each their own.

Book Review of Lord of the White Hell, by Ginn Hale

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I went to library and checked out Lord of the White Hell 1 & 2, by Ginn Hale.

Lord of the White Hell 1Description from Goodreads:
Kiram Kir-Zaki may be considered a mechanist prodigy among his own people, but when he becomes the first Haldiim ever admitted to the prestigious Sagrada Academy, he is thrown into a world where power, superstition and swordplay outweigh even the most scholarly of achievements.

But when the intimidation from his Cadeleonian classmates turns bloody, Kiram unexpectedly finds himself befriended by Javier Tornesal, the leader of a group of cardsharps, duelists and lotharios who call themselves Hellions. 
However Javier is a dangerous friend to have. Wielder of the White Hell and sole heir of a dukedom, he is surrounded by rumors of forbidden seductions, murder and damnation. His enemies are many and any one of his secrets could not only end his life but Kiram’s as well.

Review:
What can I say, I liked it but I didn’t love it? The things I liked I liked a lot though. I liked the characters. I thought they were well rounded and engaging, even the side characters. Nestor and Fedeles struck me particularly. I liked Kiram’s tendency to speak his mind and Javier’s attempt to respect that, while still flirting. I liked the world and the setting. I liked the writing. It’s fairly simplistic, but the dialogue flowed well.

The things I didn’t like are a little less about the broad strokes though. I disliked the slow pace of the plot. If I’m honest, this is probably more a case of expecting more than the book ever intended to deliver in this department. It is largely a story about boys in a boarding school, with a little time dedicated to a larger conspiracy and I was looking forward to a bit more of a sweeping adventure. I disliked how the book ended. I understand what Hale did with the brothel scene, not only forcing Karim to acknowledge the reality of loving a man in such a repressive culture, but also the understanding of the other characters’ limited window to express affection. But I disliked it. I disliked that there are no women in the book, a couple mothers and whores are referenced but there are no female characters. I also thought the editing of the second half of the book started to falter.

I have book two and I’ll be reading it. But the series has lost a little of the luster it held when I was first starting out. Hopefully I can regain it.

Lord of the White Hell 2Description from Goodreads:

Kiram fought his family and Cadeleonian bigots to remain in the Sagrada Academy to prove himself as a mechanist and to dispel the deadly shadow curse that threatens to destroy his upperclassman, Javier Tornesal.

But when his efforts provoke retaliation, Kiram’s family and home are endangered. Both Kiram and Javier risk everything in a desperate gambit to combat the curse.

But they never imagined their battle would come so soon, or that it would be led by the one person they trust most of all.

Review:
I enjoyed this second book more than I did the first. In it I felt Javier and Kiram’s personalities came through more strongly and there was the action I was looking for in book one. I especially appreciated the way Javier is written as the sort of can-do-anything hero commonly seen in M/M but we’re also given his vulnerable, desperate side.

I was a little disappointed that the villain was so obvious. The foreshadowing for that particular twist started about 2/3 of the way through the last book. (I’m just hoping the reader was supposed to know, even if the characters didn’t.) And his defeat seemed a bit abrupt. I only have two other complaints. There are a few convenient saves in the plot, people who just happen to be in the right place to discover just the right thing to save the day. Also, Javier never fully acknowledged why Kiram pulled away from him in book one (the Brothel scene) even after he came to understand adari in Kiram’s culture and showed his own jealousies.

For the most part I ended this book quite happy. I’ll be looking for more of Hale’s writing.