𝑹𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈: 2 ✮✮
𝑮𝒆𝒏𝒓𝒆: 𝙾𝚖𝚎𝚐𝚊𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚜𝚎
𝑾𝒐𝒓𝒍𝒅: 𝙲𝚘𝚗𝚝𝚎𝚖𝚙𝚘𝚛𝚊𝚛𝚢
𝑹𝒆𝒍𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒔𝒉𝒊𝒑: 𝚁𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚜𝚎 𝙷𝚊𝚛𝚎𝚖 (𝚗𝚘 𝚖𝚖)
𝑨𝒈𝒆: 𝚈𝚘𝚞𝚗𝚐𝚎𝚛 𝙵𝚎𝚖𝚊𝚕𝚎/𝙾𝚕𝚍𝚎𝚛 𝙼𝚊𝚕𝚎𝚜
𝑷𝑶𝑽: 𝙼𝚞𝚕𝚝𝚒𝚙𝚕𝚎
𝑴𝑴𝑪𝒔: 𝟷 𝙱𝚎𝚝𝚊, 𝟸 𝙰𝚕𝚙𝚑𝚊𝚜
𝐅𝐌𝐂: 𝙾𝚙𝚒𝚗𝚒𝚘𝚗𝚊𝚝𝚎𝚍, 𝚂𝚙𝚞𝚗𝚔𝚢 & 𝚃𝚛𝚊𝚞𝚖𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚜𝚎𝚍
𝑺𝒑𝒊𝒄𝒆: 𝟹/𝟻 🔥🔥🔥
𝑺𝒖𝒎𝒎𝒂𝒓𝒚:
Daria is a young 20-something Omega, who has had a few set-backs in her love life. She has gone through the ringer in her last pack and is still hopeful of finding her fated-mates. She works at a marketing agency as junior staff and gets the opportunity to go to a sex club to get a better handle on her client's sex toy company. There, she meets an older man who she feels an instant attraction and connection to. But old, unresolved problems of the past creep back up in Daria's life - just when she finds love and her long-awaited happiness is put in jeopardy.
𝑹𝒆𝒗𝒊𝒆𝒘:
Mark & Don't Tell started out strong - we have Daria who is a spunky, outspoken & confident omega who has had both a rough childhood and a few shitty relationships under her belt. She's a bit jaded with life and just wants to find her scent match mates.
When she meets Vicente in the sex club, their connection was on fire and I did enjoy reading about their cat and mouse beginnings, but as the other two mates were introduced, they didn't seem very fleshed out for me and their relationship to Daria kind of felt forced.
The world-building was non-existent. We don't know any of the rules or customs of this Omegaverse and the Alpha's didn't really feel like your typical Alphas - they were basically cinnamon rolls.
We also have a lot going on with Daria's mother and brother. Her mother seems to have had a pack with Daria's 3 fathers, but she had an affair and ended up leaving with Daria. Her mother raises her while her father's are out of the picture? I am not entirely sure because she was being mentally and physically abused by her mom but her dad's don't appear to know that or they didn't do anything about it. I felt like this part of her history is very vague and you never get any clarity on it, so it kind of felt irrelevant to include in the story.
This brings me onto her half-brother, Marco, who is a 14 year old Omega. He lives with Daria's mother and appears to be getting abused by her as well, except this time their mother is doing hard drugs and sleeping with whoever can give her her next fix. She ends up trying to sell her son to some drug dealer as payment.
The whole time Daria laments about how she can't do anything about her brother's situation because she only has one bedroom. Meanwhile, her fathers live in a mansion and are loaded. She could easily ask them to help her out with a bigger apartment and she could take her brother out of the situation but she is too busy being a martyr to her cause to help him.
To be honest, Daria's lack of proactiveness and care for her brother bugged me throughout this story. She does end up "saving" him toward the end of the book but still worries that her pack won't allow him to stay with them or they might end up dumping her because of it. Rather than be worried about her brother's safety, she was more worried about herself.
Then we have the antagonist of the story - Ryan - Daria's ex Alpha boyfriend. Ryan also happens to be the son of her new mate Lincoln. The drama that ensues from this is very minimal and to be honest, the reader doesn't get much insight into her relationship with Ryan. We are told that he was a dick to her during sex and cheated but that is it. We get no flashbacks to help us understand her problems with him and his pack.
The book is smut heavy and sex is used as a form of emotional bonding as this is all Daria knows. She had a really rough childhood with DV and so she knows nothing else. Her mates compound this by trying to resolve her issues through sex to convince her of her worth and how they feel about her.
𝑽𝒆𝒓𝒅𝒊𝒄𝒕:
Overall, I think this book had the potential to be a great Omegaverse read but ultimately failed in the plot, the relaitonships and the overall message it was trying to convey.