Life for Crown Prince Ryu Galandia should have been close to perfect. He’s just about to finish high school, and is mere weeks away from his eighteenth birthday, and from finding out who his soulmate is – the one person in the world with a soul mark that is an exact match to his own.
But what should be a time of celebration is soured by one simple fact: Ryu is already in love with someone else. Kentario Amagarda is both Ryu’s royal bodyguard and an alpha – making him completely unsuitable to become the consort of the alpha Prince.
On top of that, the small but prosperous nation of Galandeen is dealing with increasing unrest as the citizens push for democracy, and Ryu’s mother, the Queen, seems intent on trying to set him up with just about every eligible noblewoman in the country.
Just when life can’t seem to get any more complicated, an attack on the royal palace puts Ryu’s life in danger. Kentario is the only person able to keep him safe, placing the pair of them on a collision course that will change both of their futures forever.
Laura Taylor is a pseudonym for Gabriel Danes. Gabriel is a bisexual, transgender writer of fantasy and romance novels. He likes watching ice hockey, reading about vampires and werewolves, cooking, and has fantasies of one day becoming a firefighter.
Gabriel lives on the South Coast of New South Wales, Australia.
5 Stars, and boy is Collision worthy of each and every star.
To sum the book up in several words, I suppose I would say; Compelling, Exciting, Dramatic and Engrossing.
*Compelling. Collision is written in such a way that you get to see the every day lives of our characters and feel like you’re living the day with them. This really allowed me to get a feel for our main characters and I became very invested in them quickly. On top of that, the author has created a world that was quite interesting to read about. The various countries and related political situations made it feel real and gave every day in this story a sense of “consequence”, every day mattered. It wasn’t just another 20+ pages in a book. No. It was a day in a world that changed lives and countries.
*Exciting. Collision has its fair share of action. There was lots of physical action and exciting, heart pumping, intense moments where I just needed to keep reading as fast as I could to see what would happen next. Then there were the conversations. Oh the conversations were packed full of action and were a delight to read.
*Dramatic. This category goes hand in hand with the last half of exciting to be honest. There were quite a few “drop the mic🎤” moments, where I found myself cheering or shocked or angry. The dramatics weren’t “childish” at all and I loved how it contributed to my final point-
*Engrossing. I couldn’t put this book down. I had to keep reading and reading and reading. Collision just has all of the ingredients to keep your attention from the first to the last page. Even people with an attention span of a goldfish like me.
All in all, I couldn’t recommend this story more. I have ZERO complaints or critiques. There were either very few or no errors. The writing was fantastic and to top it all off, the next book(s?) is already out, so I’m diving right into the next one!
Likes: - The romantic leads respect each other and are kind - The romantic leads support marriage - Ryu grows as a person, and is able to begin making his world better for his subjects -HEA **mild spoilers**
Dislikes: - There wasn’t a lot of relational development between the romantic leads. They finally confess (maybe 5 conversations), add a personal endearment (1 sentence), marry (glossed over), and are intimate I think 3 times. This is all descriptive action, not relational interaction. Most of the relational interaction occurs in the beginning of the book and not after the romance is properly established. This leaves a lot of loose ends. - How do the alpha scent glands work helpfully between 2 alphas? - How do the two alphas establish different territory in their relationship to avoid competing with each other? - Why is Kentarino grumpy when he’s around his beloved exchanging vows? - How do Cael and Emica deal with becoming part of the royal family and how easy is it to assign a bodyguard to a bodyguard? Does Kentatrino have his own bodyguard now? - As the royal consort, does Kentarino help make policy now?
Minus one star for undeveloped relational interactions and making one groom grumpy during the wedding, which is one of the best parts of a romance. Commitment and faithfulness are pertinent to both men and women and failing to address it in a romance is disappointing.
biggest flaw is how much were told about the relationship between Ryu and Kentario instead of shown same issue with Queen Elise, we were told that she's this master manipulator but we only saw one instance of it I believe this is a book that could've benefited from 100 more pages to properly ground its foundation and due to reading this after The Elements series by the same author, Collision didn't feel like it needed to be omegaverse. As for the forbidden aspect, this could've leaned heavier into the bodyguard/prince aspect instead of alpha/alpha since they're already both have no issues differing to the other and already like each others scents I feel like I was baited with the Alpha/Alpha pairing when this couldve easily worked in a regular contemporary setting
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Ryu was the prince and Kentario was his bodyguard and were raised together since Kentario’s father was the king’s bodyguard. They fell in love with each other but Ryu had never registered his soulmate mark, mother asked him to wait until he was 18 since their families already knew the results of their soulmate marks. Then the palace was invaded and that had to be straightened out. Before they knew they were soulmates Ryu asked Kentario to marry him because he loved him. Good book!
A new author for me. I fell into the Omergverse quite by accident and found myself loving the genre. This is a little different from other omegaverse books out there. Ryu and Kentario - great MC's. Both from noble backgrounds (albeit one is royalty), one entrusted with the life of the other. An astonishing life truth hidden from them both. A love story that began in nappies and ended as it should :-) I thoroughly enjoyed the evolution of this story; the connection between the two families, the politics and decision making, the environment, surrounding "neighbours", warring factions and local festivals. A wonderful read.
Overall, I'm kinda disappointed by this one, in comparison to the elements series. While it was quite well plotted, I think the social issues/changes needed more time to cook. I also wish we had more evidence of Elise's work before we were told about her after she died. Just because the MC is an idiot child too close to see the forest for the trees doesn't mean the reader is. It's still fun to read into the goddess's plans that Ryu be a king with no heir because he's converting to democracy (kind on a whim, to me?) and therefore it's totally her plan to mate him to another alpha. Also the placement of the first love scene felt too abrupt, even tho I guess it's fair to have adrenaline dump sex, it felt a bit trite and worked out a bit too well for two virgins who had literally never kissed anyone else before? The literal first page of the book was thirst for Kentario's massive package in leather pants, which set my expectations somewhere else than this cutesy soulmates who don't know they are soulmates story. A lot of the political things felt half baked, as did the world building... For instance, a defensive wall around a city does nothing in a world with private jets and cell phones that have apps and social media? I was never quite clear about the setting. It was like it wanted you to assume contemporary tech but with fictional early democracies and primitive governments. We needed more worldbuilding and character building to achieve what it seems like Taylor was going for.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Sometimes Facebook ads give you gold lol I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I started it last last night and finished it today. It had its predictable moments but it was a quick and enjoyable read.
I would have liked more character development, but the development that was there wasn't bad. I'll be reading the next for sure.
I don’t think this universe is for me. While this isn’t written horrible and the soulmate troupe is good I wanted to get through this as fast as possible. I felt like it was a short but felt a long political story. I don’t think I’ll read the other books.
So while there are Omegas in the setting of this book, the main characters are not omegas nor are they secret omegas. Definitely not what i thought this was going to be.
Wise and loving parents hide a secret for a long time. Brutal assassination and nail biting interrogation sort out the confusion. Sulfates meet. Brilliant romantic story.