Jack. The duke. An alpha in love with two very different men—his prickly young alpha servant, and the shy omega childhood friend he vowed to stay away from...but just married.
Beckett. The servant. An alpha from the slums made good. Stupid enough to go and fall in love with a duke. Mad about it. Now Jack's up and married an omega. Mad about that, too.
Arden. The omega. Betrayed by his brother on their father's death, whisked to safety by the only man he's ever loved, and apparently not too old and withered to go into heat for the first time.
Unfortunately, his new husband's stuck in town and there's only one suitable alpha at Avendene who can help: Beckett.
The servant who loves Jack, and hates Arden.
How can a beginning this bad possibly end in happily ever after?
The Lights of Avendene is an MMM omegaverse fantasy romance set in a Georgian/Regency-esque world, with an alpha couple, the inexperienced omega who ends up between them, a lot of hurt feelings, a hint of danger, and a love worth fighting for.
Isabel is a writer, a reader, and a lover of love. She couldn’t stick to a subgenre if her life depended on it, but MM romance is her jam. She lives in the UK, reads way too much, and cannot be trusted anywhere near chocolate.
Fantastic take on the omegaverse that doesn't fall into the overwrought tropes of the genre. Endearing characters with great side characters, a hint of danger, and lots of mutual pining, romance, and emotional reckoning.
the very epitome of a 3-star read. non-mpreg omegaverse that leans hard into rather than subverts the gendered tropes; a high-handed duke who doesn't properly grovel for his previous bad behavior; and an evil brother subplot that never really generates any menace. but easily readable and mostly enjoyable, if overly long.
(also: not fantasy beyond the demands of omegaverse, in case anyone expects worldbuilding or magic)
I really enjoyed this book! It's a throuple that wouldn't seem to work on the surface, but it works exceptionally well in reality. Jack, the Duke, is an alpha who prefers other alpha in very rough-and-tumble encounters. He's had a long-standing affair with his footman, Beckett, who has similar preferences and responds more as Jack's equal, as they both prefer.
Arden is an omega who has always been sheltered and kept apart from others by his family, ostensibly for his own safety. Innocent, he doesn't realize the danger to him until after his father dies and his older brother attempts to assume guardianship. Arden has dreamed of a life with Jack, but knows it isn't a possibility - or is it?
This book has high heat, some drama, and much love, which changes and heals all three men. Recommended!
I was so engrossed in this story! I wasn’t sure how things would happily work out for everyone involved, but oh, they did! I loved seeing Arden blossom under the affection and attention from his two alphas (the way he’d “happily shriek” while being chased was adorable).
I’m hoping there will be more in this world because I really want to know more about Nolan and Crewe!
The only problem with this book is that Arden’s brother didn’t get his lick-back (I’m petty, sue me) and we didn’t get to see the Jack, Beckett and Arden more settled into their relationship. Otherwise a thoroughly enjoyable read and loved the multi-pov. 3.5 stars
The book drops you right in the middle of the shit and it’s all-out from the first sentence. There are a myriad of things that don’t make much sense until you get to the point where you’re given all the details—that’s a-lotta bit frustrating at first—but the more you dive in, and the more you start to understand, the more you love it.
I won’t lie, I really didn’t like Beckett continually being called their lover (and I got annoyed with Arden so much, and I feel like Jack didn’t get enough page time), but there wasn’t any action that showed him as less-than or unequal in the relationship so I just ignored it and put it behind how much I loved their dynamic. It’s a seriously well done take on poly romance that you don’t see too often, which means it mirrors reality and isn’t some weird straight-folx fetish bomb. They all want and need different things, they all get them from different partners, and they love that for each other, with each other. They’re thrilled to see one with the other and it’s fucking lovely. It’s exactly what a poly relationship should be, and if my biggest gripe whilst reading was that I didn’t like them constantly referring to Beckett how he would’ve been referred to just because I was indignant on a fictional character’s behalf from ~the future times~, then I consider that a W.
It had some need for a bit more editing/proofing love but it was phenomenal. (The added little bonus scene was nice, too, so I wouldn’t skip it.) Basically, if you like to-the-point, really great poly romances that just happen to be omegaverse, this one is for you. It was definitely for me, and gave me the least amount of ick (read: n o n e) I’ve ever gotten from that particular sub genre. For real, if you don’t fuck with typical omegaverse, try this one—looking at my gaybies that don’t like when things get too cis-coded, same as me.
OH! And that nonsense with Lassit? I wasn’t the biggest fan of it, either. It felt like it could’ve been dropped and not missed at all, especially with that lackluster conclusion. But that’s just my unwanted opinion. Gross ass dude that he was… ugh. CARRY ON.
So, just to confirm, as I know it crops up in Alpha/Omega (no shifting) books, there’s no mpreg.
Others books I’ve read by this author have been single POV so I was glad this was multiple given we’ve got three MCs (Jack, Beckett and Arden). It’s not alternating which I liked as you got more into an MCs mindset by reading 3/4 chapters in a row as to their view.
Now, I consider this to be a ‘slice of life’ book. There’s no real plot outside of their relationship development. I was fine with that, but I know not everyone likes that type of book, so I thought best to mention it.
It is also heavy sex but almost in blocks, like we get a few chapters of sex stuff, then relationship development, then more sex. Having straight up Alpha x Alpha (without anyone turning into an Omega) was a nice change. Like it’s a full on battle for dominance at times. Then we have adorable and sweet Arden who really doesn’t know his body and has been treated badly - emotionally - by his family. So it’s clear he needs a lot of TLC to blossom.
Beckett massively messes up with Arden, who due to his sweet character actually goes to sacrifice his happiness for Jack and Beckett. Fortunately Beckett does get his act together - he apologises and his behaviour isn’t swept under the carpet.
Now I’m a vengeful soul and frankly Arden’s shitty brother needed some comeuppance, and there wasn’t any. Yes Jack got Arden away before anything happened, but I just needed more for it to be satisfying. The author did a good job at implying the darkness in the brother without outright saying what clearly would have happened to Arden in the long run.
All in all it was solid but not as good as other books I’ve read by this author.
While still a lovely read, not my favorite of Isabel Murray's works, for several reasons. The thing that bothered me most was Beckett's portrayal in terms of speech patterns; most of the time his dialog was in perfectly normal, everyday British English. Then, every so often, he would devolve into this horrid, hybrid, uneducated wrangle that came off more like a parody of illiterate American than what I might expect from a less well-educated Briton. "I've ain't"? Really?
The other factor is the setting: the Omegaverse is most definitely not my favorite imaginary universe, because it seems to vaunt every single thing that embodies wealth, power, and gender/sexuality/class stratification over humanity---something that is already too prevalent in the world today, and goes against my desire to escape reality in a book. I have to give credit to Ms Murray for making the genre less obnoxious, but I far prefer all of her other work to this, but it simply does not bring nearly as much of the magic as everything previous.
I really enjoyed this one, but the ending was abrupt and there were a few items left open-ended. I’m assuming this must be the first in a series, but there was no mention of more in the author’s note, and Goodreads has no more info to share. Am I missing something?
Oh my! A perfectly written MMM story! Loved Arden, Jack and Beckett's story. Absolutely adored The Lights of Avendene, another fabulous read from Isabel Murray.
Loved this book so much, it started right into the action and gave the backstory as it went along. Great pacing, sweet and sexy with love and caring throughout. Always love this author.
Isabel Murray and OV? Yes, please! Isabel Murray and OV and MMM?! Yes, a thousand times yes! Fr. What a perfect book. Will absolutely be rereading, as I do all of Isabel's books.