Pro’s and Cons with this unfortunately. Pro’s and Con’s.
🌈 Pro: The blurb description along with the plot concept as well as the overall, general concept for this novella were solid.
❌ Con: The absolutely CONSISTENT inconsistency’s in this novella literally Everywhere.
🌈 Pro: The ML’s were not the usual Omegaverse Alpha male archetypes rife with overcompensating and allround scumbag-er-y.
❌ Con: They consistently treated the FL as air when they were talking about her… right in front of her… in a “boy’s locker room” jeering sort of way. No, it was not charming. No, there was nothing cute or remotely likable about it.
(For funnsies here’s an example -
“What can I say?" he (Whiskey) drawls, rolling his shoulders in a lazy stretch that has every rope of muscle flexing beneath his tanned skin. "The man speaks the truth. Now it's my turn to have a go at that sweet little cunt."
Thane chuckles darkly, withdrawing from my body … as he watches Whiskey move into position …
"Be my guest," Thane rumbles, ... "Let's see if you can keep up, pup."
Whiskey bares his teeth in a roguish grin, already lining up ... "You just sit back and take notes," he purrs...
- Please keep in mind, she is missionary (🙌🏼) beneath Whisk as he and Thane casually shoot the breeze together. And this is NOT the only time the ML’s do this. Talking between each other as if she’s not there entirely despite being “obsessed” with her. 💀)
🌈 Pro: Fck it. There are no more. This novella had a lot of friggin issues and I feel like a spoil sport for pointing them out but here I go anyways. 🫠💔
❌ All of the Cons! 🎉🎉🎉
✋🏼• I get that this is a two part-er but this first part was Seriously too short to accomplish what it (apparently) set out to accomplish- my own expectations for it (devastated and disappointed 🥲) aside.
✋🏼• Because it was so short things like, the FL’s sudden change of heart was so stupid (*spoiler* she gets saved and basically goes into Heat as gratitude. 😑)
✋🏼• Her wanting to sleep with all of the guys (just the 4 of them- Thane, Whiskey, Plague and V-whatever) after claiming she wanted only Wraith (which legitimately made sense to me because at least HE was the one that saved her before her random a$$ heat) was utterly dumbfounding.
✋🏼• Add on top of the fact that she never explains her reasoning for changing her mind about Wraith or even describing feeling guilty or something after she takes down the rest of the pack. (I get she had a talk with Thane about his (Wraith’s) mask but does she seem like the type to back down from a challenge??? Really?) This just makes her look vain and silly bc she, what? Backs off bc she has no confidence she won’t find him repulsive? Bc of his scary face? Girl, if you don’t saddle up your inner Christine Daaé and get yourself some of that Phantom righ tf now. 😤 This should be a non-issue if her character descriptions from page ONE had stayed true throughout the novel. (#Team-I’mSeverlyBiased #TeamPsycho-AKA-Wraith).
✋🏼• Her randomly being So down to f*ck 4 total strangers out of nowhere (who she has vehemently opposed/ hated AND known for literally less than a month) is such an absolute mind-boggle of a complete 180 from her original character traits she’s so proud of. Girl goes practically the entire novel feeling absolutely no feels for these guys except for ‘unwilling Omega prisoner’, to, ‘Omg! Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!’
✋🏼• The ML’s “boyzzzz” trash talking between each other in front of the FL. ✅ Cringe. ✅ Ew. ✅ Gross.
✋🏼• The s€x scenes. My god. What did I read? Pls make it make sense. She literally doesn’t change positions the entire time but somehow there are hands where hands can’t be bc there should be an entire Other human body on top of her at the same time. Her O’s are also really random- *twists n!pp!e once* ✨“AHHHH!!!! 💗💦💦💦”✨ The entire description for beginning to end just read as so childish in a way. 😭🥲
✋🏼• The A, B, O dynamic/ universe in this world setting isn’t well explained either BEFORE the novella starts (as in, any authors notes to start) or DURING the novella, so you have these really freaky, poorly described instances that pop up out of nowhere like: ⬇️
“To my relief, he seems to sense that and doesn't push it in. Even the alphas at the Center knew they'd get in trouble for knotting us, since that can form a mate bond. So I only have my terror-fueled imagination to tell me what that would be like.
❓(What the fuck?????????)❓
(A chapter later, also on knotting:) “My first instinct is to panic, some deeply ingrained survival reflex kicking in. Getting knotted will trap me with him, giving him the chance to bite me—to mark me in a way that would form an unbreakable mate bond—the ultimate claim of ownership over my body and my life.”
(So what is it? Knotting mates you? 😑 Or biting? 🤐)
✋🏼• Also, pls, I’m SOBBING! 😫 Tell me why- (*Spoiler Alert*) -Thane went outside to go grab his bro Wraith for the FL’s Heat and Wraith just looked at Thane like: ❓😗🤨🧐❓ “What is… HeAt??????” And then Thane just looks at him like: 😶😧🫡 AND PEACES OUT ON HIM!!! 🤣💀🛑🥲💔 Bro literally yeeted the Sex Ed. convo responsibility entirely and said to himself, ‘can’t be bothered, maybe later’. (😂) I’m friggin dead. The absolute audacity. (It’s not funny, this part honestly blew my mind, I was seriously like, “wtf?? That’s so shady”, so I’m just laughing at it now. 😂)
✋🏼• However, my biggest issue is actually the lack of communication before they all start having s€x. 😑 Except for Thane asking her to choose who she wanted to spend her Heat with (nice job Thane ✨👍🏼✨) none of the involved parties have any sort of discussion before going into her estrus period. Protection or no protection? Kinky stuff or Vanilla? Knots or no knots? She- (FL) -LITERALLY describes herself as being petrified of Knots. She insists that she’s not ready for them both mentally or physically and continues to think this to herself for the whole first half of her pound town arch. Despite this burning grievance inside herself tho, never ONCE does she VERBALLY COMMUNICATE this fear/ discomfort/ anxiety of hers to her male partners at ANY point. She just lies there, (Quit? Don’t quit?? No~odle~s!) and plays the utterly enticing and provocative role of a dead fish. 😭🐟💀😫
Yeah, so no. This was not a good read. Especially not if you’re the type of reader who can smell BS a mile away. To me this whole thing reads like this author was happy that she got to a certain point in Part One only to happen to look up at the date/ time and suddenly remember how she needed to submit this assignment for full credit by 11:59. Wherein she just flat out panic’s, write’s a total crock of sht, but submits it anyways at 11:59:58 before calling it a day. ✨👍🏼✨