Knotting Before Them

by Amy Oliveira

She was meant to be alone, she was meant to be nothing before them.
After desperately needing a win, uninspired artist Julia Apaza thinks a mountain in the middle of Switzerland is the answer to her prayers.
She’s desperate to prove herself.
Theo, Wylder, and Noah gave up hope of ever finding someone when the last omega mated over twenty years before, forcing them to accept the single life forever.
Until Julia.
An omega who knows nothing about what she is. The three of them can’t ignore the call to mate.
Julia never had a place to call home, never had people in her corner before, so when three burly mountain men claim to be her destiny, she can only laugh it off.
Julia knows all she’s ever destined for is to be alone.
Right?

*Knotting Before Them is a why choose omegaverse novella featuring a lonely girl and three men who would do anything to keep her around. This is a novella, heavy on smut and light on the plot.

Genres: Omegaverse, Romance, Novella, Why Choose, Paranormal Romance, Fantasy, Polyamory

104 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 14, 2024

About the author

Amy Oliveira is a contemporary romance author dedicated to write about the two things you shouldn't skip: therapy and smut.
Amy's leads are strong, flawed, and very open about their mental health struggles. And her heros are understanding, lovable, and often pierced.
The combination results in a delicious slow burn with a lot of heart and a lot of heat.

Reviews

[Teresa González · Rating 2 out of 5]

So, this a short omegaverse novella. There is really not much to review here, we have 100 pages of omegaverse explanation ish and smut, that's it. I'll be honest, not the best stuff I've read but makes do for a decent 'palate cleanse' between other books I guess?

* ARC provided by Love Notes PR in exchange for an honest review *

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty standard omegaverse romance but I liked the Latine rep and self-discovery storyline. 3.5⭐️

[Weekend Reader_ · Rating 3 out of 5]

🏔

Julia had no self preservation, the mountain called and she jumped in the car with a stranger. Alarm bells went off but were quickly turned off because everyone was hot. That's the fantasy, it was quick and ended with lots of fluids. I think one or two more chapters would have been good based on the epilogue but I had a good time.

CN: parental death, grief, possibly depression, loneliness

[Laura Fabian · Rating 5 out of 5]

ARC kindly provided for the author in exchange for an honest review

I didn't expect this to be my first book by Amy Oliveira because I've been wanting to read something by her since last year, and I still really enjoyed it.

One of the most interesting things the author mentioned about Knotthing Before Them was that it's a short story high on spice and light on plot, BUT I also think that the characters were more than charming, especially Julia, our heroine who has Latin roots and a very interesting personal story that I fell in love with.

Also, I think that even though this is a book with insta love, the interactions of the characters and the feelings that develop between Julia, Wylder, Noah & Theo they felt super naturaland I loved that about this story.

💖Julia: 5/5
💖Theo: 5/5
💖Wylder: 5/5
💖Noah: 5/5
💖Plot: 5/5
💖Love story: 5/5
💖Cover: 4.5/5
🌶️: 3/5

🇪🇸
ARC amablemente proporcionada por la autora a cambio de una reseña honesta

No esperaba que éste fuera mi primer libro de Amy Oliveira porque desde el año pasado estoy deseando leer algo de ella, y aún así lo disfruté muchísimo.

Una de las cosas más interesantes que la autora mencionó sobre Knotthing Before Them fue que es una historia corta alta en spicy y ligera en trama, PERO también creo que los personajes fueron más que encantadores, especialmente Julia, nuestra heroína que tiene raíces latinas y una historia personal muy interesante que me enamoró.

Además, creo que aún cuando este es un libro con insta love, las interacciones de los personajes y los sentimientos que se desarrollan entre Julia, Wylder, Noah & Theo se sintieron súper naturales y amé eso de esta historia.

💖Julia: 5/5
💖Theo: 5/5
💖Wylder: 5/5
💖Noah: 5/5
💖Trama: 5/5
💖Historia de amor: 5/5
💖Portada: 4.5/5
🌶️: 3/5

[Andrea ☾ [is inconsistently consistant] · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 ⭐️ I love omegaverse books, and novellas - but together they can be tricky.

I didn't really feel a connection to any of the characters. The story is so short, and there just wasn't time to flesh out four different MCs.

It was good, but not great.

🌶️🌶️🌶️/5: Really smutty for such a short book, but I like my books like that so it's not really a problem for me. The extra pepper is for the Jacob's ladder!

[Stefanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.75 ⭐️
Cute little novella with a good amount of spice. This was my first Amy Oliveira book, and I'll definitely read more (including the rest of the series).
I did just want a little more from the relationships though. I needed to feel something more between them than just lust. It was a novella though, so sometimes that happens. I think if I'd have had that, this would have easily been 5 stars.

[Adison Kapitzke · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5/5 🌟
4/5 🌶️

I have mixed feeling about this book. I love a good why choose and this book is definitely smutty but it has almost no plot. We hardly learn anything about Julia until the epilogue and it just doesn’t feel like the story was as developed as it could have been. It was a good short read though!

[Kayleigh Bryant · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's not a cohesive story with any kind of arch. It's like the first draft of an outline for a book. If you're a regular ov reader then this might give an interesting flare to the genre, but would not recommend this for first time ov reading because it leaves too many holes in the dynamics.

[LaTosha Webber · Rating 3 out of 5]

Different

Omega who doesn’t know what they are is a favorite but apparently I’m a traditionalist when it comes to certain OV dynamics and I need the nesting and the wild instincts, and the scents. This was a solid read it just didn’t have vibes I prefer. Easy and quick read tho.

[Katie Murphy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute & short.

If you’re looking for a book with zero plot and delicious spice, this is the one for you💅

[Bent Letters · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 Stars

[Marshay Smith (Mommywhatchureading) · Rating 3 out of 5]

-novella - the mountain called her - doesn’t know what she is
- heats/ knots - thought destined to be alone

[Selena · Rating 3 out of 5]

quick read!! but fun and i would probably read more from this author

[Welcome To My Escape · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quick, didn’t really have anything memorable but not a terrible way to pass the time

[Hallie · Rating 4 out of 5]

An omegaverse smut novella that is warm & fuzzy? Sign me up. Perfection.

[Mishka 𐙚 · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was fun and spicy!! Exactly what I needed.

[Emily G · Rating 3 out of 5]

Chasing the high of mate

2.5 ⭐️

[Corrina · Rating 5 out of 5]

"The mountain called for me, but it was its men who made me whole."

"She was the sunshine that took over our darkness."

"You're the sun melting the snow. You are sanity to Wylder, warmth to Theo and everything to me."

Such a quick, spicy why choose that captured my soul. Julia, an aspiring artist, finds herself heading to Switzerland after her parents pass away. She had a strange pool to a specific mountain, and she couldn't understand why. It's not until she meets Noah, Theo & Wylder that she feels something she's never felt before, the feeling of home. A place to call home.

Spice: 🌶🌶🌶🌶🌶

[Jenn Lynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very short SPICY omega verse read.

[The Paper Fan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Knotting Before Them is a short, omegaverse erotica that dives straight into the action and doesn’t let up. This book knows what it is, and it delivers exactly that.

[Brittany Warren · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a cute short read. As the author says not a lot of plot but what was there was good. The smut was good too.

[Whitney Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

Um 👀 Where in the hell have you led me, Bookstagram!?

Get ready… 🤯 I promise you will KNOT be the same after. 💀🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️

[Emma Border · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'll be the first to say I did not know what "knotting" met, but after reading this book....you can find me over here blushing. This book is so sweet, spicy, and fun. I don't know which guy I liked the most, so I'm all on board with not choosing just one. It was a perfect story, in my opinion, and it has now opened my eyes to the omegaverse, knotting world, and I am all for it. Thank you to the author for allowing me to read an early ARC copy of this book! You did a fantastic job on this story.

[Stacey · Rating 5 out of 5]

✔️ small town romance
✔️ why choose, omegaverse
✔️ age gap
✔️ mountain men 🥵
✔️ primal kink
✔️ found family

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Ahhhhh, this was the perfect mountain man romance. Absolutely adored this novella. Not only did it have the right about of emotional connection, but some of the hottest 🔥🔥🥵🥵 scenes ever. Devoured this so damn fast. The dynamic between Jules, Theo, Noah and Wylder is simultaneously so beautiful and also so fucking hot. They understand each other in such unique and intimate ways 🥹🥹

“The mountain called for me, but it was its men who made me feel whole.”

“This was every day for the rest of our lives.”

Released today—perfect time to devour a spicy mountain men novella. What’s better than one mountain man? Three utterly obsessed mountain men.

[Meagan Grauel · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is short, sweet, to the point, and full of dick. Kind of a twist in the Omegaverse concept, where alphas are a dying out society and the FMC doesn’t know she’s an Omega. I don’t think I’ve read a book with that same idea. Julia’s call to the mountain is really her body reaching out for her alphas, but it’s still pretty aggressive of her to demand to let them stay in their house. The chain of events in the story kind of go from 0 to 100 pretty damn quick. Chalk it up to their alpha and omega tendencies, but they start dicking her down because of a heat less than 24 hours after knowing her. I feel like a heat would be more gradual than this book affords.
I can get on board with unrealistic feelings and bonds forming so quickly after meeting her mates, but talking to the other about this deep love they feel? That’s where ya lost me. The feelings these characters were talking about take years to form, and it’s just not possible after 1 day and a foursome.
This was a really quick, dirty read and I recommend it to get ya smut on. Just don’t get too caught up in reality and details like I clearly did.

[Kierstin Gordon · Rating 2 out of 5]

I downloaded this on SYKD out of curiosity. Welp. This was....I don't know. I KNEW what I was walking into. It's less than 100 pages so it's basically no plot and instaburn. Also the author tells you in the description that it is just that. Do you need to read this? Nope! I read it as a quick pallet cleanser between epic romantasy series. I don't feel cleansed LOL but I didn't have to think about anything and it removed me completely from the previous world I was engulfed by.

My biggest issue was all the typos I found as I was reading. Oh, and at one point, the girl takes her shirt off (of course) but then 2 paragraphs later, she took her shirt off again? She never said she put it back on. Alright, that's all. I'm permanently deleting it from my Kindle.

[The Book Scientist · Rating 2 out of 5]

That was… not good.
I love a good omegaverse story, and I don’t mind the fast pace that comes with novellas, but this just wasn’t executed well. The pacing was rushed to the point where nothing had time to land emotionally, and the writing itself felt underdeveloped. Honestly, did anyone proofread this? The sheer number of grammatical errors made it hard to stay immersed in the story.

I did think Jules not knowing she was an omega was a fun twist on the usual omegaverse formula—there was potential there. But unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to save the story. Overall, this was a disappointment.😟
⭐⭐
HEA? yes
3rd act break-up? no
🌶🌶/5

[Ali's In Literature · Rating 3 out of 5]

REVIEW
When artist Julia Apaza gets an overwhelming calling to a Swiss mountainside cabin, she's unaware of her legacy.
This was a fun Omegaverse novella. Theo, Wylder, and Noah were all distinct. I loved Wylder's playful intensity, Noah's sweetness after his initial grumpiness, and Theo's sheer wonder at finally finding their mate. Julia mostly took the revelation in her stride, and I thought the fact that she wasn't aware of her status was an interesting angle. I also loved that the author addressed her heritage (and particularly enjoyed the epilogue).
The intimacy was well-written, although some of the.. ahem... logistics didn't physically make sense (unless all four characters were contortionists). Still, this didn't hinder my enjoyment. What was frustrating was the number of grammatical errors, as well as missing words. I realise that the author's first language isn't English, and a lot of the errors are typical of this situation, so I would suggest this story is definitely in need of further proofreading, and that’s why my rating dropped from 4 to 3.5.
A fun story but in need of further editing. Still, I would be interested to read more in this series.


Overall Rating: ❤️❤️❤️.5
Heat Rating: 🔥🔥🔥.5

Favourite Quotes:

“It was calling to you,” he whispered.
“You don’t think I’m crazy?”
“I think you’re perfect.”

“I missed you, you know? Even if you hated me, I missed you.”
“I missed you the second I left, and I’m going to earn your forgiveness.”

"I already don’t know who I am, Noah. My parents were from Bolivia, but I barely spent any time there. I don’t belong anywhere. I never had real friends, a place to go for Christmas. I don’t want to—”
“You don’t want to be another thing you don’t understand?”
I nodded.

The mountain called for me, but it was its men who made me whole.

It took twenty years of dying inside, knowing your biggest wish would never come true, to finally see her in person.
To have her in our arms.

[Theo] was the heart, kind and attentive. Wylder was, well… the wild side. He was unpredictable and impossible. He was fun, a run in the woods, and a laugh so loud, you couldn’t ignore it. Noah was the protector. Even from afar, I could feel his eyes on me, could hear his patient voice asking me to breathe, guiding me through this.
And they were mine.

"We grow old and we collect different parts of ourselves, evolving and growing into what we’re meant to be.”

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent palate cleanser. Short Omegaverse novella - basically all smut, barely there plot.

Julia goes to Switzerland after seeing a mountain on her friends social media, and instantly feels a calling to the place. Hoping that inspiration will strike when she arrives (she is a sculptor) she basically begs to stay at the home of three burly men. Lacking any sense of selp preservation, she goes and stays there as "the mountain is calling". Proceeds to be chased by one of the men late at night. The next day proceeds to go into heat not knowing what it is (did I mention she didn't know she was an Omega? Which makes no sense according to all the Omega lore out there). Discovers she is an Omega, her father was an Alpha that ran away from his community after falling in love with a woman, and reunites with her estranged family on her fathers side.

Nothing new in the genre of Omegaverse and compared to what is out there, rather lacklustre. But it is short and was the perfect palate cleanser for inbetween novels.

I will say I'm over these Omegas having no sense of self-preservation. Reducing omegas to their base emotions is irritating when they can be so much more. Women are already belittled for "letting their emotions rule them" in real life. It's 2025, lets please stop writing women as weak creatures that are incomplete without a male in their lives.

3 stars because I'm a slut for Omegaverse, still.

[Marivel (marislitcorner) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this novella! It was light on the plot, but the way the story unfolded did not leave anything to the imagination which was great. It was fast-paced without being rushed, and just a great palate cleanser. I was excited for the Latin representation in Julia's character.

The spice was so yummy! Something I’ve enjoyed with the Omegaverse is the insta-lust and when Julia met her three guys, Theo, Wylder, and Noah I was looking forward to them getting down and dirty. Amy definitely delivered on the spice.

The story is set in Switzerland which added a sort of whimsical and cozy vibe to the story. I mean I would absolutely want to cozy up to these three men in their home at the foot of a mountain surrounded by woods.

I loved how all the characters pulled at my heart strings. Julia has felt like she doesn’t belong after always traveling with her artistic parents and not having a true place to call home. The guys were in despair and had lost hope of ever finding their Omega. Amy did a wonderful job of conveying those emotions. I loved how Julia finally found her home in the three guys and how they in turn finally felt they had a home with Julia’s presence.