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Book Review: Feral Alphas, by Sierra Knoxly

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I picked up an Amazon freebie copy of Sierra Knoxly‘s Feral Alphas, I think, during the most recent Stuff Your Kindle Day.

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I’m an omega used as scent bait for feral alphas fighting in underground deathmatches.

I was told I’m an omega without a heat—a lie.

The truth? My heats were medically suppressed, and now I’ve been sold as a secret weapon in a brutal underground where feral alphas are pitted against each other in fights to the death. When the Omega Crimes Bureau raids the ring, my dream of having love with a real pack seems within reach, but freedom is never that simple.

I won’t leave my feral alphas behind, and what sane pack would accept living with two violent killers?

my review

Meh. This was only okay. It started off well, and I expected to love it, but then it just kind of floundered. For a book called Feral Alphas, you’d think it would be a lot more focused on the actual…you know, feral alphas. They didn’t come into the story in any meaningful way until after the 65% mark, and only really one, at that. They were, At Most, side characters (the only characters without POVs, for example). This, despite being part of the harem. Plus, they never reached full adult human cognizance, which made the sex scenes uncomfortable.

The rest of the men were all given super unbalanced attention, which made it feel like there were just too many of them to accommodate. I would call Colt and Luka the main pairing/main characters, not Rose, which feels strange in a reverse harem book. And Rose was very one-dimensional.

The thing is, the one-dimensionality wasn’t my biggest issue with her. My primary complaint was that she was 27 and started the book acting like an adult. AS SOON AS she found the first of her men, she read like a child. The state adopted her out like a child. She doesn’t laugh feral alphas photoanymore; she giggles. She doesn’t walk. She skips or runs on her tip toes. She does happy dances and wiggles excitedly. She throws temper tantrums, plays Uno incessantly, frequently is put down for a nap, etc. I get that she was uncultured and never lived in a normal society. But there is uneducated, and there is infantilized. She is 100% infantilized, and it’s a HUGE pet peeve for me, especially in erotic books.

I liked the characters, and the writing is readable. But when it came down to it, I didn’t like many of the authorial choices.

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Book Review: Captured by the Dark Commander, by Ellie Pond

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I picked up a freebie copy of Ellie Pond‘s Captured by the Dark Commander. It was pretty hyped on Tiktok. So, I gave it a chance.
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As a merman commander, my responsibilities are protect my people and follow the council’s orders. Despite my rank, I’ve never been good at following orders. When we discover Annabelle Portsmouth has the gene we’re looking for, I know we need her. It’s a rare trait that gives her the potential to become a mermaid. But after one look at her, I’d want her even without it. And I’m willing to take down my own men who touch her without permission.

I do what I have to do – I take her from her apartment and bring her under the sea to the domed Veiled City. A world of magic and secrets, where the females have the freedom to choose as many mates as they wish.

I understood my actions would have consequences. My government, like me, doesn’t give second chances. I did it for my nation, and for Annabelle, to let her become her true self.

But now she’s mine.

And I’ll do anything to keep this human. Anything. And I’m keeping this human.

my review

I’m afraid I just didn’t like this very much. It was basically ok, quality-wise. There were some inconsistency issues that annoyed me, and maybe some instances of wrong character names being used. (I’m not 100% sure about this one, but there were a couple of moments in scenes where I was like, did Pond mean for one of the male characters to be doing that when the other would make a lot more sense?) And several instances (especially in sex scenes) when I just didn’t know what was actually happening. But mostly, the issue is that I did not like it.

I understand that it is a dark romance. I understand that the “dark commander” is supposed to be dark. But dark romance is also…you know…a romance. But I neverever feel the spark between Nico and Annabelle. There is one sex scene that is so incredibly unpleasant I honestly thought it was rape. (I mean, the other male stepped in to remind the main male hero that he is supposed to be pleasuring his mate, and he is not.) And none of the other sex scenes felt authentic in any fashion. So, I never liked Nico. In the beginning, I gave him grace, room for character growth, etc. But he had not grown by the end. He remained unchained and captured by the dark commander photounpleasant, and everyone just let him.

I did like Holter and Caster, but they are not the focus here. This book was very much about Nico at the exclusion of the other two men, and it felt wonky and off-kilter because of it. And I liked Annabelle well enough. Her character is inconsistent, but mostly I liked her, and the world seems interesting.

All in all, however, I do not feel the need to continue the series.

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Book Review: Inextricably Tied, by Aveda Vice

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I picked up a copy of Aveda Vices‘ Inextricably Tied on Amazon. I think it might have been on a Stuff-Your-kindle day.
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Harbinger is reckless.

It only makes sense that she keeps the world at arm’s length. No one to answer to. No one to lose. No one to touch her banshee skin and become connected forever.

It’s a system that works — even if it means keeping her partner, Flint, from getting any closer to her.

Flint is restrained.

As Harbinger’s bodyguard, he has to be — until pulling her behind his gargoyle armor accidentally links them. Now Harbinger’s privy to the romantic feelings he’s denied himself for years…

And Flint’s no longer the only one connected to her.

Agony is unlike anything they’ve ever seen.

A night terror extracted from a serial killer, Agony doesn’t care who he hurts — and Flint and Harbinger look like perfect targets.

Forced together by circumstance, the three search for the remains of the murderer’s victims…and try to keep from killing each other in the process.

But as the mystery comes into focus, the lines between the three of them begin to blur. What started as begrudging partnership becomes as intertwined as their bodies in the dark.

The bond between Flint and Harbinger is fraying — but Agony isn’t the only one to blame. Not when Flint and Harbinger have painful histories they’ve spent their whole lives running from.

Every step toward uncovering the truth proves that the only way to untangle these complicated webs is to unravel them…and each other.

my review

I was pleasantly surprised by this one. It’s predominantly smutty, though there is a fairly serious murder mystery ostensibly being solved. Both Harbinger and Flint have past trauma they are working through, and Agony is a new entity, just learning what it means to exist in reality. So, there’s some unexpected heft for a smutty book. Mostly, however, I liked the dynamic between the three of them a lot.

I wasn’t thrilled that the beginning of Harginger and Flint’s relationship happened in a prequel, and the reader feels the lack of it in this book. I mean, this is certainly readable on its own. But I regretted not having read the prequel, personally. I’ll be on the lookout for more of Vice’s books, regardless.

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