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Forgotten Omegas: Initiation #2

Dead Knot: A Dark and Steamy Omegaverse

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Knot Academy was supposed to be my grave.

A place where forgotten Omegas rot, buried beneath the weight of feral Alphas and a system designed to decide who’s worth saving.

I should be dead.

Hell, I was dead—at least, that’s what the world believes.

But I don’t get the mercy of staying six feet under like the government wanted.

Not until I claw my way through the academy that yearns to finish what was started that night.

I'd vowed to get back to the men who risked everything to save me — the ones twice my age who should’ve never looked twice at the naive, bubbly Omega who thought the world wasn’t cruel.

I learned the hard way.
It’s merciless.

Marcus. The ex-agent with blood on his hands and ice in his veins.
Bastian. My former bodyguard with an obsession that borders on madness.
Knox. The unhinged hacker who tastes like sugar but plays like sin.
Rook. The enforcer who doesn’t just break rules—he shatters bones.

At Knot Academy, survival isn’t a right— it’s a privilege.

And the second a wrong group of Alphas catch wind of my past, I become the ultimate prey.

The grand prize with a bounty so high, a pack would be set for life…with or without an Omega.

If they find out Jessica Vesper Calavera isn’t a ghost, but the only heir to a criminal tycoon with unfinished business—one the government already tried to bury once—there won’t be a second chance at survival.

No one at Knot Academy is ready to die for me...
But if I have to set this place on fire to make it out alive?

So be it.

DEAD KNOT is a standalone age-gap omegaverse with no cliffhanger! This is a steamy dark contemporary romance with no shifter tendencies. It includes MMFMM and a happily ever after is guaranteed. Suitable for readers 18+. Contains dark themes so please refer to author notes.

822 pages, Paperback

Published May 13, 2025

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Cinder Blaze

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Profile Image for Pene|ope • Reading Slump, Send Help.
1,541 reviews217 followers
July 13, 2025
DNF at 86%.

Listen, it's really easy for me to DNF a book. There are too many books in the world I haven't read yet for me to waste my time with something I'm not liking. That means that if I'm going to DNF, I usually choose to do so before 40% in.

If I'm DNFing THIS far into the book, the situation is bad.

My original dilemma was that I recognized the writing was bad but the story itself was good.

Then when even that wasn't enough, and the ridiculous inconsistencies piled up page after page, then I was rage reading right up until I remembered that I'm not being paid to be this author's continuity editor.

You can end reading this review right here with the knowledge that nothing in this book is worthwhile imo, or you can keep reading the notes I kept that are (as per usual) not orderly at all, and just in order of my thoughts as they came while reading.


‼️ SPOILERS 


It started with little things: She's on her knees in one MMC's POV then falls to her knees again when it switches mid-scene to her POV moments later.

Then it escalated wildly.

The FMC states in the beginning that she had an opportunity for a life with four alphas that she turned down for a life of revenge, and it's heavily hinted that it's the four MMCs, because it talks about them being the ones who saved her. Then we find out that she's never met two of them, only knew a third was her bodyguard as a child because they told her he was after they introduced themselves, and she had been in a situationship with the forth for a few years but neither of them knew the significance of the other until they all met. Only the head alpha was there to save her, and he took an invisible donor role in her life. She never knew who he was or who his pack was or that they were even an option as HER pack. 

I'll note here that the blurb as it stands right now is also wildly inaccurate to the story, but I can't be bothered to dissect that. The book itself was enough. 

These men are in their 30s and 40s and they're enrolling in this college-like academy undercover as her courting "pack"??? LMAO

The story doesn't give a fuck that this academy setup isn't explained well. Apparently she's in the one "sector" of the academy where they throw the misfits and it's basically Battle Royale in this sector that I *think* is the size of a whole ass city, except she said she could see people in the windows of one of the other sector's buildings from her sector so who the fuck knows? But you have dumbass rules in this sector like if you're going to kill someone, you have to finish them within 10 minutes and leave no witnesses.
Edit from later in the story: Lol they're supposed to have truces while in the academy buildings or something, this author just likes to throw things out there.

Oh and they're all stuck there at this academy (is this law or what? It's never explained) but there aren't any gates or anything, they could freely travel anywhere, they all just choose to stay in their separate little corners of this academy and the ones in Dead Knot choose to stay in this rundown sector and wear uniforms that come and go as the story needs.

The word "sectors" is used loosely, btw. It originally refered to the separate academies that make up the overall Knot Academy or whatever it is. Hard Knot, Renegade Knot (this isn't the name but I can't be fucked to look it up), and Dead Knot. Then it's used to refer to different areas within Dead Knot a few times, but we never know what the fuck this academy even is. They have concepts of a layout and concepts of a group of academies but they operate like separate cities while never actually being explained as such.

She's in hiding, having made everyone think she died 7 years ago after being assaulted, but her fake name is Jessica Vesper and she does ballet at this academy that is one of three academies that apparently literally everyone attends. Any guesses on what her real name is? Yep, this genius' real name is Jessica Vesper Calavera, and she also did ballet as a teenager. HOW IS THIS HIDING?! How was she able to go 7 years without anyone connecting these dots?

I get that this isn't WITSEC, but when you come from a top crime family apparently worth billions, you'd think you'd at least be able to create a better cover than this. 

Oh don't worry, she dyed her hair a "flame-red ombre fading to gold" instead of keeping it blonde so I'm sure that helped. 

"The use of my first name—my real name—sends a shiver down my spine. No one calls me Jessica anymore. Not even Emilia, who knows more of my secrets than anyone."

THIS GIRL IS LITERALLY GOING BY HER REAL NAME, and Emilia called her Jessica just a few chapters ago. Her dance teacher called also her Jessica in this same chapter. Do people really read this shit and want to give it 5 stars? I don't believe it.

There's a 5 billion (with a b) dollar bounty on her head, and they're here calling her by her real name and discussing the bounty in front of others in a wide open auditorium that they never checked for listening ears. These people are hopeless.

Her pictures of her younger self all had platinum blonde hair. Then one MMC describes her now dyed hair saying, "the roots show a hint of natural black." Then later another MMC who knew her as a child (ick) says again that she had platinum blonde hair as a child and it sticks with that from there.

According to her, she's never let herself stay the night at her fuck buddy's/MMC4 until a few days before, and according to him, they usually end their encounters and leave immediately, but now the MMC is trying to say he's witnessed her "sudden wakings" and nightmares often in their time together. When????

Oh he said it again. Apparently she's slept over often. Can this book pick one story and stick with it? 

40% in and it's only been like 3 days. She just met them and she's considering joining their pack for real despite the fact that they've never discussed this (it was just supposed to be for her safety). The fuck budy turned MMC who said he never shares just told her he'd share her with his pack and make it official in exchange for permission to knot her (it admittedly was more romantic than that but I can't bring myself to explain it), and then the next morning while he's gone and before she can check that he really meant it (something she worried about), she's sleeping with another pack member.

"VespRose?" Knox shrugs, taking another sip of his coffee. "I can't think of a cool nickname like Rook with Venom and you with Nightshade." He turns to me, mismatched eyes gleaming with mischief. "But Jessica is like a precious rose—delicate petals surrounding a core of deadly thorns, beauty and danger perfectly balanced in living art—and I wanted to add Vesp as some uniqueness to her instead of just calling her Rose."

Tell me AI wrote this Renesmee ass shit.

"Each of them radiates a different quality of attention—Marcus's calculating assessment, Knox's bright curiosity, Bastian's steady watchfulness, Rook's smoldering possession."

The number of times we've had to sit through her listing out their qualities separately after they say or do the most basic things is astounding, and we're only 44% in. 

Inner monologue queen. I bet she had no trouble filling her school essays with endless rambling to hit those page counts.

Why is it not until 44% through the book that we find out it wasn't just her attacked that day 7 years ago? Her friend was attacked and killed that day alongside her.

...or was she? This is vague asf. She talks as if she was alone being surrounding by the group of alphas and assaulted, until she says one of them was taking to her saying "why WE deserved it...", then she talks as if she's alone again the entire time so it's unclear if her friend was there too.

Okay she just says, "Jessica Vesper Calavera had died alongside her friend." Why is it so cryptic?? And why has she talked this entire time as if she was the only one there?

Wait I just remembered that earlier in the book when she thinks about this friend she's definitely alive. She says, "She thinks I'm dead, just like everyone else." Keep your story straight challenge. 

More talking about only herself there that night, only her being held down, needing revenge for herself and what was done the her, literally no mentions of her friend at all. Then this: "For better or worse, these four men now know exactly who I am, what drives me, what I'm willing to do in pursuit of justice for Elizabeth. For myself."

For my own sanity, I'm choosing to go with the version of events where the friend died.

It's 66% before this girl actually goes to school in this book and they cancel it that same day she goes back lolololollllll.

She took "weeks" off school after that day due to an incident that killed a bunch of others (it was an attempt on her life) and almost killed her and one of the MMCs...but the school waited until she came back "weeks" later to have the teacher tell everyone that they were cancelling school because of the incident??? What were they doing in the weeks at the school until then? Still having classes? This is such bad writing. 

Edit from later in the book: She's now saying it's only been two weeks total since a moment that happened before that day, and it's been days since they cancelled classes. Interesting that gunshot wounds, broken ribs from CPR, and poisoning/allergic reactions are so quick to recover from.

Because people can't be bothered to go back and rewrite past parts of the story to back things up when they change them, the FMC is now saying that she knew one of the other MMCs before all of this and met him on and off for the past year through his tech work. Girl when??? Because he was stranger to you when you met a few weeks ago in the story, but I guess we're of the "if I say day is night then it shall be written" mindset.

A side character just commented that the FMC doesn't seem like she grew up in Dead Knot. So this Dead Knot place (which remember, is 1/3 of a college campus, the section that allows murder) not only has students in the campus, it also has random civilians (the MMC who was living there "by choice"), and families living there? We still aren't given a clear explanation of this place. It's maybe??? not a city, and it's close enough to the other two campuses to have "neutral territory" between them but also to be able to see people in their campus windows from a different section. Istg this author is playing with us. 

Her dad is supposedly dead, but just a few days earlier he was making moves and coming out of hiding he'd been in for 7 years since her death. He didn't know about her or the MMC that saved her (and his pack), but suddenly his spirit knows about them and talks as if he'd known about them and about her all along. 

85% through and we're now being told in past tense that she actually had gone to school for a while with the MMCs before that one day they went and almost died, it was just off page (and doesn't fit the timeline the book laid out day by day but whatever). 

We're also getting told about all the times she got cooking lessons with or spent evenings together or had other interactions with the MMCs off page. This is all also condensed and in past tense, since this book used 85% of 650+ pages to catalog like five days total, and to go on and on with internal monologue instead of showing actual relationship or character growth. 

MMC4's tattoos moving around his body like photos from Harry Potter:

"Four tattoos mark his ribs. Rook. Bastian. Marcus. Knox. His pack."

vs. 

"The four tattoos I've seen before are positioned over his left shoulder blade...Bastian. Marcus. Knox."

Despite the fact that we've had multiple descriptions of her from the MMCs, including during sex scenes where she's naked, it's 556 pages in that we find out she has tattoos. 

"You've barely flinched."
"Not my first time," I remind him.

Y'all I'm done. I don't even care to see what happens out of pettiness, I just want off this ride.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Dani.
19 reviews
May 6, 2025
what?

This felt rushed. The last 20% continued to skip over events happening and jumping back into the timeline with a summary. Continuity errors that should have been caught with editing. Spoilers ahead: when Marcus files the pack paperwork and says “official by the festival tomorrow.” Then it immediately jumps into a new chapter where Jessica says “it’s been a couple of weeks of…” prepping for the festival. Passes over Violet and Sera connections and meetings, straight into them working as a team without a single follow-up conversation beforehand after being introduced into the possible plans and led to believe there would be follow up. Once Jessica enters her heat, almost everyone begins to have the cadence of Knox. Depth of character shallowed. The last intimacy scenes felt copy-pasted between men with minor synonyms switched around.

I liked Book One. This book felt like a lot of work for little payoff, as a reader and author. I don’t know that I’d recommend this one unless your TBR is empty.
1 review
May 6, 2025
Thin line between love and hate

The book started off fine. I loved it. Then the final chapters took a turn. It almost reads as though it was AI generated. The tone and the wording seem like a completely different author wrote them. The final chapter was the absolute worse. Instead of being immersed in the love between them, I was constantly deciphering SAT vocabulary. Don’t get me wrong, I love being challenged, but this was entirely too much. The love and the mood were definitely lost.
Profile Image for Jenn.
148 reviews1 follower
May 12, 2025
This needs some work

So much inconsistency. It started out pretty well, but it went downhill shortly after that. She has three separate crying/sobbing events and then says that she hasn’t cried like that in years…after each time. The trauma she had, has one say a pretty specific sentence to her. A couple of pages later, it was a different person that said it, a while later it was back to the original dude. The ending of the book appeared to either be AI generated or someone else entirely wrote it. I probably will avoid this author in the future.
23 reviews
May 4, 2025
Not great 2.75 at best

I skipped so much. It dragged on. I think I am done with this series. It’s too chaotic…I don’t know how to describe it. It’s not bad, but not great. I want to read Violet’s story, that is it.
56 reviews
May 4, 2025
Beautifully written

I loved how the main character has her struggles ans succeeded in life. Vesper was awesome!! Can't wait until next book in series comes up!! The next set of characters sound intriguing.
15 reviews
April 11, 2026
Spectacular Read!

Cinder Blaze does a Phenomenal job of creating a world with danger but not being too over the top and super triggering. If you are looking for a story that has lots of action. And the heroine is kick butt and this is the story for you!
171 reviews10 followers
May 11, 2025
Awesome

This was an amazing story! What Jessica goes through as a naïve omega is absolutely horrible. What she makes of herself is amazing. I love her pack and her vengeance.
Profile Image for Heidi LaGrone.
535 reviews10 followers
May 13, 2025
This was a wild ride with a lot of steam, sexy unhinged alphas and an omega that fights to win. The characters were fantastic and it wasn't like any omegaverse I've ever read.
Profile Image for Carrie.
967 reviews5 followers
October 2, 2025
Oh how I love a good, dark omegaverse!
Jessica was viciously attacked and left for dead when Marcus intervened. Several years later she's living at/attending Knot Academy and has become quite the assassin while she hunts the men who attacked her.

Meanwhile, Marcus and his pack end up in her orbit. They are just as deadly in their own right. The rest of this book is filled with dark chaos, supportive men who want to help her when she'll let them and everything you expect from this author!
Profile Image for spirits.affection.
192 reviews
December 4, 2025
It was a great read with fun and angst plus justice against abuse however the epilogue, I actually DNFed that part. I knew the epilogue was added bonus material so I’m not worried about DNFing it. It just felt so out of left field like very sterile and clinical not at all like what I was used to the book reading like. The only clinical like character was on of the MLs and even his chapters didn’t read the way the epilogue did. I adored her book Scarlett and quite enjoyed Hard Knot so hopefully this was a one off sort of thing.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews