Pack Darling: Part Two

Pack Darling #2

by Lola Rock

After a disaster of a first heat, I’m ready to swear off alphas and escape to a cabin in the woods.

My body has other plans.

Now that I’m awakened, I can’t survive another heat alone.

Problem is, I hate alphas, hate packs, and really super hate the so-called mates I can’t forgive and can’t forget.

Now my biological clock’s ticking too fast to handle, and I can’t wait on Wyvern Pack to figure out their damage.

I’ll take care of my own needs.

And if you can’t give me what I want, then get out of my way.

Because this omega bites back.

♥ Burn: Medium

♥ Heat: High (spicy MM + MMFMMM scenes)

♥ Alert: Growly alpha males, no shifting

♥ Warning: Contains MM content, frequent cursing, references to past assault that may be disturbing, and a few alphaholes who need to grovel for redemption.

Genres: Omegaverse, Romance, Why Choose, Fantasy, Paranormal, M M Romance, Enemies To Lovers

356 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 18, 2022

About the author

Lola Rock loves sweets, stories, and passport stamps (in that order). Her books can’t decide if they want to be hilarious or heart-wrenching, but they promise to keep you up all night.

Reviews

[Namera [The Literary Invertebrate] · Rating 3 out of 5]

As you can tell, I have a LOT of Goodreads shelves. I expected to be able to shelve this book as 'vengeful heroine', 'OM drama', ideally even 'heroine leaves hero'. Instead, I've had to shelve this as 'angst-free', which is not exactly what I was hoping for from my most-anticipated grovel read of the year.

To be clear, I obviously don't mean it's totally free of angst - there are discussions of abuse etc which are 'angsty' - but when I personally use this term in a book review, I mean relationship angst. Specifically, I mean the hero/heroine should genuinely doubt the romance will survive. I didn't get that here, hence the label.

I'm definitely going to be in the minority here, I'm sure everyone will love this. But I had issues.

This book picks up right where book one left off, with Lilah in hospital after her mates Orion, Jett, Atlas, Finn and Hunter so brutally rejected her during her heat. Now they know she’s their mate, and they’re all apologetic and ready to make it up to her. But she doesn’t want anything to do with them any more… or does she?

Without individual issues, I want to say first that I can’t tell if I’ve changed or the writing style has, but it grated on me a lot.

It was… like this.

So many lines.

Almost every sentence on a new line.

Felt like I was wading through toffee.

You get me?

My Problems with the Heroes

⤅ The heroes all turn into absolutely OTT, unbelievable, ridiculously pathetic… well, simps. I’ve never actually used this word before, but a Goodreads friend used it to describe the heroes, and you know what? It fits. Now, I love a besotted hero, but this was just to the point where they ceased to be actual humans with their own personalities. There was kneeling, foot-kissing, wearing fetishy collars for her… some of them actually felt like male submissives, getting off on the act of debasing themselves rather than the idea of earning her forgiveness. Also, normal human beings simply cannot sustain that level of self-flagellation. These scenes were written purely as grovel porn, not with the intention of demonstrating a realistic relationship growth and redemption arc.

⤅ Let’s be clear: I think they SHOULD be grovelling, after the way they treated her. But they shouldn’t be enjoying it! That defeats the entire purpose. In my favourite grovel books, Temptation by Charlotte Lamb and Lady Gallant by Suzanne Robinson, the heroes are proud alpha males who do humble themselves before the heroine. But they obviously aren’t enjoying it – they’re doing it to win her back. In Pack Darling it felt far more like a self-indulgent thing they were doing, just because of the sheer overkill.

⤅ Linked to the first point above: several of the heroes lost the personalities which had been so clearly defined in the previous book. Hunter’s entire personality became ‘alpha and Lilah’. Jett’s became ‘childhood abuse’ and then it converted into ‘Lilah’ far too rapidly for someone who had literally spent years hating her. There was no transition or build-up. Finn’s presence in the book is relatively minimal. Orion and Atlas are by far the favoured characters in terms of page time and personality-building.

⤅ This is going to sound so weird, but none of them actually CONFRONTED, head on, the way they had treated Lilah. They only felt terrible about it because they learnt she was their mate. I actually am struggling to see the romance in this book, because… what do the guys actually like about her? What do they love about her, or know about her? The gifts they give her – mostly food, clothes and money – are pretty much the bare minimum they could do. Had she not turned out to be their mate, they’d have felt totally justified in their cruel behaviour, so the emotions rang false. It was a just like a switch flipped after smelling her.

⤅ I’m so going to be in the minority here, but I don’t feel that most of the heroes actually sacrificed anything for Lilah as part of their grovelling. What did Hunter, Jett or Finn give up? And even Atlas’s sacrifices are just as much for Orion’s benefit as Lilah’s.

My Problems with the Heroine

⤅ I was never seriously convinced that Lilah wanted to be rid of the Wyvern Pack. She never tried to flee them properly; she never even took actual steps to secure alternative heat partners. There was a great pack which could have provoked jealousy in the Wyverns, but she was so obviously reluctant to consider them that the Wyverns didn’t even feel any real jealousy, and that was not okay for me. I needed them to be A LOT LESS CONFIDENT about their chances of getting her back. None of their mental dialogues evinced any concern on this front.

⤅ She does try to maintain a measure of emotional distance until the halfway point, but that’s pointless without the maintenance of a physical distance. Lilah lets Orion move in with her straightaway – granted, he was the first to recognise her as his mate, but I haven’t forgotten how he used to feel like ripping her face off! And she became all ‘it’s me and Orion against the bad alphas’ when actually, they treated her FAR worse than they treated him?

⤅ I needed Lilah to go emotionless. I wanted hardness, and for them to realise what they’d done to her personality. Instead, it felt like she was more emotional than ever, in a tailspin over whether to forgive them or not. All the best grovel books I know have the heroine going cold – I think that’s the best way to do it. (Dawn of Eve by Pam Godwin has a GREAT example of this). Similarly, while in the last book I liked Lilah because she was the ultimate Girl with a Plan, she has no clue what she’s doing here. Like, we don’t see her keeping up with all the tax stuff she was doing – wasn’t she working for a bunch of businesses?

Overall

To be clear, this was by no means a bad book. It’s well-written, barring that annoying prose thing I mentioned at the start. But I did start skimming from 70% onwards as the Redfang plot took precedence over the romance, and I’m dissatisfied – not at the amount of grovel, but at its nature.

Pre-review ⤅ I'm not a fan of the poor communication on display.

A lot of star ratings are already popping up for this book, either 1-star or 5-star based on the reviewer's feelings about the author. However they want to rate is their prerogative, of course, but I'll be sharing my thoughts without the star rating. I always rate books based on their content, not my opinion on their writer, which - to be frank - is a good thing for Lola Rock right now.

This book was due 1.5 months ago. It's been pushed back until next year, a delay of 4-5 months. Delays are fine, of course: life happens, and indie authors especially are vulnerable to changes. But communication is key. To take Kresley Cole as an example, I genuinely do not care that her latest book has been delayed by almost a decade. What I care about is that her updates to fans are sparse and sporadic.

Lola Rock hasn't posted anything in her Facebook group for a month. I understand there was a death in her family a couple of weeks ago, but yesterday her PA announced that she would be taking part in a Halloween party in a DIFFERENT FB group, so presumably she feels up to things again. It does feel a bit odd that, without updating the fans who've been waiting in her actual group, she would decide to hang out in a different group? And then not even tell us that herself? Her FB group is littered with unanswered questions to her.

I really do think that indie authors should aim to communicate with fans on their social media channels about once a week. I don't think that's too onerous a schedule; a simple update post would be great, and increase fans' patience. I don't blame those who are disappointed she pushed back the book by so many months, but I find it more disappointing that she isn't interacting with her actual readers.

[D.L. Howe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fuck the younger Wyvern pack, go with the dads. We all know if I had the choice that’s who’d I choose even without those dipshits totally fucking her over left and right.

I wanted all the groveling, I wanted revenge, I wanted Lilah to stand her ground. I got everything I wanted and more. Perhaps too much? Not quite sure yet. Mostly I want Lilah to get down with Orion.

Jett breaks my heart. Seriously, I’m so mad at Atlas and I should be just as mad at Jett. But he’s so broken, it would be like kicking a puppy.

Please tell me something horrifying happens to Rachel and Noelle. Preferably at Lilah’s hands.

Holy smokes! Atlas’ lap … it was everything I never knew I wanted. Still not gung ho for the guy but he’s slowly growing on me.

But really, the hottest, most beautiful thing is Jett’s submission. I really do love him, he’s by far my favorite.

Home girl could almost give Mariana Zapata a run for her money as far as slow burns go. Was it worth the wait? I’m not sure if she gave me everything I wanted.

We started super strong but by the 30% mark it dulled some. It picked back up around the 65% mark. Overall the revenge was sweet, even though I didn’t get everything I wanted the way I wanted but I’m probably being picky.

The character/relationship growth was the highlight. I even ended up liking Atlas, trust me, no one is more shocked than me. But really this was the omega show but I’m not complaining … ok maybe a little. I wanted more JJ and Hunter.

Most of all I wanted better closure. I mean we got scores of it but the way the epilogue ended there’s gotta be more. But will it be a Pack Wyvern show or will they be on the side? I certainly can’t wait to find out.

[L · Rating 5 out of 5]

I know this book isn't out yet but I felt like I needed to give it 5 stars to counteract the 1 star reviews the book is getting because the release date was pushed back. First, she did announce that she was pushing back the release date on her Facebook group. Second, she's a first time author, meaning she still has a bunch of other life things to manage. And third, she's a human being - sh**t happens. All I can say is that the first book was amazing and I'm super excited to see how Lilah's story continues.

[Lucie V. · Rating 5 out of 5]

✅✅ Lilah and Orion 💜
✅ Pace
✅ Plot
✅ A lot of character development
✅ More likable alphas
✅ Reverse harem
✅ Smut
✅ Grovelling and a little bit of angst
❗️❗️Trigger warnings: abduction, drugging, attempted murder, murder, drowning, threat of rape
🔥 Spice level : 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ / 5

4.5 stars

_______________________

Third read/listen: Did I binge-read/binge-listen to this series in less than two days? Yes, I did!
Was it as good as the first and second times? Yes, it was.
Lilah and Orion are everything. 🥰🥰
_______________________

We chat until my ice cream’s gone. They tell me about their charity work and hobbies. All the Sorensens golf. I limit my hobby list to reading and dancing because I don’t think they’ll be impressed with my ability to craft shivs from household objects.

Not trusting the Wyvern pack to take care of her after what happened during her first (and last) heat, Lilah decides to put herself into rotation. She only wants to find a pack that will be there for her when she’s in heat, with no strings attached, because as soon as the heat is over, she’s gone. The thing is, it’s hard for her to find a suitable plan B when the Wyvern pack is hellbent on winning her back and on shadowing her every move as her personal bodyguards because she is still in danger after the Redfangs put a price on her head… And poor Lilah was approached by a bunch of creeps… But also by cute, respectable, and nice packs, they just were not the Wyvern pack.

And with a stolen scalpel at each hip, I’m ready for whoever comes at me next. “Where to?”


My scent is the only thing about me that’s sweet. A smoky caramel that hides my sour personality.

Lilah is as snarky and *not* sweet as in the first book. She has fire, and she can take care of herself. I really like that about her: even when the situation is dire, she pushes through, she’s gritty, and she tries to find a way to save herself and kick some asses while doing it. Even though she’s an omega, she wants to be autonomous, and she does not like the idea of becoming all silly and mushy because of some strong alpha (but she does become all mushy whenever her alphas shower her with attention).

The fact that the alphas she meets are either looking for a sweet pampered omega, or a trashy omega that they will be able to abuse and discard does not help either. She feels that everyone is either trying to take advantage of her or that she would fit so badly with them because she’s not fancy and sweet that it’s not even worth the energy to try fitting in with them, even if just for one heat. She does have insecurities, though under all this strong persona, and we can see in this book how she feels vulnerable, but does not allow herself to show it and which makes her feel so relatable and more real. She is also aware of her struggles and trauma, and while she still has work to do to take care of herself and her trauma, she at least knows it's there and affects her.

Orion asked for nothing. Gave me everything. And I don’t think I’m ever going to recover.


“What are we?”
“House cats.” My lips fall open. “What?”
“House cats,” he insists. “Kinda cranky and cuddly, and we’ll fuck shit up if you leave us alone too long.”
“That’s not what I mean. What—”
“I know what you mean.” Orion bites the tip of my nose. “You’re my other half. And I’m yours.”

Orion is perfection. I’m just glad that he and Lilah were able to spend time together in this book, even though Lilah was pissed at the rest of the pack. He is so cute and amazing and caring and thoughtful and sexy. I want one Orion too. I’m also happy that he got some well-deserved happiness because he was also treated like crap in the first book, and he deserves so much love and cuddles. Seeing him and Lilah develop a stronger bond was everything; it was so heartwarming and wholesome, I would take a whole book just about them living their cozy house-cat lives.

“We’re sorry.” Atlas rumbles. “Don’t do this to us.”
I let the words wash over me, but they’re just noise. Vibrations in the air.
Atlas doesn’t get it.
They don’t get it.
“You’re not sorry.” Not when the apology comes on the same breath as the accusation that I’m doing something wrong.


“You’re a kickass team leader, and there’s no one I trust more to have my back on a mission. But when it comes to the pack, you have the emotional intelligence of a fucking gummy bear.”

Grovelling time!
The Wyvern pack messed up big time at the end of Pack Darling – Part one, and now they need to grovel, get down on their knees, and pray that Lilah will give them another chance. Which is easier said than done since she was reluctant to trust them and to rely on them from the start… And Atlas was kind of a jerk when he first had a chance to talk with Lilah at the beginning of this book, only thinking about how Lilah’s decision affected him and his feelings and his pack, but never taking the time to really make amends. He did change a lot, though, through this book, and he was much more likable at the end. His development was unexpected, honestly, but very welcome, and I really enjoyed it.

Atlas, Finn, Hunter and Jett are a hotter mess than a garbage barge in a volcano, and I’m not volunteering for the same hell cruise as Orion.

The Wyvern pack is messed up. They need to do some serious work on themselves, and we can see that they are trying to change and become better. Honestly, at first, while I was intrigued by some of them, I did not really care about any of them except Orion, and I only wanted Lilah and Orion to be happy together, without the rest of the toxic pack… I have to say, though, that the author did a good job with the character development of the alphas because by the end of the book, I liked them all. They’re not my all-time favorite male characters, but they end up being not so bad and even kinda cute at times. They also keep their individual personalities, and they remain as complex and interesting as in the first book; they didn't just all change to become the same bland love interest.

Sometimes, I think Finn’s the most unhinged. Then I remember Jett never had a fucking door.


Jett and Finn make a killer team. Not good cop, bad cop but the cold sociopath and the crazy sociopath. They’ll get the info.

Finn and Jett are wild and scary, and when it comes to murder and torture, they don’t even need words to communicate and understand each other… We see a new, softer side of Jett near the end of the book, and we also finally understand why he behaved as he did with Lilah in the first book. It does make sense in a twisted way, I guess, but he was still a major ass, and he needed to change his act fast. Finn is just as intense and violent (and creepy sometimes) as ever. He does not care about anything except protecting Lilah and getting her back… And also buying her orange lingerie and kinky accessories, because that’s obviously how he is going to earn her forgiveness (eye-roll). Still, they were kind of cute when they were with Lilah, I guess, and we can see how she grounds them and helps them remain sane and "almost close to normal". I really find those two interesting, and I would love to know more about them and their backstories.

Hunter is the one we tend to forget, but he was so strong, steady, and respectful of Lilah’s wishes in this book; I applaud him. He was the one arguing that they should try to win her back, but still needed to respect her wish to enter the rotation if that’s what she really wanted, even though it killed them to let her into rotation. I really liked him in this book, and I am glad he stepped up and took control of the situation because he was level-headed and mature enough to realize that respecting Lilah's wishes was the first step to earning her forgiveness and showing her that they were worthy.

There is also an opening at the end for maybe a third book? I am curious and excited to see if it will happen, and I will read it for sure if it ever comes out, especially if it features Orion and Lilah.


1. Pack Darling Part One ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐


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[Isabella. R · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 All Things Meant to Be Stars ⭐

Karma is a bitch and Lilah Darling is here to dish it. I was gutted at the end of Part 1 and it's not surprising that our heroine has been turned into a bitter knife wielding avenger in this instalment.

All you have to do is follow your dreams. It's our job to convince you we're part of them.

The men of Pack Wyvern have a lot of hard truths to face and plenty of remorse to deal with after the way things ended with both their omegas Lilah and Orion. Trust me, Part 2 of Pack Darling is jam packed with excessive drama, loads of groveling and plenty of push back. But one thing hasn't changed. Lilah's heat is fast approaching, will she choose them?

I'm out of options.
Places to run.
Places to hide.
Just finally fucking out of willpower to resist.
All I can do is give in.

Honestly I can't fault this author's quality of writing because the characters leapt from the pages and the story itself was addictive. However, it lacked balance. I love a gritty storyline and but there wasn't enough romance in my opinion for a reverse harem. It required a lot of reading till we got any real intimacy or steam. Two books in and I was truly wondering if there would be a HEA…so okay there finally was!

[Rain · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to love Pack Darling Part II after enjoying the first book, but this one just didn’t work for me. At all. It felt like a complete shift in tone and logic, and not in a good way.

Slightly spoilery review below:

The world-building got muddier, not clearer. The way the relationships are handled just erased any sense of sexual orientation or emotional nuance. If everyone is attracted to omegas regardless of gender, does that mean everyone’s bi? But only women can get pregnant, so add a female to the pack for breeding purposes?

Then there’s Orion, who’s had plenty of experience with men but has never been with a woman, and yet somehow knows exactly how to please Lilah without hesitation? It just didn’t make sense.

Lilah’s pickiness about potential heat partners didn’t make sense either, her relationships are temporary (on purpose), so why does she care so much if some pack likes opera music?

What frustrated me most was how none of the alphas were truly held accountable for how they treated Lilah. There were surface-level apologies, sure, but no real reckoning. At the same time, Lilah herself wasn’t blameless in how things fell apart in the first book. She never took responsibility for hiding her scent, distancing herself from the pack, or refusing to spend time with them. So as much as a good, groveling redemption arc would’ve been satisfying, what I really wanted was for all of these characters to show more maturity and self-awareness.

Jett’s storyline especially fell flat. The book hints that he’s a survivor of SA and avoids female omegas, but it’s barely explored. And the resolution, to have him becoming submissive for Lilah, felt forced. Why not allow him to heal in a way that still honors his need for control?

And honestly, the men de-evolved, becoming less alpha. What happened to the beautiful m/m relationship? The pack dynamics felt so off-balance.

I don’t mind messy, complicated dynamics, but this book was a major disappointment.

[Rose · Rating 2 out of 5]

Gosh, I’m not sure what happened here. I adored book one, even recced it to multiple other readers, but book two is a mess. I’m not sure if I overlooked the editing issues and writing style because the emotional connection and responses were so strong in book one but here it was glaringly obvious that there are issues. I struggled with the constant “jokes”, slang, and little quips. Majorly struggled, most of this was read with me cringing and my husband laughing at my facial expressions and huffs and puffs. The “jokes” were constant so the whole tone of the book felt way different from book one.

The author did a poor job of reintroducing us to the story. When book one ends it’s at a super intense moment, a moment that the whole book has been leading up to, and while I liked the beginning of book two the author didn’t build those emotions up enough and remind us of how we should be feeling. I felt disconnected the whole time. So then by 30% I just stopped caring about any of them. She never got me back. If you’re going to write a duet each book needs to sort of stand on its own and this doesn’t. You need to read them back to back to help propel you into this.

I wish she would have just pushed this one back further because it reads rushed. She was Ill prepared and that’s okay because she really thought no one was going to read book one but like then just push it back! You already pushed it back three months. But she couldn’t. Once you push it back once you can’t push it back again without losing all the preorders on Amazon. So now after reading this I’m left with a bad taste in my mouth because this book wasn’t ready, the author wasn’t ready, but I have major suspicions that she released just because she didn’t want to lose that money from the pre-orders. This is Gas or Ass all over again.

I don’t think I’ll read this author again unless she goes into KU and that’s still a major maybe and I would only read stand-alones by her. lol, my trust is destroyed.

[Kelamity · Rating 1 out of 5]

I only read the first book because the 2nd book had a September publication date. The date is now January without any warning. Feels like bait and switch.———————————————————————————————————

I finished the second book, and I am not changing my review. Only a third of the book is the main feature, like at a zoo, and the rest is the antelopes, filler.

[G · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars
I was very lucky to receive an arc. As soon as it was on my kindle I demolished it in one go.
Part 2 was sooo good.
This book delves more into what makes each pack member tick and some of their backstory. Jett's history was truly heartbreaking...and his revenge was oh so sweet. It was great to see the guys getting the help they needed to better themselves and the pack as a whole. LOVED reading about the Alpha classes, witnessing Atlas prioritise Lilah and Orion made me feel happy on their behalf.
The grovelling was *chef's kiss*
I wish there was an extended epilogue, but I could see how the Wyvern Pack might be in future books.
As always Finn and Orion were my favourites. Slightly more Finn than Orion but that was due to his craziness
All in all highly recommend this duet!!

[Aplis · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm here feeling extremely dissatisfied. This book robbed any kind of hope I had before I started reading.

First off, what exactly was Lilah getting revenge for from the Wyvern Pack? I agree that, in the previous book, the alphas ignoring Lilah during her heat and screaming at her to leave Orion's nest was crazy harsh..but THEY DIDN'T KNOW SHE WAS IN HEAT. She "didn't even explain" what was happening to her.
Yes, the pack was rude to her since day one. ✔️
Yes, they put her in the basement and ignored her existence. ✔️
Because NOBODY WANTED ANOTHER OMEGA.
Everyone was content with Orion despite the pack having underlying issues.

Also, I just couldn't get why Lilah kept wanting to flaunt her time with Orion in the hopes that Atlas could "drown in his jealousy" all because she had to "endure" him and Orion when they had sex throughout the night in the previous book. Atlas was having sex with Orion..his "OMEGA" and no one knew Lilah was their fated omega IN THE FIRST PLACE. So who is really at fault here?! Definitely not Atlas and not Orion.

Ever since Lilah figured out that she's the pack's fated omega, she made sure to keep it a secret to not hurt/anger Orion. Whenever she felt that her scent was coming out of her, she ran or swam like a crazy human in the hopes that she wouldn't approach heat, thereby preventing anyone to scent her or figure out if she's their true omega. So basically..Lilah can't simply go around blaming everyone else when they didn't want her or didn't even expect her existence in the first place.

And I don't get how she easily forgave Orion. I love Orion, but in the previous book, Lilah knew that he was the reason why she couldn't be with her pack. And suddenly he's all "I'm all for you Lilah, fuck everyone else" and she just greets him with open arms!! Like what?! 🤔

And you get "more than half of this book" about her keeping all the alphas at arm's length. She doesn't really make them "grovel". I appreciate good grovelling scenes. Who am I kidding?! I love them! But there was nothing mildly interesting here. Lilah's way to make the pack pay for their "mistakes" was to,
a) make claims about never joining their pack
b) make her new goal about going into pack rotation where she would choose different packs whenever she approached heat and
c) burn the Wyvern pack's taste buds by making them eat spicy food.
*Like BITCH PLEASEEEE*
Eventhough I don't get why they need to really grovel apart for the unfortunate scene that happened towards the end of book 1, where's the so-called "I'll make them pay" statements from the ending of the last book?! Basically it was just all talk and getting readers hyped for nothing.

To be honest, I was hoping that they would settle their issues before the 50% mark. Imagine my surprise when the book is more than halfway done, and they are nowhere close to forming a pack!! 😬 I felt frustrated and had the ickiest feeling because I "did not sign up for this slow-burn shit". I appreciate a good slow-burn, but this was not something I "wanted to read"! 😒

Unpacking Jett's trauma and suddenly making everything feel alright was just plain weird. His entire story wasn't even made clear because he mentioned something along the lines of probably being abused by many other omegas which wasn't really elaborated. To be honest, I was hoping to see him work to get Lilah's acceptance because he's treated her like shit since day one. But he does some grand gestures and suddenly she's on the path of forgiving him. However, not gonna lie, what Jett did to those girls..EPIC. 🤯

And what about what actually happened to Finn? We know he was kidnapped as a child and was forced to kill someone and this incident made him go dark. But none of that was elaborated to the readers nor talked about to Lilah.

Also, I don't get how everyone is suddenly Team Lilah. The book isn't clear about how long Orion has been the omega for the pack, but everyone was devoted to him ever since his first heat. The book, Pack Darling: Awakening, basically describes how Orion comes into heat and how everyone mates with him and makes him their omega. So you get that whole scene, and suddenly in this book, Orion is almost transformed into another alpha......? Huh?!
We only see Atlas treating Orion like an omega but that too is limited. Everyone else only has eyes for Lilah just because they realise she's their fated omega. I can get behind Finn being obsessed with Lilah because he's always gone behind her, before he figured out that she's his mate. But yeah..everyone just forgets that they mated and took care of Orion as their omega all this time..like what?! And how is Orion okay with everyone not tending to his needs?! There was one scene in book one where Finn used a term of endearment for Lilah and that disturbed Orion. In this book, Orion basically doesn't care about how he's an omega and his omega needs. 🤦🏾‍♀️ And yes, I know his bond with Atlas is more stronger than his bond with the others but still...he was their pack omega 👀

And DO NOT GET ME STARTED on the side story of the pack that kept wanting to kidnap Lilah. Like you write numerous scenes where everyone's trying to kidnap Lilah and when she's finally taken, she easily escapes and manages to kill the enemy in like 5 seconds?! 🤷🏾‍♀️ Why waste all those words and pages on this useless plothole when you could have developed the pack romance instead?!!

So, my verdict?
Book one was great!
What about book 2?
Book 2 was a freaking tease.😑

[Valkyrie ✨ · Rating 4 out of 5]

September 2024: Listened to the audio book. Bumped this one star up. Binge read both books made this one make a lot more sense than the first time when I had to wait for it.



Thanks to Lola Rock and her team for this ARC in exchange of an honest review.

Pack Darling Vol 2 is one of the most anticipated releases of 2022 and I predict it’ll be a huge success among omegaverse readers for many years to come.

The first book was an unexpected success and I could tell Lola Rock took into consideration all the feedback it generated. This second part deals with a lot of different plots and conflicts. There’s not a dull moment, with constant action and character development.

I’m not 100% satisfied with some plot points, mostly because I needed more development or focus on some of these characters’ traumas, but I can see the difficulty behind this project and all the care and craft behind this book.

I loved Lilah as much or probably more than in the first book. She made it into my top 10 favorite characters of 2021. And I believe she’s a big part of the huge success of this duology. It’s rare to find such an endearing female character. She was strong but full of insecurities. It was hard for her to show vulnerability but that only made this second book so much satisfying. The anticipation to see her finally opening up and trusting the Wyvern Pack was very satisfactory, and Lilah’s character development in this book was flawless. She also kicked so much ass, she got me panting 😮‍💨

She stayed strong even when the Wyvern Pack started to grovel and it took them time and to show their intentions through actions and not mere words for Lilah to open up to them. I loved that.

My only complain is about the Wyvern Pack and their groveling. I could feel the pressure Lola Rock was under to make them pay. She had them groveling so hard, they just stopped sounding like real people. And don’t get me wrong, I’m very much into the simping men trope, I need my men in fiction to be crazy about their women. But everything within reason lol

I won’t get into spoilers but Jett’s journey in this book is wild. There was a big reveal with him that I wasn’t expecting and I absolutely loved it. I didn’t care about Jett that much in the first book, and now I love him. So kudos for that lol Someone wrap him up in a warm blanket and give him a machete to cuddle with while his hair is being brushed, please.

Orion stays my favorite, though. And in this book he just got better. Their scenes together were electric and the story totally worked thanks to him. He was the key for Lilah to start opening up. I’m usually more attracted to beta or omega characters in omegaverse books and this wasn’t an exception. I’m convinced Orion and Lilah were the heart of this story, without their romance this book wouldn’t have worked as well as it did.

Atlas’ character development was… unexpected. Without getting into spoilers, I didn’t see it coming but I was there for every second of it. Lola Rock managed to make me go from loathing the dude in the first book to thinking he’s the most endearing mothereffing teddy bear. What’s up with that sorcery?

And Hunter *sighs in horny* turned into this solid, mature, reliable Alpha Daddy… just yes to everything. YES.

Overall, this duology was fantastic and a solid addition to the sweet omegaverse subgenre. Can’t wait to see what Lola Rock has in store for us next.

[Ari · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

This just wasn't really what i wanted or expected

I feel like Lilah's personality changed a lot and not in a way i liked

I think the guys personalities changed to just be "LILAH"

Atlas is the only one i feel like had some character development

I didn't feel the groveling, we didn't really get an apology

It wasn't a bad book but just not as good as the first one at all

[cha · Rating 5 out of 5]

-ˋˏ4.75 stars

“Because when you hurt and you hurt and you hurt, disappearing is better than feeling.”

LORDDDDDD WHAT THE ACTUAL HELLLLL. I think God saw how much I've suffered lately and gave me the groveling book of my dreams. This entire series had me stunlocked. The end of the first book was the most painful punch to the gut, but it was a necessary evil because holy ANGST and GROVEL. 98% of this book was pretty much just them begging Lilah to give them a second of her day. AS THEY SHOULD!!!

Lilah was the strongest heroine ever. All the shit she endured growing up, and then the miserable shit she had to go through because of the guys.. yet she never once put herself as the victim. Her biggest no-no was letting the guys know how terrified she actually was all the time. She wanted them as far away from her as possible and it was killing the guys. GOOD. MAKE THEM SUFFER.



But JJ. THEY CAN NEVER MAKE ME HATE YOU.

For the longest time my number 1 favorite was Finn. Because he was always kinda nice to Lilah from the beginning. Usually the nice guy of the pack wouldn't be my fave, but what Lilah was going through was SO devastating, it almost gave me an ulcer. I clung to any hint of kindness towards Lilah, and at the time Finn was the only one who, kind of, put her first in a way? Not out of love or care, he was just crazy, but she needed someone in her corner so badly that I had to take what I could get LMAO 😭

Yall gonna read the book and then be like "Finn? Put her first? Where?" 😭😭 LISTEN everyone was so focused on Orion, and not saying that Finn didn't care, but he was unhinged enough to openly defend/flirt with Lilah in front of Orion and it was satisfying to me.

BUT back to JJ. MY MAN. THE alpha Lilah deserves. He did EVERYTHING right in this book. His grovel was CHEF'S KISS. His story pained me the most, and his effort made me cry the hardest.

“Giving you my leash. Use me. Hate me. Punish me. Don’t think you can love me, but I’m already yours. I’ve always been yours, even when I forgot. I won’t forget again. Can’t. There’s nothing left of me but you.”

I MEAN COME ONNNNNNNNNN




SAVE US JJ 😭😭😭😭 he's the only one who's Lilah's and Lilah's ALONE. and what I mean by this is aside from pack brotherhood bond & love, he doesn't give a fuck about Orion. He's Lilah's, body and soul in this life and the afterlife. JJ FOR PRESIDENT!!!

“You own me. Tell me who to kill. What you need. I’m yours, Lilac.”

He was so mean and cold in book 1 and then he went and say shit like that in book 2?? THE CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT!!

Still hate Atlas. Will probably always hate Atlas. Had mega expectations for him and he didn't meet them. I know everyone was satisfied with his character growth and ended up loving him, but I'm a jealous bitch, and most of all, I am super petty. I ain't forgettin nothin. In my professional opinion, he was THE main cause of Lilah's suffering in book 1.

Atlas' groveling in this book was WEAK. Every time he said something nice or possessive about Lilah it would always be followed by Orion's name in the next sentence. "Want to protect Lilah. And Orion." "Want to get to Lilah. And Orion." LIKE I GET IT DUDE. I got it in book 1 and I got it in this.

I don't think I would mind it if it came from the other guys (Hell, I wish Orion was with Finn instead because fuck Atlas), but I think Atlas fucked up & hurt Lilah THE MOST, I wanted him crawling on his hands and knees for Lilah. He should be the one acting like Finn, getting a giant ass LILAH tattoo on his chest, or like Jett/JJ, bowing, forehead on the fucking floor, putting a collar on himself and giving the leash to Lilah.

BUT NOOOOOO he barely did shit. Like I was supposed to forgive him because he learned to cook? He was the one with the least amount of reasons to love Lilah but the most reasons to love Orion. Felt like he wanted Lilah purely because of fated mate instinct.

I'll also die on the hill that if Atlas' mentally stunted brain didn't make Orion the Wyvern pack's omega in the first place, this would've never happened. It was obviously NOT the right decision for everyone involved, especially Orion, seeing how miserable he was being their omega.

And Lilah had to pay for his dumb mistake. Couldn't be with HER fated mates. So, in conclusion, FUCK Atlas.



Oh, and spoiler alert, guess who's the only one Atlas ever said "I love you" to? Yep, you guessed it.

I know this makes me look like I don't like Orion. I swear I LOVE HIM 😭 I think he deserved WAY better, and definitely WAYYY better than Atlas. But I just wanted all the best things for Lilah, especially after seeing her getting kicked left and right emotionally and physically in book 1 😭 And I loved Orion's strong bond with Lilah, but the book was TOO focused on their relationship, it felt like it was trying too hard to convince everyone that Orion didn't make Lilah jealous and vice versa. It would've been better if the time was spent less on Orion's relationship with Lilah and maybe give that bonding time to.. you know, Atlas.

As for Hunter and Finn. No complaints. Hunter could grovel a little more I guess and by more I mean kneel LOLLLL but it was obvious he was super regretful & wanted Lilah as his mate badly. And don't get me started on Finn. HE STAYS being my comfort character. Making him super obsessed with Lilah was the best decision the author could've made about his character. It was so on brand and so Finn and honestly very hot.

ANYWAYS. What an introduction to omegaverse. I definitely picked the right series. Gonna spend the next few days googling "books with grovel like Pack Darling" now LMAOOOOOO the hungover is REAL

“All you have to do is follow your dreams. It’s our job to convince you we’re part of them.”

[Beatriz · Rating 1 out of 5]

Honestly I was disappointed with this book.

The beginning was really good, but then I kept waiting and waiting for Lilah to have individual scenes with the boys to deal with their shit and she just had it with Orion (who I still blame for this whole mess). Something that I hate about RH, is how the authors don't build the individual relationships between the heroes and the heroine, they're going to be in a relationship all together, but they can still have a relationship only between two people, you know? and she did it between Lilah and Orion, but not between Lilah and the other guys.

Hunter was still just there? Him trying to be the Pack leader just fell flat, he clearly didn't wanted it, and then he becomes the Director of Wyvern House, like, NO, give me some growth and I'll believe that he could become the director after just 2 months of becoming pack leader.

Atlas becoming the house husband was so out of character, that it made me cringe while reading it. I was really expecting him to see what he did wrong and try to be a better person while still leading the pack, but his entire personality just became Lilah and Orion.

Jett's issue could had been dealt so much better and I found the way that it was, so meh, I was expecting him to become this super Alpha guy but he became a puppy.

I still love Finn, he's definitely my favourite character of the whole pack.

I felt like the boys put the blame for their fuck up on their fathers and I would believe it if the fathers and sons relationship were more flashed, but it wasn't, it was barely scratched.

I didn't liked how it seemed like Orion had more sexy times than Lilah, I mean he had two in the first book and then had some more in the second, while she only really had one heat scene with all the guys and one with again Orion, I felt like this was more of a Orion book, and it irritated me.

Lilah's heat scene was so underwhelming, her being passed from guy to guy to get her bite, was just meh. I really wished that each of the guys had claimed her on their own "scene".

The end of the book basically confirms that Lola will write the story of Lilah's friend Marisol and I really want to read it, to maybe get a little baby Wyvern because Lilah was clearly thinking about it.

Lola writes really well and the book is good, I guess that I just expected something more.

[Nikki ღ Navareus · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have been so stoked for this part 2 of Pack Darling ever since I finished the first part of the story, but for me this book suffered the dreaded curse of the sequel that tanked. I don't know if I just psyched myself up too much for this part 2 of the story or what, but I was so disappointed in the direction this entire story took. I really didn't like Lilah at all in this story, and all the guys turned into different characters completely. This is definitely a "this is me, not the book" thing for me because the storytelling was fine, I just didn't like the story that was told.

[Lacey (laceybooklovers) · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars! I loved this sequel even more than book 1, but this is to no one's surprise because it was basically all grovel from the alphas. Atlas, Hunter, Finn, and Jett messed up big time at the end of part 1 and hurt Lilah terribly. Thankfully, she makes them work for her forgiveness and she even tries to find herself a new pack, so jealousy and groveling ensues. My only hangup though is that I was looking for the steam that was missing in part 1 and I still didn't get enough of it in part 2. Tbh I don’t know why the blurb says the heat is high because it's not. More like a medium lol. But besides the steam that was left until the very very end, it really was a great duet. I had so much fun reading it, and I can say my favorite of the guys is easily Finn, the psycho of the group.

[Kate V · Rating 2 out of 5]

Unfortunately, this was...not great. It didn't work for me for many reasons.

1. Way too long with no actual forward pushing plot points. It felt stagnant with the same things being said and done over and over.
2. No actual romance except between Lilah and Orion. Might as well have just deleted the Alphas from the story and written about Lilah and Orion. I would have preferred it.
3. I didn't like the whole two Omegas concept no matter the bond that they share.
4. Hunter, Jett, Finn and Atlas...they're Alphas. I expected them to act like Alphas even if they needed to grovel (which they definitely needed to). Instead...I got four men who cut off their balls and extinguished their sexy dominance and nature.
5. The groveling went on for WAY too long and it wasn't the type of groveling I wanted. Putting a collar on an alpha, crawling/kissing an Omega's feet and being all weirdly beta sweet is not sexy. It's actually a little gag inducing.
6. Lilah had an identity crisis. Is she a submissive whiny Omega? A badass b*tch? I think she was meant to be both but the two identities were not meshed well.
7. I still didn't understand the Alphas and their history all that well and it dragged the story down.

Look...the writing is good and the first book in this series was good even if it did rip my heart out. I had high expectations for this story and many loved it. I'm glad for that but it didn't play out the way I envisioned and I suppose that's on me rather than the author.

[Sarah Wagner · Rating 3 out of 5]

Book delayed the launch without letting people know.

[Buksie · Rating 2 out of 5]

What a let down, this book is a mess. Compared to the first book, this feels like fan-fiction.

There was no character development, they just rewrote the characters and hoped we would not notice it. I could not connect with the characters, as they were not the characters I was initially introduced to.

I usually love the psychotic mate trope, but here, it was done horribly. And somehow Finn and Jett became the same person, who was co-dependant.

Apart from Orion, it feels like Lola forgot about the other male characters. I missed them, as I didn’t feel their presence in this book.

This book suffer from the constant changing of POVs. The different POVs didn’t add to the book as they where all about Lilah, Lilah, LILAH. Nothing else was happening in these characters lives that wasn’t directed linked to Lilah.

This book lacked conversations between Lilah and each member of her harem, and Orion with his pack-mates. This would have allowed the men to apologise (which they didn’t) and allow us to understand their behaviour (without relying on book one). Orion needed to have a conversation with the pack, in regards to the types of relationships he wants to have with them.

The Wyvern Pack went from; we have to protect Orion at all costs, to, Orion who? It’s all about Lilah.

[↬ Ⓛ]

What a letdown. 😩

Part 1 was way better than what Part 2 is giving. I had higher hopes for this one, but it just didn’t hit the same.

[Jennasis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rating a book you're looking forward to reading 1 star because it gets delayed is some kind of dumbass backwards thinking.

Whether the choice to delay this was from the Author, or not, I'm rating this five stars to support this author, this series, and as a reflection of how excited I am to get to read this next installment when it releases.

At the end of the day this is her story, I'm just glad it exists in the first place.

[Nadia · Rating 1 out of 5]

1 star

I feel like I had too high of hopes for this book. I wish the book focused more on giving Lilah a life outside of the pack and having her really trying to heal herself even if that means being courted by others for a while. I feel like too much was going on that I didn't get the right amount of closure for anything.

I also hated how Orion played the victim. He blamed all of the alphas for their behavior and losing Lilah... when really he loved all of the attention he got as the omega and they were doing it to protect him and he didn't speak up about it because he didn't want to be second fiddle to Lilah.

[Bex (Beckie Bookworm) · Rating 3 out of 5]

So here we get the aftermath of that previous gripping cliffhanger and to be honest I’m slightly torn over my rating of this second book. Whilst it was again very well written and I did enjoy bits of this it just didn’t have the same impact on me as its predecessor. I adored part one but this just seemed to go down an entirely different path. It’s not a bad book I was just left feeling rather underwhelmed especially after such delicious anticipation.

So straight off I never felt the pack properly sat down and apologised enough for the way they had acted like used their actual words. Yes, they were obviously contrite and sorry but I did feel it was more about them and that it was only because they had discovered Lilah was their scent mate that they were now backtracking and wallowing in their guilt and remorse. The grovel which I was so looking forward to just didn’t satisfy me enough yes they emphasised their regret but it didn’t hit me on a deeper level and leaving her alone to overthink in the aftermath was a really silly move on their part.

I wanted them to go all growly alpha mine on Lilah and instead they went all bloody beta practically acting subservient like all of the time which was disappointing. It was all about letting her choose and respecting her choices and they treated Lilah with kid gloves which is fine and all but that’s not what I’m after in an omegaverse story. I want primal beating of the chests and bossy alpha males that are badass and all instinct but still openly adore their woman. These boys turned into bloody pussycats and had complete personality changes when it came to their mate.

I felt the grovel that we did get went on for far too long and I definitely didn’t like the overall dynamic change. Case in point with Jett his behaviour just didn’t feel natural or authentic to me. Don’t even get me started on Atlas what even happened with him he turned into such a sap and not in a good way.

The mating and final heat was also dragged out to the very end I don’t mind slow-burn but this seemed to take forever to get to this point and when we eventually did it was again underwhelming this also definitely lacked something in the chemistry department.

I did like the unique aspect of having two omegas in the pack and the unusual bonding they shared but I also feel this overtook the story and it was at the detriment of other characters who then didn’t get time to shine. To me, it did start to feel a bit like the Lilah and Orion show and the rest of the pack began to take a back seat in the current hierarchy.

I’m going to chalk this one up to me just not appreciating the story direction as I mentioned earlier the writing was actually good and an easy fit which is the main reason I’m rating it three stars. I’m still glad I read it but I do think part two unfortunately didn’t deliver quite the same punch as the first book.



Reviewed By Beckie Bookworm
https://www.bookbub.com/profile/63435390

[Ella · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ouch. This very much reminds me of the Prowl Series by AJ Merlin, where we had a really good, promising first book, but then the sequel fell absolutely flat.

What I liked:

✅ Lilah's and Orion's relationship - the two of them were seriously adorable together

✅ I liked how the pack dynamics were developing in the first fourth or so of the book (after that, not so much, but in the beginning I was excited)

But honestly, other than that I cannot really point at other specific things I particularly liked... these are the things that bothered me:

❌ Where was the romance? like yeah, I understand that they were all scent matches/mates, and when the guys realized this at the end of the last book they went absolutely feral, but what is it about Lilah they love? I think her and Orion's relationship was developed quite nicely in the last book, so I absolutely understood why he fell so hard for her, but the others? Besides her being a scent match, there was really no reason for them to go so feral over her in this book? and they all never really got to know her beyond that surface level attraction

❌ in connection to that, everyone besides Lilah, Orion and maybe Atlas was hilariously underdeveloped. I think this was not just a problem here, but also in the previous book, cause when I started reading this book and tried to remember each character (besides the three mentioned), I honestly came up blank as to who they each were and what there defining characteristic and background was

❌ look, there was grovelling, quite a bit actually, but... it almost felt over the top? looking back, I don't think they all ever talked about what happened at the end of book one? the guys were just super sorry, tried to shower Lilah with gifts and doing things for her, but they never actually emotionally dealt with the events of book one (at least imo)

❌ usually I love when the alphas/heroes are super posessive/strong and can fuck everyone up, but tbh I didn't really like how they were seemingly the only ones able to protect Lilah here, cause then it just seemed like she had no choice but to choose them. of course I wanted her to choose them, but this way it just felt cheap, especially cause she didn't really built a deep relatiosnhip with anyone besides Orion

❌I was a bit weirded out by how dismissive most of them were about Orion at the beginning of this novel? idk, maybe this was set up in book one, but I thought the others (besides Atlas) also felt strongly about Orion, so I was confused about the events in the second half. Overall I didn't really enjoy the way the pack dynamic developed in the latter part of the book

❌ I cannot really put my finger on it, but there was something about the writing in this book that bothered me. I think mostly it was some weird expressions/sentences that had me stop and reread them several times. but that might just be personal preference

Overall an okay-ish sequel if you want to know what happens to the pack, but it did not really live up to the world and dynamics created in book one.

[Barbarzynka · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cóż mogę powiedzieć, literatura dla koneserów gatunku 🤣🤣🤣

[Miftahul · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh god! I finished this in one sitting 😭😭 i really really thought that there is no way the guys can redeem themselves, especially Jett. But holy shit! I love him so much! This book was the perfect ending for this series. I absolutely love Lilah, she is adorable, kinda vulnerable but hella strong. Orion gotta be my favourite and Damn Hunter. Damn damn. I never expected to see this side of him. Finn is also my forever crazy boy. I seriously didnt expect that Atlas and Lilah could have their individual relationship cuz Orion and all, but wow. Lola literally writes perfection😭✋️. I loved Atlas’s change. Overall i am so happy with this book. Worth the time and i love all the characters. Jett my baby 😭😭😭

[Sophia Triad · Rating 5 out of 5]

He takes a deep breath.
When his eyes pop open, I reel.
He doesn’t just drop to his knees.
He drops to his elbows and puts his forehead on the ground. “I’m sorry.”
I hesitate, not sure what to do with this fragile, crazy boy who I’ve loved and I’ve hated and I don’t forgive.

Such a great grovelling second and final part of the story!

I will definitely reread these two books 😉🌶

[Vivianne · Rating 1 out of 5]

The book is not even delayed by a few weeks but literal months. Like how can you come up with such a time difference between expection date and reality?

[evi ౨ৎ˚⟡˖ · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a disappointing follow up book 🤷‍♀️

I can see why Lola Rock decided to pursue certain storylines for this book, but those storylines didn't work for me. I didn't connect with this book like how I connected with the previous book. And the annoying issues I chose to overlook in the previous book (mainly because it was a debut book) continue in this book and I can no longer ignore them because they distracted my reading experience.

I could write a coherent review but I don't care enough so below are random points that come to mind.

💫 Lilah continues in being one of my favorite distinct and complex protagonists. I adore Lilah. Love her snark. Love her feral independence. Love her little violent heart and obsession with sharp objects. I was rooting for Lilah in the first book because here we have a tough as f--k but emotionally complex protagonist. Yes, please, I want more. She isn't free of faults. Huge internalized misogyny and slut-shaming and petty vindictiveness are a few faults. But faults add to complexity which I always prefer over saintly Mary Sues.

💫 Orion is the best. No one can compare. I was heart eyes at him throughout the whole book. His character arc was chef's kiss. I love this sweet, soft boy. Second favorite character after Lilah.

💫 It was nice to see all of the love interests in the reverse harem go through some growth and for each to have a character arc. Lots of reverse harem romances often have trouble with creating character arcs for all of the love interests. But I do admit, some arcs were better than others (more about that below).

💫 The feminist tone to how all of the boys ensured throughout the book that it was Lilah's choice to choose them (or not) for her heat and relationship was my catnip. So f--king hot. Consent in an omegaverse romance? Yes, please. I loved how the boys didn't bully or pressure Lilah and supported any decision she made, even if she chose another pack. They just wanted to be with her and make sure she was happy. We love genuinely supportive love interests.

💫 There was a good structure to this book. It was a little repetitive of the first book (mostly the second half which was a predictable repeat of the end events in the first book), but nothing too distracting to ruin the reading experience. The story beats worked better in this book and there appeared to be less filler compared to the first book.

💫 There is more 🔥spice 🔥 in this book compared to the first. I always welcome more spice. It's not a lot more but a noticeable increase from the first book.

💫 I am thrilled that romance books are now talking more about therapy for trauma. Maybe it was the influence of Ted Lasso becoming such a big thing, but I am seeing more mentions of therapy in recent romance books and I love it. The dumb trope of "tru wuv" being a magical cure for trauma can go f--k itself. Lots of romance books love to include deeply traumatized love interests but refuse to mention therapy 👀 Normalize therapy. Every single character here needed therapy, especially Lilah, but we're starting with baby steps.

⛔️ Please get an editor. Books need editors for a reason. It was blatantly obvious this book had never seen an editor.

⛔️ For f--k's sake, stop having large sections where each sentence only includes one word or a few words.

Short.
Choppy sentences.
Like.
These.
Are f--king.
Annoying.
To.
Read.

This only pads the page count so the book artificially appears longer. This is a brilliant technique to sparingly use to build up tension. But if this technique is overused for roughly about 35% of the book? That is just bad writing. There is a reason why the cliché exists that new and inexperienced writers often overuse this technique. It screams inexperienced writer.

⛔️ The cliffhanger at the end of the first book promised massive amounts of angst for this book... Did this book deliver? Sad to say, nope 😭 This book was surprisingly cheerful and sweet for the majority of the book? I never felt any deep emotions even though there were some truly f--ked up parts and subject matters in the book. I get that the theme of the book is all about healing from trauma and all that so my promised angst was sacrificed so that the characters could heal and grow... But I can't help that I was disappointed.

I saw in the acknowledgements that Lola Rock is besties with Kathryn Moon who writes super saccharine omegaverse romances, so maybe this is a result of Moon's influence?

⛔️ I was especially disappointed because readers were promised that Lilah would make her boys suffer and grovel on their knees for what they did to her. Did she? No 😭 Lilah is written as super vengeful (love this) so I was expecting some dark romance level f--kery to happen. Make them cry. Make them bleed. Make them regret ever hurting my girl. But no. Lilah was so soft and forgave them so fast. My best boy Orion gets a pass, but the other boys? No. Lilah should have made them suffer.

I have a theory that maybe Lola Rock had a darker storyline in mind because there were hints that book 2 would be darker and maybe changing it was what led to the book being delayed and pushed back for months? Who knows. Don't care. The story we got was not the story that was promised. I was expecting a s@distic angsty f-ckfest 🥺

⛔️ Every character sounded the same. It was extremely distracting. No character had a distinct voice. Every single character dropped words when starting their sentences and had the same speech patterns in their dialogue and inner thoughts. There was zero effort here. I tolerated this for the first book because it was a debut book, but no more. Just making the love interest's POV have choppier sentences and use more "bro language" does not make them distinct when the "voice" is the same as Lilah's voice in her POV.

⛔️ The "not-like-other-girls" trope and internalized misogyny was insufferable. This is such an issue in NA romances that at this point it is a genre expectation. Writing every other girl character as a jealous mean girl out to steal away the love interest? Only writing elderly motherly characters as nice characters and every other young girl as a piece of sh-t? Making Lilah hate anything girly and reject makeup and frilly stuff and only like workout clothes? WHY???? Internalized misogyny everywhere as far as the eye can see.

⛔️ Minus my perfect cinnamon roll Orion, the love interests were not that great here. None of them, except maybe Finn, perked my interest in the first book (because they were honestly kind of boring). I thought they would improve here and have hotter chemistry with Lilah. They did somewhat but not enough for me to truly like them like how I adore Lilah and Orion.

Atlas: 3/5 stars. What happened? I love a soft boy who can cook. I love a supportive love interest. But his character suddenly went from being the arrogant leader to becoming a happy chef boyfriend with not enough character development in between to make it believable. It was like character development whiplash.

Finn: 2/5 stars. What character development? He had the most lacking character arc. Also he sort of became a caricature of his personality from the first book in this book. He was the punchline to too many jokes to the point he almost didn't feel like a main character and was just there as comedic relief. I wanted more Finn from the first book. First book Finn was superior because he actually felt like he had some depth.

Hunter: 2/5 stars. He's sweet and caring enough but his character arc was not much of a thing. Not much to say because he was almost a supporting character in the first book as Finn's babysitter and his presence didn't improve much here. If I'm being 100% honest... Hunter has a plot purpose here in this book in initiating the pack to break the mate bonds and becoming the new pack leader so Atlas can chill, but he doesn't have a distinct identity in the pack. Maybe he's the stable and normal one... I guess... The boring and forgettable one.

Jett/JJ: 3/5 stars. His character arc was well done but he is another example of character development whiplash. Like Atlas, he needed much more character development to go from Jett to JJ. There weren't enough scenes and he didn't spend much time with Lilah. Though JJ embracing his sub side was f--king hot.

⛔️ One of the worst things was that the romance was severely lacking in chemistry and believability. And the number one sin of a reverse harem is that the romances between the characters were uneven. It was believable that Lilah loved Orion and Orion loved her back. But not so much with the others...

Lilah x Atlas? Not really. They needed to spend more time together. Atlas hated her in the first book and now he's suddenly panting after her and wants to be her happy chef boyfriend? So not believable.

Lilah x Finn? Yes in the first book. Not so much here. There were the beginnings of a cute relationship in the first book. In this book, Finn has a one-sided co-dependent obsession. Lilah didn't seem to care much about him here. She barely thought of him in this book.

Lilah x Hunter? Not really because there's not much chemistry. There was not much anything He cares for her and Lilah seems to be happy he's around. Is this love though? No. On an emotional level, they haven't advanced out of the pleasantly liking each other stage.

Lilah x Jett/JJ? Yes for chemistry but no for a relationship because they barely spent time together here. And in the first book, he despised her. Like Jett/JJ was actively gleeful to emotionally wound Lilah. This complicated relationship needed much more time spent on it.

⛔️ The cringe was too much. I gave it a pass for the first book because there was no editor for that book so I thought no one told Lola Rock that trying to be super "edgy" was just cringe. I hoped it would improve in the second book. NOPE. It continues in this book and I can't excuse it any more because it felt somehow worse in this book and it sometimes made serious scenes unintentionally hilarious.

📌 I'll just sprinkle a few sentences here that I highlighted while reading that made me think these parts were written on cold medicine. Some of these are Dad jokes level bad or just plain cringe. If my friends had to suffer in the group chat, might as well spread the joy.

I clutch Kieran’s knife strap, waiting for them to drop the other shoe. Hope it’s a stiletto, because I’ll stab them with the heel if they try to tell me what to do.

I offer my hand, Aladdin asking Jasmine to jump on the carpet and go for a magic ride.

And my pussy twerks, announcing that it wants an alpha’s knot...

If I had a whole deck of alphas, I wouldn’t mind one wildcard. But can’t risk myself on jokers. I need kings.

Because of her, my childhood went off the rails and into a swamp.

Hunter’s posture is easy, but his muscle isn’t just for show-even if the show is good enough to be pay-per-view.

They stormed the castle. I tried flaming arrows and boiling oil, but I forgot. Wyverns can fly.

⛔️ The mention of the two new bits of world building here seemed like they were thought up only for this book's plot because there was no mention of them in the previous book. And that idea was so distracting whenever these popped up in the book. Foreshadowing is a thing but not here. One could also be argued as a plot hole.

So I wasn't the only one thinking the magically disappearing mate bites after breaking the mate bond (you're telling me that scar tissue literally magically fades away?) and the heat spikes were only thought up after publishing the first book, right? And they were extremely convenient in this book to create certain situations.

If heat spikes are a thing, why weren't they mentioned before in the first book when Lilah was getting close to her heat and experiencing almost heat symptoms? Also, why didn't Lilah mention this because she was explaining all the other world building info about heats.

Changing the mate bond to be an impermanent thing kind of ruins the huge stakes in the first book about mates being a forever thing to avoid. There was such a huge emphasis on the mate bond being permanent but in this book they just go "nah" and quit? I feel like Lola Rock also saw how comically silly the logic is so the word "magic" was included to help readers accept this better.

Bite scars still loop his neck in a silver collar, but they’ll fade as the mystical mating magic dissolves and shows his freedom on his skin.

⚠️ TW: Ableist slur. In the year 2022, why is there an ableist slur in a romance book? It is a word play on the r-word that people often use. Word plays on slurs do not magically make them into non-slurs because the words are still used in the same way to harm and hurt like the original word. There is no pass because of the word play. There is no excuse for using any form of the r-word slur in this day and age.

“F*cktarts,” Max mutters.

⛔️ I was bored a lot. To me this is huge because I read fiction books for entertainment. The first book had slow parts when the story slowed down. But this book was also boring in the supposed action-y and exciting parts too. This book felt more laidback in both tone and pacing. Lilah lacked the desperation she had in the first book and there was less tension due to the different plot. These led to this book missing that book magic that made me read the first book in one sitting. I stopped several times while reading this book to do other stuff. It was quite uninteresting sometimes.

Final thoughts... This book was disappointing because it didn't meet my expectations but I will read Lola Rock's next book. There's potential and I really liked the parts that I liked even if they were few for this book.

[kels · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pros:

* I like the relationship between Lilah and Orion a lot
* I like that Atlas put the work into becoming a better person
* I like the writing and the story was interesting, with solid pacing
* I like that this wrapped up in 2 books. I absolutely hate series that drag out for 4-7 books so this was a *very* pleasant surprise.

Cons:

* Outside of Lilah and Orion, no one felt like they had truly distinct personalities outside of "LilahSimp4Life"; Finn is usually one of my favourite character tropes, but he didn't have enough depth to really work for me.
* I felt like Jett's trauma was glossed over and it wasn't a satisfying conclusion to his story at all
* I just don't love it when stories rely on women hating women to drive the plot