I definitely have mixed feelings about this series. I started off liking it but then I found myself losing interest then getting it back then losing it. Just all over the place. That being said let's start with book one.
Omega in the Shadows:
The idea of an assassin and the man sent to kill the assassin falling in love was a good premise. The opening scene where the two main characters meet, Elijah and Rowan, was great. Even with the death of a partner that you could see a mile away. The tension was great. The pacing wasn't too off. I enjoyed it but I didn't more than enjoy it. Something about it was one note. Like I understood Elijah and his backstory but he was an established assassin so I didn't feel his continuous need to prove he was better than any alpha. He'd done it a million times over already and they all knew what he was capable of.
Secondly, I was hoping for something much more drastic than Rowan's reason for shunning his wolf half. It was like, honestly another wolf sad for saving his own life thus he's a coward. And, oh I dunno. Too much more of the same. Basically, I didn't love or hate this one so it's a solid 3 stars for hitting all the cliche's of this genre and not pissing me off too much. It's only problem is it def felt like it had more grit to it than it delivered. Other than the awesome fight scenes of course.
Omega in the Light:
This one focuses on another Assassin. Simeon. He's the reason this book didn't quite fit. He has a jaded past which led him to the world of assassination. On paper, he reads fine. But I didn't see anything particularly wrong with him. If anything he was fairly level headed and it was his brother constantly saying something had to be wrong with him that ruined it all. He was a killer. He went in, did the job, and was fine with that. This didn't make him broken. He can be totally able of having detached emotions and also giving in to an emotional connection with his mate as well. It was hard to get on board with the fact he couldn't be both and that was the crux of this entire book. Making him unbroken. Whereas his mate, Zev, had a real legitimate combat failure that would break most people. The problem with his story is that, as far as I can tell, kings and alphas are gay in surplus in the wolf world in this series. This made it really difficult to get on board with the whole disgraceful, marry someone and pretend to be straight stuff so he could be alpha of the pack. Just why in this one book, I read four of them, is this the only one where this is a problem? It didn't make sense. The one thing I did like about this story is the non-issue about claiming each other. It wasn't this drawn out I don't want to accept my mate stuff. They liked each other and did things together on an intimate level and were okay with it. Ultimately it was the fact as a reader you had to believe someone who was just hardened emotionally was broken, and that in a world were pack leaders and their subjects are openly gay that it's somehow a problem this one time brought this series down as it was a big part of who the characters were and why they couldn't be together. It's a solid 2 stars.
Omega's Destiny:
Sigh. This one was a real force read. Maxim, I like from both of the first books. So I was excited to see him in this book and get his mate. His mate, I def loved in the beginning as well. A wolf with a good helping of dark magic. What's not to love? Mostly the way this story was written. I did not read the backstories. For italics. A simple page break and a lead-in says hey we are going back in time, and you can now type in normal font. Pages of italics, as in more than a paragraph or two do my head in. Sadly lots of authors do this so no stars lost on this front. The real problem is I didn't read them cause I didn't need to. Just skimming the first few I knew they were about their old budding relationship, whatever. I'm here for the now of how they get back together for the greater good of saving Max's kingdom. The barrier is failing how are we going to fix this? I know they were together at one point, I know something went wrong that made Sasha sever their bond. Don't need the whole drawn-out story of their beginnings. That relationship came and sunk. Secondly once my skimming detected they had reached admitting their bond and moved on to the plot to take over the kingdom I deduced rather quickly, who killed who, why they killed who they killed and how this lead to Sasha breaking their bond. So I didn't read all of them either.
That was the real problem with this book. Because of all the time spent trying to show us their relationship the main focus of the story, getting to where the mains needed to be to save the barrier and managing to repair an effectively magically broken bond, was neglected. I lived for those brief spurts when their hearts beated together then didn't. I could've used more of how hard it was to break a spell that strong. Used a lot more of the present-day dilemma especially when you could piece together their past in one chapter once you pooled all the flashbacks together.
Lastly I saw this end a mile away. And because of the end, Sasha was reduced to being the type of demure Omega this series set me up believing each book was going to go against. Like he almost fit it perfectly in the aftermath chapters.
This book tried too hard to establish a connection that if you paid enough attention too was not hard to find without the whole backstory. I didn't read any of them and lost nothing from the main plotline. Secondly, long-distance relationships work. There's no reason Sasha couldn't have toured the world and still been a mate. Especially when it was a joint effort to make Max king in the first place. They were both equally responsible and neither of them had to drop the ball on the relationship once Maxim was king. And Sasha did indeed come off as the type of Omega the first two books were adamant about not having, once he gave up what he gave up to save the kingdom. It was too cliche and it would've been different and much more fun if he could've stayed the same and been saved. And not as predictable. All of these things made me like this book the least. It's a one star from me on this one.
Omega Enslaved:
This was my favourite one. Like I really loved this book. Something about the way this story progressed was good. It had all the cliches and stupid wrong choices yet managed to not annoy me too much. That's the point with niche fiction. To be able to do all the predictable stuff without that bringing the book down. For the most part, this book did that. Lucien is by far my favourite in the series. What knocks this book of the five-star wagon is Felix. He did bug me enough to take notice. His main focus is saving his sister, but the choice he makes is the typical one for these stories and it was the one thing I couldn't get on board with. There is no way at all that someone who calls Felix dog, had him locked in a cell for years and has routinely shown his distaste for wolves would magically set you free, or your sister, for helping them take down another wolf. Furthermore you can't be free with a tracking device in you that is painful to remove. And this sister saving idea was the crux of all his bad decisions.
Secondly, once he knew what the cargo was, I knew immediately what was going down. I couldn't fathom why Felix jumped to the wrong conclusion. Felix is helping an agency take down a wolf that actively causes harm to wolf hunters and no one has proved he's anything but respectful to the subjects of his own kingdom so the reason they want him dead and the cargo is fairly obvious. I mean why else would they want to take down a wolf except to further illegal human activity he's clearly disrupting. He's in the way. Also something about his denials of his own sexuality wasn't quite as believable as they were in the first book with Rowan. Maybe I am just stupid but I didn't get his reasoning. And the biggest cliche thing he done at the end to save his sister was like ugh.
It was basically Felix who brought an otherwise brilliantly laid out book down by making the type of decisions a man who was part of a con team with his sister just did not seem stupid enough to make. But the fact he was capable as a fighter and a strategist and ultimately came through when he needed to made up for this character contradictions. And that Lucien was written the best out of any character so far. I mean just excellent. It's a solid 3.5 because the few cliches I didn't like were the ones that unfortunately drove the plot in the direction that it went. Otherwise, this book would've probably been an easy five. Definitely, the best written in the series.
Omega Untamed:
Not much to say. Something about the way Abel reacted to Felix and Simeon was off. Like really off. His responses, like all the previous books, are a direct set up to how his thought process will travel through the entire story. It seemed like he was being difficult for no reason when he was clearly aware that his cousin, Simeon, had changed somehow. And if he could see that why like any good smart assassin would, did he not change tactics or simply react differently to gage the situation. I dunno. After reading four books, knowing how this author writes, and reading the blurb for this book, and only really loving one book, the energy to do this again wasn't there. I wasn't grabbed by the first chapter like I expected so couldn't force myself through it. This was the end of my journey into this series.
My final thoughts:
I liked that the problem in book one was solved in book two and not dragged throughout the series, a solution to book two's ending was equally tied up in book three and book four read like a good stand-alone book even though it involved cameos from previous characters. Since none of the books are dragging along one main plot for the entire series that's a very big plus. Each book added and brought a new dilemma on top of the relationship angles. My issue was, for the most part, it was hard to get behind the reasoning for a lot of the character's choices and most of these choices were the driving force of the book so it took away from an otherwise really exceptional plot. I don't think it's great as a whole but if I'm being honest I've read enough of these types of novels to know readers will probably be unconcerned. In fact, they will probably love love love this. So it' gets a recommendation if M/M wolf fiction with spunky, not playing the role of Omega's omegas is what you're into, read this series. I promise you will more than love it.
No comments:
Post a Comment