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Omega

Book Review of Omega (Demon Chaser #1), by Charlene Hartnady

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OmegaOmega (by Charlene Hartnady) is book number two of my Omega Weekend Challenge. I got the book from Amazon, almost a year ago, and I believe it was free at the time.

Description from Goodreads:
Demon Chasers… Protectors of humanity. Sworn to uphold the peace. Oath bound to keep the existence of demons a secret.

Katy is an ordinary girl living an ordinary life…or at least, that’s what she thinks right up until she’s abducted and for no apparent reason.

Demon Chaser Cole rescues Katy from the claws of the Alpha of a resident demon wolf pack. Hunted by Bain and his pack he must try and find out why the wolves are willing to risk a two hundred year long standing agreement with the Demon Chasers in order to have her.

The Chaser suspects that Katy is not as innocent as what she seems. Cole had better move fast though because the longer he’s with the raven haired beauty the more impossible he finds it to resist her.

Review:
OMG, that was just one long series of cliché tropes, one after another after another. The whole thing is basically the old stand-by ‘woman is the mysterious Chosen One, but doesn’t know it. She is hunted by the baddy that wants to claim her and rescued by the hero who actually does claim her. In the mean time, she passes out a lot and does stupid things like insist on trying on clothing prior to purchase while being actively hunted, giving the baddies time to find her again. Because obviously a good, sexy fit is more important than anything else, in the moment.’

It starts out with a bad case of the ‘for some reasons.’ For some reason he wanted to protect her. For some reason he was unaccountably attracted to her. For some reason he trusted her. For some reason he told her things he’d never told anyone else. For some reason he HAD TO HAVE HER. For some reason she felt safe with him. For some reason she was attracted to him, even though they’d just met. For some reason she was wet for him. For some reason she HAD TO HAVE HIM. Just to be clear, from a readers perspective, ‘for some reason’ is never enough of a motivating factor.

After the ‘for some reasons,’ we moved on to the fact that the plot basically boils down to who gets to have sex with the girl. Honestly, haven’t we moved past heroines being reduced to their sexual availability and heroes being the man who wins the big P in the end?

Then, of course, we had sex by the numbers. 1. kiss. 2. sucking nipples. 3. fingering clit. 4. slip a finger in and be shocked at the wetness. 4. mutterings about being beautiful and ‘so tight.’ 5. oral sex and instant orgasm number one. 6. PnV penetration, instant orgasm number two. 7. Roaring male climax and instant female orgasm number three. All in about a paragraph, so no room for any emotional build-up or anything and all this after thinking about ‘pounding her without foreplay.’ (Oh, yeah, so sexy. Argh. No.) Tell me fellow readers, how many times have YOU read this EXACT SAME sex scene? I know I’ve probably read it a hundred times.

But there are still more cliché tropes to be had, because we move right into the ‘I love him, but I have to give him up’ and ‘I love her, but I she’ll be better off without me.’ No one discusses this. No one admits their feelings; all those feelings that developed in about two days out of freakin’ no where. There is no chemistry between these two. And of course, we end with her going to him and demanding he accept her. Cliché! Overused! Horrible!

And all of this is decorated with writing like this: “Probably from the fact that he could smell her from here, like a summer breeze and candle lit dinners but also of red lace and leather.” Someone want to tell me what that actually smells like and does red lace really smell differently than, say, blue or white? I noticed a distinct lack of commas too.

I mean, I know these kinds of stories keep selling, so they keep getting written and if they’re your cup of tea, by all means have at it. But for me, I don’t know if I can run in the other direction fast enough. If this hadn’t been read as part of a challenge I almost certainly wouldn’t have finished it.

Book Review: Fated Nights, by Wolf Specter / Rosa Swann

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fated nights coverAbout the book:
Three book bundle, enjoy all Rosa Swann’s series’ first books in ONE SET!!

Feathers and Microphones #1
Florian, fallen angel and now part-time bartender, and Seth, an up and coming rock star, both want the same out of their one night stand.

Only, the next morning leaves them yearning for each other even more and, after some fun in the kitchen, things turn complicated.

Seth wears the brand of a demon and Florian is not sure he can get involved with someone who made a pact with a demon, again.

Party at the Lunar Pack (Lunar Pack #1)
Roy never thought that one party with his sexy new neighbours would turn his whole life upside down!

Roy’s life exists of work, dinner and sleep, boring. His friends are getting married, or having kids, and he sits home alone, too focused on his job to have much of a social life, let alone a love life.

Then he finds a letter on the doormat, an invitation to a housewarming party next door. There he meets Clyde and Sam, they seem interested in him as more than just neighbours, and definitely ready to explore if that interest is mutual.

But why does he feel like there is more going on between the three of them? And why are Clyde and Sam acting all weird the next morning?

Omega’s Fate (Mated to the Alpha #1)
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:

This anthology contains three stories, one by Wolf Specter and two by Rosa Swan. However, comparing the writing, I have a strong suspicion these are the same author. Which is fine; everyone’s welcome to a pen name or two, and I could be wrong, of course. But it seems worth noting that if you do or don’t like one, you’re likely to feel the same about the other. I did.

One should probably also note that while this appears to be a collection of stories (I downloaded it thinking books, so imagine my disappointment), it’s actually three first parts in SERIALS, so don’t expect any conclusions anywhere in evidence. There aren’t any. I feel very very strongly that serials should be labeled as such, so I was a little ragey to find a whole book of them and no label anywhere in evidence. (We’re told ‘first in series’ but not serials. These are different.) Readers should be able to make an informed decision about what they read, and being denied pertinent information is rude, if not dishonest.

Despite my serious disappointment in what this book contains (or doesn’t) I did give each story a solid chance to impress me. They failed.

 

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.