** I WAS GIVEN THIS BOOK FOR MY READING PLEASURE **
Scent (Omega Angel Cafe, Book 1) by Hawke Oakley
★★★☆☆
266 Pages
POV: 1st person, dual POV
Content Warning: mentions abortion, domestic abuse, knotting, mpreg
Honestly, I'm of two minds about this book. On one hand, I found moments where I enjoyed it, I smiled or cringed with the characters, I even felt a twitch of chemistry between Jake and Griffin, every now and then. But, there were also moments where I was bored. Times when I felt the plot was predictable and obvious; that it wasn't making much sense; that it felt far longer than it should have, because it was dragging its feet.
For me, the second half was better than the first, but that may have been because I didn't take to the MC, Jake, very well. And because the POV was unevenly divided in Jake's favour, it meant that we saw much more of him in the first half than I would have liked. And not enough of Griffin, who I liked instantly but never really got to learn much about until far too late into the book.
My feelings about the characters, the plot, and the entire book can be summed up in that one phrase – a tale of two halves.
The Jake of the last 40% was adorable, but I really didn't like him before that. I loved Skylar at first, but by halfway through he bugged the hell out of me. Rafael was annoying at first, but grew on me the more I saw of him. And Griffin was on page far too little in the first half, but when I did see him on page, he tugged at the heart-strings. Jake spent the first half of the book trying to get as far from Griffin as possible, while acting jealous and possessive of him. Then he spent the second half heartbroken at the thought of living a life without him.
The plot of the first half often felt like filler, all the stuff that led up to Jake and Griffin becoming a couple – or *not* a couple, as they kept insisting. Yet, the second half was all about how they found their way back to each other, when they were pulled apart. In the first half, the story felt like it wasn't really going anywhere except to lead to the relationship, while the second half was full of drama and twists and turns. The first half brought Jake and Griffin together naturally, while the second half had them living in each other's pockets after a week.
The first half was written well, while the second was littered with editing issues. And I nearly stopped reading twice, to DNF, within the first half, but was curious enough to keep turning pages once I entered the second half. The first half was unpredictable; you never knew when they would meet next, or what Jake would say or do. The second half was so predictable, with all the twists and turns that happened once the cat, Lilith, came into the story that it was crystal clear from a mile away how it was going to end.
The worldbuilding was the real problem for me. When I enter a new world – especially one that is a series, and has a concept that isn't straight-laced contemporary, present day humans – then I expect *some* form of worldbuilding. Even if it's a paragraph or two in the first chapter, or little hints and drops throughout. Sadly, all this novel gave us were the words Alpha and Omega.
While the words bring certain meanings to mind, each A/O book I've read has its own unique world. This book reads like a contemporary, human world; except that there are Alphas and Omegas living openly among humans. Which is fine. Except, everything we know about Alpha's and how they should behave comes from Jake, who is biased against them; and everything we know about Omega's is either from Jake or Griffin, who is also biased against Omega's.
The only information is that Alpha's have a 'knot' – which would imply shifters, but they're not. Omega's get pregnant and deliver babies naturally – which would imply they're intersex, but not.
And there you see my problem. I have a whole host of questions about what makes an Omega, and why they're physically 'lesser' in stature. Is it normal for Omega's to be dominant in the bedroom but considered submissive by nature?; is the male Omega with a female Alpha normal in this world, or a deviation? (you know, since two people were so shocked to hear it that they burst out laughing) What does mate really mean? (because in any other A/O world it usually means partner/husband, but here Skylar calls them mates when the MC's simply claim they're 'dating', so...unclear.) And what does the scent have to do with anything? Is it an indication of this unspecified 'mate'? Or do Omega's just have preternatural senses and Griffin smells great? Or does he only smell great to Jake?
These are things I want to know. Each question could have been answered with a single sentence, and it shows just how important worldbuilding can be, and all the difference it can make.
All in all, though the book was a tale of two halves, it didn't come together enough by the end to be a cohesive story. I gave it 3 stars, because there were elements I liked, but the problems overshadowed them too much. I can't honestly say it's a book I'd read again. I'm doubtful that I'll pick up book 2, especially if it has Skylar or Rafael as the central character. If it has *both* then I'm definitely not venturing into it. That's too much drama, even for me.
And, to be honest, I bugs me that I *still* don't understand the importance of the title. Sometimes, understanding the title can be the best part about finishing a book. Here, it's just another question I'm left asking myself. With no hope of an answer.