All I want is to live my life quietly as a Beta, away from the judgement of society. But at Oakley University, being a wallflower is virtually impossible when your perfect Omega twin is the shining star of your cohort. She has it all, looks, brains and Zale Blackwood.
Blackwood is a typical Alpha jock in every way– from being a rising football star to the broad muscular body that looked like he could squash a watermelon between his thighs. I could use his red flags to sew a king size quilt.
And for some reason, the Alpha assh*le is suddenly everywhere I turn, pushing my buttons and testing my boundaries until I snap.
One night. One mistake. One taste of him has me craving the life I swore I didn’t want. But there’s one thing I can’t let myself forget…he’s not mine.
Zale
Millie Vos is incredible. She’s brave, bold, beautiful…a perfect Omega.
Unlike Shiloh.
Her Beta twin is brash, stubborn and keeps everyone at an arm’s length, gnashing his teeth angrily at anyone who comes to close.
When birthday plans gone wrong have us trapped in a cabin alone during a storm, I learn there’s more to the prickly hedgehog than he lets on.
The scent of autumn leaves and toffee apples clings to me after a drunken mistake and I’m slapped in the face with a scandalous truth…
This book had more plot holes than a piece of Swiss cheese. Probably needed three editors to go through and catch all of the timeline mishaps, character discrepancies, and the Jesus Christ amount of “wow no one read through this before hitting send.”
But you know what? I read this shit in one night. Absolutely would dieee for Zale and Shiloh. I’m sad because the friends don’t have books yet.
I picked up Knot Mine late night right after finishing a book I was reading, I was tired, had nothing lined up, and I hate that empty limbo as a back-to-back reader. This was literally the last addition on my TBR, the blurb was still fresh in my head, it sounded interesting enough, so I went “fine, let’s try.” And surprisingly? I gobbled it up.
The book opens pretty wild . Shiloh wakes up hungover, bitten, claimed, and with zero memory of which Alpha did it. Cue the walk of shame, judgmental campus vibes, and a very clear picture of how gross the hierarchy is in this world. Alphas and Omegas matter. Betas? Don’t . Shiloh pretends to be a Beta on purpose, pumping himself with suppressants because he absolutely refuses to be a baby maker and do what is dictated to be done by an Omega. He wants a career, autonomy, and control over his own life , he wants a choice to choose his own path. What I really liked about Shiloh is that while he is targeted and bullied , he’s not weak or scared . He doesn’t enjoy it, obviously, but he gives it RIGHT back. He’s prickly, stubborn, and very “I don’t give a fuck what you think about me.” His life isn’t peaceful, but he owns himself.
Enter Zale , his twin sister’s boyfriend. And… the sister? I hated her immediately. Before the twist, before everything. She already felt villain-coded and irritating, and every scene between her and Zale annoyed me deeply. I didn’t want them touching, didn’t want them together, didn’t want her on the page. That irritation existed… but also somehow didn’t ruin my reading experience because once the story moved on, I forgot about it.
The pull between Zale and Shiloh is very much there. There’s initial hostility, tension, attraction he can’t fight, and that slow slide into “we should not be doing this… but we are.” Yes, Zale is technically still with the sister, and yes, that should bother more than it does but honestly? The book does a good enough job keeping the focus on Shiloh that I stayed locked in.
Steam-wise: it’s there, but it’s not constant. The book actually leans more into drama. And weirdly, I didn’t even notice how spaced out the steam was because when it hits, it hits well , especially during Shiloh’s heat. When the suppressants fail and Shiloh tries to deal with it alone, Zale fully shows up. No hesitation. No backing out. He’s solid where it matters. And he is Hot. And perfect during Shiloh’s Heat.
The reveal , the sister knew. She knew Zale was the Alpha from that first drunken night. She pulled him out of Shiloh’s bed, took him home, let him believe she was the one he’d slept with, and built a whole relationship on that lie. Zale always felt something was off ,her scent was wrong , but he went along with it as he didn’t know any better but unknowingly searching for Shiloh the entire time.
So yeah. When Shiloh cuts her off completely at the end? Deserved. No hesitation. No forgiveness arc needed. That bitch stole his brother’s Alpha and that aside left her twin alone drunk at a party to take benefit out of this situation to start a relationship with Zale and had the audacity to claim she has been cheated on. No I don’t think so.
There’s some cheesy drama here and there …I know I know. Did I mind? Not really. The book is fast-paced, engaging, and honestly just fun to read. Was it perfect? No. Was it entertaining, readable, and way more enjoyable than I expected? Absolutely.
The book was ok. I think when writing these kind of novels it’s very hard to really apply it to life. If you dig deep on shilohs character he’s deeply insecure about himself and feel like he’s the shadow of his twin. I just felt like Shiloh should’ve been with someone else rather than Zale. In reality if Shiloh was a real person he would feel insecure about not being good enough since Zale did pick romilly over Shiloh. Zale also found shilohs sister to be physically more attractive as in one chapter zale never thought Shiloh was attractive before. It’s hard to also be with someone who you know your sibling had also been with. I think the ending zale couldve been more mad at romilly. But honestly if Shiloh was never an omega he would’ve never registered on zale radar. I still think Shiloh would’ve been better off with Blake as even before knowing who or what Shiloh was Blake saw the beauty in him and liked him for who he was.
Zale and Shiloh on the surface seem like an oddball couple but both have hidden depths. And actually they do have common interests. Shiloh's twin sister who will remain nameless like the omega bully gang is a piece of work. Incredibly selfish and self absorbed.
Had to update this review with a spoiler which I couldn't do in the Kindle app
This is a 3.5 read elevated to 4 stars because I started at midnight and stayed up until 2am to read. And it was worth it. Nothing much happened because it was a lot of college lectures, parties and meet ups that lasted for a few minutes. However it all kept the story moving.
Roll on book 2. I am curious what happened at the party weekend which I believe will focus on Hunter and Evan, also because it sticks it to the omega bully gang, who totally deserve it. Although taking an objective step back and not being reactionary, women here - omega females - are not portrayed in a great light. Bullying, bitchy, controlling and grasping. Hope there is a more nuanced depiction in future books.
MC1 was a doormat, MC2 lets others bully MC1 for reasons. Even if MC1 would have been only the girlfriends brother that should be enough to defend him?
And what’s about this mean girls parody like group of bitches who think they can bully whoever they want?
The conclusion wasn’t enough for me. I wanted to see what happened when they got back to school. And what was wrong with the sister? What a bitch. I mean I predicted it but anyway.
Not recommended
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Now, I love some angsty MM ABO drama. Completely here for it, especially when it’s reasonably well written with some compelling characters. So when Goodreads listed Knot Mine amid other sporty ABO books I’d already read and liked, I was instantly sold.
And it’s decent. At the start. Sure, the elite aren’t my favorite demographic to read about, and the some of the obstacles feel a bit forced, but the writing is solid and Zale and Shiloh have good chemistry.
But questions start to arise. Why is Shiloh so tortured? About everything? Why is his twin sister besties with someone who is bullying him? What the fuck is up with his sister? Why is every woman in this who isn’t a parent a shallow, malignant asshole who needs their comeuppance at the hands of alpha jocks?
And at the end, why does Shiloh get a personality transplant? And why did he suddenly give up all of the things he’d been angsty about? Is it because his parents tell him not to worry and finally try address the dysfunction between him and his sister way way way too late? How did these two seemingly supportive and level headed parents wind up with one child abusing suppressants due to internalized bias and the other a manipulative narcissist? Why are Zale’s parents totally cool all of a sudden when they were initially made to seem super controlling?
Don’t get me wrong. I completely enjoyed the drama for the most part. But the lack of internal consistency and logic within the character arcs and the internalized misogyny were pretty off-putting by the end.
The synopsis sounded so different and intriguing but the story itself wasn’t great. The dialogue was weird between Shiloh and Zale. There was soooo much inner monologue and not enough conversations between any characters.
There was a part of the story where Millie confronts her brother and you get the play by play and then it jumps into Zale’s POV and the exact same dialogue is repeated again. We do not need the repetition as we already read it. The author could have summarized the conversation from Zale’s POV and then provided Zale’s thoughts instead. I just felt like the whole story was a first draft and needed to be revised or more plot needed to be added. I felt like there was a lot of filler and not enough character development.
All of the female characters pissed me off. Shiloh’s sister was the worst and I’m glad she kind of just left at the end. Even though she was the worst, I don’t like how Zale and Shiloh didn’t necessarily plan on telling her that they were together while Zale and her were still a thing. I don’t like cheating at all but I can overlook it in a story where the characters do tell the current partner of their mistake. I honestly think Zale and Shiloh would have kept doing what they were doing until being found out like how it happened. I really truly did not like a single character. This book was a bummer.
It makes absolutely no sense whatsoever but I am a little intrigued about Evan and Hunter’s story. Maybe the writing will be better? Or maybe the storyline will actually have a point? We shall see.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
I liked the story and characters. Chemistry wasn’t bad. The writing seemed to go between past and present tense, which was a little distracting. The angst was a bit unpredictable. Issues I thought would cause drama petered out and were mentioned with a nonchalance that left me dissatisfied.
I will probably read the second one. The secondary characters were intriguing.
A world filled with pretentious assholes and hyenas cosplaying as omegas. Let's say it was a unique read... Also, Good AlphaXBeta are rare, so I really hate it when said beta turns out to be an omega in disguise or turns into one as the book progresses. Guess which trope this book falls into?
The good: The pacing of the book was good, there wasn't a time when it felt drawn out or too rushed. I also felt that the characters were believable and interesting enough to warrant turning the next page.
The bad: An editor was badly needed for this book. Honestly, if the author went through it a few more times on their own, it would have been hugely helpful. There were scene/chapter breaks where there shouldn't have been. Dialog tags were placed incorrectly. The main character's last name was spelled Vox and Vos so many times that I started to wonder if this was an unedited/unbeta-ed fanfic that was uploaded off of AO3. I can't stand it when authors spend the first 3-5 pages of a new chapter/perspective rehashing the ending of the lasts chapter. This was done multiple times in the book to demonstrate how the other MC was feeling about what just happened. But that's not needed! If the writing is good enough, the non-perspective MC's thoughts and feelings should be more than apparent.
The ugly: I think this author has some serious internalized misogyny due to how the omegas - especially the women - were written about. All the female omegas were constantly manipulating the alpha characters with their feminine wiles and their potent pheromones. They were also only interested in partying, social activities, and essentially forcing alphas to mate them and get them pregnant - even when said alphas were clear about not wanting to be in serious relationships with these women. They were also cruel, petty, and entirely selfish for absolutely no reason. Of course, the male and non-binary omegas weren't written in the same light and were stable and quiet and strong.
Would I recommend this book? No. Did I read the entire thing? Yeah. So, I guess if you're fine overlooking nonexistent editing and views about women that the author really should reflect on, then this is a decent omegaverse book that will keep you entertained for a few hours.
no me puedo tomar enserio a los antagonistas de este libro, son MUY disney. Genuinamente estaba esperando a que alguien le diera una patada a Saddie, no me la aguantaba.
La sinopsis estaba buenisima pero el libro me deja con ganas de un mejor desarrollo, siento que el punto débil es justamente como todo es muyyyyy estilo disney.
La vaina más corny es cómo tratan a Lo por haberse acostado con alguien en una fawkin fiesta SOLO POR SER BETA. Es que, perdón a la autora pero NO TE LO COMPRO. Si me hubieras dado un world building en el que el mundo es más conservador o que se yo hay reglas diferentes para betas (Y MOSTRAME CON EJEMPLOS TALES CONSECUENCIAS), maaybee te la creo pero vemos que realmente a nadie le interesa, no conocemos a ningun beta por lo tanto no conecto con los disque problemas. Reitero lo que ocupaba Saddie era una buena arrastrada de pelo.
El conflicto se resolvió muy a la ligera, ¿como verga los panas de Zale se dieron cuenta del secreto TAN rápido?, nono ahi la autora tomó el camino fácil. ¿Por que de la nada les caía bien Shiloh?
ME HUBIERA GUSTADO QUE la historia empezara narrandose ANTES de lo sucedido. Siento que eso le hubiera dado más drama y profundidad a la historia, dont get me wrong me gustó el twist de lo que hizo la hermana PERO no sentí tanta conexión, la parte fundamental de la historia es justamente esa noche de la fiesta, me hubiera encantado un build up apropiado, no sólo un mini flashback al inicio del libro... pero bueh
I wanted a palate cleanser, so I dared to start a book that I honestly didn't have very high expectations for but since I do like omegaverse books, I secretly hoped that this would turn out to be good, fun, light read. Well, unfortunately my low expectations were met.
Pros: The book was entertaining enough that I never considered putting it down and read it in one sitting. The plot was quite good.
Cons: However, this turned out to be a college drama with immature characters (bullying and arguing) and just sprinkled with omegaverse. It felt like the characters were teenagers, not 21-year-olds. Shiloh was bullied/harassed at school, and Zale did not interfere either until he became interested in Shiloh. All the female characters were written as desperate and controlling, and the men also seemed to be players (except MMCs).
What really bugged me was that the alphas in the book weren't even alphas, and even Shiloh with his insecurities seemed more like an alpha than Zale. They had no alpha qualities in their personas. The whole picture was somehow backwards and made no sense. It feels like the omegaverse aspect was added just for the sake of smut. Omegaverse can be written in a really tasteful and interesting way, but this attempt failed. No shifterverse either.
Also Zale’s friend asked him if he ”got the ick”.. since according to him if pair is fated, they can ”get the ick” if they are with someone else… now that I am thinking about it, at that point maybe I should have checked out🤡
4.5/5. Wow this was addictive. I read it in one sitting. I love Shiloh. He's a little grumpy, but I get why. He's strong and he doesn't care about other people's opinions, which I love. I love Zale so much. He seems like a typical cocky jock alpha, but he's truly so caring and kind. I love that he secretly volunteers and that he .
I absolutely adore the slow burn this book gave me. When they finally get together, it's so much better because of the wait. I like the sister's boyfriend situation too even though I usually don't like cheating. Milly was... something. I really didn't like her, but she did drive the story along. I saw the twist coming for a while, but it was still really fun and made a lot of sense. I thought the side characters were great, especially the other football players and Shiloh's bff. The forced proximity was top tier.
My only complaint is that I didn't really see why Shiloh wanted to hide his designation. Like, I heard him say it a couple times, but I didn't really get it. I think a little more exploration on that would've made this a five star read.
Overall, I'd definitely recommend.
Notes: 2/5 spice levels, forced proximity, fated mates, omegaverse, heat, mpreg, college, sister's boyfriend, cheating (not on each other), hidden designation, football, jock mc, grumpy/loner mc
I wanted to like this more than I did but the characters really didn’t make sense to me.
I had to do a ton, and I mean a ton of skimming. There’s a they/them character in here, but was misgendered as him by the author, but later in the book the MC got irritated at someone else misgendering. Plus there were a handful of grammar and writing errors.
**Spoilers ahead. For someone that sleeps with their twins partner, there really wasn’t much shame, maybe a couple sentences? Really there just wasn’t a lot of sense made of the characters motivations/reactions. The twin MC goes from hiding under baggy clothes and being withdrawn the entire story to showing up meeting his partners family in a crop out of literally nowhere cause he’s pregnant and wants to show off his body before he shows. And the parents who were so rigid and controlling in their expectations of their son and his future partner immediately loved him. It’s just felt weird to me the entire read. Like the author didn’t flesh out their characters and plopped them into the story, changing personalities at a whim.
All in all, a thorough edit and polish would easily turn this into a 5 star book for me.
Despite the numerous grammatical issues this couple, Zale and Shiloh easily became my first five star for an omegaverse for this year. This was omegaverse done right. When it did hyper focus on the alpha and omega roles it wasn’t to degrade the other role. It was more brought out as a statement more than what their roles make them. The use of foreshadowing was spectacular and everything tied up with no missing holes in the plot. While the plot twist maybe easy to spot but it didn’t ruin the read when you find out what it will be. I can’t wait to see what book two will show us. I’ll have to check out other books by this author in the meantime.
One drunk night turns into a mess for these two. Shiloh doesn’t want to be defined by being an omega. I’m glad that he was able to do what he wanted to do. Even though he had to hide part of himself and then he did despair when others knocked at his in anyway. While Zale was also suffering from his future and from his relastionship with Shiloh’s twin, Millie. The popular twin always has to have their way no matter what happens. There was just the right amount of tension between the two, but damn what Shiloh’s twin, Millie did was just evil… I’m glad she got called out on her crap and Shiloh got to be happy in the end.
You ever read something that's so bad its like EXTREMELY good. This is THAT. It was so ridiculous and lots of plot holes and scenes written obviously with no editor but the story itself is just lol KINDA GOOD so you keep reading because why the fuck not. Its very wattpad not even ao3 but wattpad in the best way. I read this literally in one sitting overnight, I could NOT stop. And people saying shiloh should've been with blake, I mean I guess MAYBE but like no. But am I patiently waiting for blake's book? yes. I need to know what's going on with him and you know what ethan and hunter too? what the hell is happening THERE? I'm intrigued by this little friend group.
So, it's a bad good mess and I kinda love it? Bro stole his SISTER'S BOYFRIEND. The tea was hot, shit zale and shiloh.....HOT. Everything was hot, a hot good mess. Only thing I do wish is that zale and shiloh got more time to like get to know each other and make a deeper connection but like its omegaverse, hunch first ask questions later always in these stories, I'm just a sucker for that kind of thing in books though. Just a tiny bit more wholesome scenes or just pining/yearning.
I genuinely enjoyed this book. I loved the drama, the pining, the jealousy.... everything. What I will say, I think I would have preferred Shiloh with Blake because Blake is such a wholesome character, but it worked out the way it was supposed to. I hated Romilly and her friends and how they treated Shiloh, and I was literally screaming and jumping for joy when Shiloh FINALLY let her have it. Twin or not, she was evil, and what she did was unforgivable.
Also, you cannot convince me that there isn't something going on with Hunter and Evans. I just know they're bumping uglies while pretending to be just friends.
Now, I would have given this a 5 stars, but there were WAY too many errors for something that was professionally edited. And while that usually doesn't bother me because I only ever (95% of the time) read books written by indie authors, it got to the point where I had to be rereading sentences 2 or 3 times because they weren’t making sense. And that was a bummer.
Overall, a really good read, and I will be checking out the author's other works.
I love the concept of fated mates, especially in Omegaverse stories, and i really love the pinning for someone you can’t have or shouldn’t want. But for me the, “that’s my sister’s boyfriend” point was stressed real hard. There were several times in Zale’s chapters where we can clearly see he is not really comfortable with Millie, but thinks that the scent he’s getting from her is the one that first attracted him, which was in reality shilo’s scent, but he can’t tell due to shilo not normally giving off pheromones because of the suppressants he takes daily to present as a beta in public.
I really liked that Shilo admits to not being ashamed of being an omega, but doesn’t want it to define what his future can be. He wants to work, wants to help expand omega rights and their opportunities in their society; not be forced to stay home and raise the babies while his alpha is the solo breadwinner for the family.
Once they reach the point that they have accepted one another and actually discussed this, the fact that Zale is willing to stay home and raise their baby if shilo gets pregnant from spending his heat together, so that shilo can finish his degree and peruse his dream made me so happy. I like that Zale became a person who finally started standing up for himself once he realized there was someone who would stand with him.
This was a good time, very interesting story. I don’t have a lot of experience reading in the omegaverse, and this was a great start to the journey. Shiloh and Zale had such a dynamic chemistry from the start, always drawn to the other but bad feelings between them because of Shiloh’s twin sister and spotlight stealer Millie. Millie is dating Zale, an alpha, while Shiloh has been taking suppressants to mask as a beta vs Omega. Long story long, Shiloh goes into a preheat despite the suppressants and after two nights alone in a cabin they have hooked up and are obsessed with each other. Come to find out Millie manipulated their relationship and kept Zale from finding out that Shiloh is his fated mate but it’s too late because his heat hit, Zale chased him back to the house to be with him and they ended up marking, claiming and vibing to each other. All the side characters were amazing and I can’t wait to read the next one.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Shiloh is an outsider. His sister’s friends all degrade him and she does nothing to stop it. He is an omega suppressing his scent pretending to be a beta. His twin sister is dating Zale. Zale and Shiloh have a class together and are partnered for a project. Recently Shiloh was at a party where he got drunk and had a one night stand and he was given the mating bite. He doesn’t know who it was and the bite has all but faded, not taking.
But the bite is darkening again. He doesn’t understand why. Him and Zale spend more time together and there is something pulling them closer. Zale wants to break up with Millie as he just isn’t feeling her and really hasn’t from the beginning. But it is the twin’s birthday weekend and he decides to wait. Except while Millie is stuck in another city for the night, Shiloh and Zale can’t resist each other anymore.