I very much appreciate how many times Scott cautions "hey this is instalove, I'm not kidding, it is, don't like don't read" because man is it insta. This novella (it's only about 80 pages) packs an awful lot into itself and does a surprisingly decent job of developing actual timelines, but the thing that gets sacrificed to length is relational buildup. Ezra scents his mate, they are now mates, all things bend to the fated mate concept, the end. If you're looking for character development, this ain't it. If you're looking for logic, this also ain't it; because of the "fated mates" aspect, a lot of Davie's agency and privacy get overridden really quickly and that may be problematic for some. (On page 23, a character asks if they should be giving out personal medical information to Ezra, who as yet has never even met Davie, and a nurse says, "Probably, but I don't get in the way of fate." Well, okay then.)
What it is, though, is a solid little unpacking of domestic abuse. Davie, omega, is trapped with Dusty, alpha and generally awful human. Again, because of the length, we don't get any of the buildup there, but Scott does a decent job of introducing the reality of Davie's life in an abusive relationship and, through a few narrative flashback thoughts, gives us the "it started well and went downhill" backstory. It was fascinating to see how female-coded Davie is, at least in terms of romance novel tropes, and I'm not sure if that's due to this being mpreg (where male characters often get deeply femme-coded in both lovely and awful ways) or if that's Scott's understanding of domestic abuse victims, but I could have swapped "Davie" for "Dana" and really not even noticed the difference. (Part of why I am so fascinated by romance novels, really, is how they reinforce or question the ways we construct gender.)
Ezra doesn't get to be a whole lot besides "alpha lover" but why I give this two stars instead of one is that he does get to be "partner to a survivor." There are several scenes where Ezra has some great internal dialogue about how he'll honor Davie's boundaries and how he can be part of the relationship without compromising either of them. It's fabulous in recognizing that abuse makes intimacy hella complicated but that doesn't mean that every survivor becomes a celibate nun, or wants to. There's a fabulous line Ezra has on page 65 when they're discussing sex: "Your comfort is the most important thing. There is more to this life than penetration." YES! NUANCE! Even in an odd little mpreg novella! We love to see it.
Davie gets some solid lines about what healing looks like (and doesn't, and how it isn't magic) and also about being hyper aware of power and influence and how those can warp and doom a relationship, so again, I think Scott did really well with handling the abuse-survival aspect of this. The bit in the blurb that this can be read as a standalone is a heckin' lie, though; there are several almost pages of info dumps about the rest of the series, which is fine in terms of introducing the characters but the writing itself very much has the vibe of IN CASE YOU DIDN'T KNOW THERE ARE OTHER COUPLES WITH THEIR OWN BOOKS HEY HERE THEY ARE ALSO HAVE A SYNOPSIS and that was...distracting. Kicked me right out of the story, for sure.
Better than I was expecting re: abuse recovery portrayal, but definitely limited by being a mid-series mpreg novella. I won't be picking up the rest of the series, but I sure didn't hate it--and I'm glad to see the sheriff gets some screen time in the next book.