3.5*
Slow Heat, Alpha Heat and Bitter Heat are three of my favourite shifter books of any type of omegaverse.
So to get the chance to pop back into this world with a look at Jason and Vale's experiences during Vale's pregnancy from the inside was always going to be interesting for me. And, in the main, I really enjoyed it.
But I have a couple of niggles, although neither is a game-changer or ultimately took too much away from my enjoyment.
Firstly, far too many references to calling Jason baby alpha. As I believe this story was originally created for Leta's Patreon supporters, I can see that it's a testament of love to the people who have encouraged her creativity in spades.
But it got a little bit too much when the same phrase cropped up at least three times on the same page, never mind the same chapter. I was surprised to be honest, as I find Leta's books are usually sharp and not filled with repetition or extraneous detailing. A small point only.
Secondly, and I find myself surprised to be mentioning it to be honest, but there is a LOT of sex in this. Usually I have little issue with a sex-heavy book, especially in the hands of someone as talented as Leta when it comes to writing emotionally-driven expressions of desire and love.
However, again, I found myself thinking not again as another page came with yet another scene of Jason and Vale going at it.
Now, I will state that I don't believe it was unnecessary sex. In fact, a lot of it is absolutely vital to the plot because of the whole issue with Vale's scar tissue which played such a big part in their own book Slow Heat.
It would have been nice though, for me, to get a little bit more of them experiencing the pregnancy together, rather than just the sexual aspect of this particular omegaverse set-up, which sees the omegas become even more in need of fulfilment than usual and the alphas' inability to turn them down.
There is a bit of reference to Vale getting fed up of some elements of their encounters but, overall, it did seem like a scene was there every other page or so.
Overall though, I loved seeing this "behind the scenes" part of the world which had taken place in the background of Urho, Xan and Caleb's book mostly.
#ARC kindly received from the author in return for an honest and unbiased review