~ March 31, 2023 2:20pm ~
Maybe it’s me. Maybe it’s Maybelline.
Guys… I’m not even at 50% and I am having such issues already. And I feel BAD about that bc it makes me feel like a judgey, temperamental, Goldilocks type reader but apparently- I can’t seem to help myself. 💀
Look, the writing isn’t bad. Neither is the books premise. What I’m struggling with rn is all the Characters. Aside from Silver rn, none of the ML’s are making a good case for themselves in my mind as I read.
The FL, is of course, a different problem entirely. And oh. My. Gosh. Don’t even get me started on “Karl”. 🙄🤢
I’m not even done yet, but I felt so strongly about my “wtf” blips I kept stumbling upon in this book I genuinely needed to start my review of it like, NOW to start getting it all off my chest.
I’ll update this again soon when I’m finished. See ya’ll in a couple hours.
UPDATE! ~ March 31, 2023 4:56pm ~ UPDATE!
Just finished. It still feels like some BS. More review to come later.
FINAL UPDATE! ~ March 31, 2023 9:16pm ~ FINAL UPDATE!
Ok, I’m finally ready to review this at length, sorry for the delay. 😅 Unfortunately bc I have so many issues to relay I’m going to just make a bullet list of all the things I didn’t care for. Read at your own peril, my kindred spirits. 🖤
❌ The book doesn’t properly relay that the FL and her ex-fiancé’s were in a strained and abusive relationship before they split. We literally meet this girl as she is running from her old town because she is genuinely more terrified of small town gossip than she is of her ex-fiancé. Readers don’t get to understand until many chapter after the first chapter, where again, she describes leaving bc she doesn’t care to be the object of the latest neighborhood news and she needs a change of scenery, to randomly one chapter it turns out her ex was a toxic and controlling a-hole. Just, out of the blue. No proper build. No proper explanation. It’s like literally one chapter the author realizes they can make everything even MORE convenient for themselves by making their FL’s ex, who’s name is “Carl” with a “K” btw, a total foil for the ML’s to shine even more so against in comparison. Ugh, i don’t have a problem with any authors doing that it’s just in this case it was so poorly done it was glaring to me. 💀
❌ Hannah the doctors random 180 degree personality flip. Again, completely out of the blue when we first meet her she seems sane and safe and just another character in the book. The next time we meet her tho? Totally different person. Completely different flavor. Absolutely seemingly random change in direction from the impressions they first gave off. And that second time we meet the doctor it just becomes so obvious who the “bad guys” are going to be. No need to look further, the book might as well have marched you straight on up to a spooky castle evil lair complete with lightning bolts flashing and black bats winging around in the background. Again, I have no issue with the idea, but the execution was so poorly done I had to scoff in Offended as I read it.
❌ ALL of the ML’s are an issue. They are all equally as toxic, petty, self serving, self gratifying, narrow minded, arrogant and spoiled as the last. Silver is at least the most sensitive and therefore, the most human of the lot out of the bunch because he doesn’t outright declare the FL to simply be a fckable challenge at every opportunity. They also totally assume the FL is shallow enough that even if they don’t woo her over completely, their money will. That eventually she’ll bow to them in favor of the grand lifestyle they can provide her with if she chooses them.
❌ Also, their “wooing” is sht. They just go out to eat a bunch and send the occasional flowers. They don’t feel like they’re trying. Like, Axel and her see each other every day at the office. He doesn’t place a trinket on her desk everyday (coffee, a muffin, idk, a pretty new stapler)? He also never tries to put his own security or surveillance in place on the FL and just let’s Silvers pack do it all without a fight? Silvers pack btw- try to recall which one Tf Hank is while your at it- runs with her everyday also doesn’t make any small gestures of wooing her either. No personally curated running playlist made by one of them for her while she runs. No, idk, ML’s tripping on purpose so that the FL can fuss over their boo-boo’s and touch them a bunch while providing first aid. I really, really didn’t get any wooing here and if the angst isn’t there in Omega universes, then the courting should as sht be.
❌ “The Bet” that Axel and Angel make with each other. See the above first two “X’s” bc don’t worry, it happened again. I cannot stress this enough. There was no declaration of this bet, there was no mention of there even BEING a bet, there was nothing to suggest readers should be paying attention to a bet. Yes, I know this is most definitely an obvious competition between the two packs but no, aside from some mental acknowledgments that they were competing with each other as they always did, none of the ML’s ever once blatantly stated there was suddenly an ongoing Bet aloud. A bet that had the crux of what may as well have been their life’s work on the line, the realistate property.
❌ The cousin Courtney. This may be more of a personal ick and therefore my own issue but I completely loath the “best friend” character who’s only job it is, is to convince, bully, and push the boundaries and comfortability of the books FL constantly. This character does not respect the FL’s thoughts or boundaries and wheedles, guilts and harps on them instead with their BFF status, into giving the ML’s a chance. A second chance. A third chance. These characters are instant camping Player Killers to me bc of their singular role to create more forced proximity situations between all the characters.
❌ The FL loses her potency. She goes from small town nobody who’s never seen boo to the same judgmental omega archetype she sees so readily in her peers. The other Omegas who were again, just fodder characters to highlight the FL’s “I’m not like other girls” shtick. Spoiled, pampered, daddy’s girl, Mean Girl, catty, VAIN, empty girls who’s only true loves were handbags, gossip and being pretty and rich. All. Of. Them. Maybe it’s me and I overthink things, but when authors do this, describe and entire group of peers to be exactly the same with not one of them showing any sort of different character traits? It reads as so lazy to me. But don’t worry, (🙄) the FL sat back and judged them as instantaneously as they did her, but, you know, shes different. The FL sl*t shaming herself and remaining ignorant and judgmental of the other designations bc she still has such Beta mindset. (She accuses the Alphas only wanting an Omega for a slave and aside from her great aunt Tessie 🙄 she readily ropes all the other female omegas in together.)(I don’t think this book passes the Bechtle test…)
❌ I don’t actually feel an ounce of connection with any of these characters. Not even Silver. None of the characters interactions EXCEPT!!! For the Gas Station scene screamed as being an authentic connection between any two characters. The ML’s all just obsess over getting the Omega the other pack wants and then sleeping with her. The FL tries to “resist” them bc she’s not looking for a relationship rn but her basis for being “wounded” (her suddenly shtty ex-fiancé) is so poorly delved into or given background that her stubbornness over the whole thing feels like a half collapsed wall just waiting for the final shove. 😑
❌ The switching POV’s. *sigh* Reverse harems tend to have favorites and you can tell exactly who they are by how much “screen” time they get. None of the ML’s POV’s felt balanced. Like I was getting a good peek into their minds or having my questions answered or feeling what they could be feeling for the FL (other than lust) bc so many of the ML’s chapters were just Axel or Angel.
And that’s all I have to say and why I didn’t mesh with this.
It was too inconsistent for me. Too random. Too poorly built upon but still asking you to roll with it anyways like nothing was wrong.
I earnestly believe that this novel would have had real potential if those above bullets were done better but since they weren’t this was just messy and annoying to me.