Rating: 3.8 / 5
For all that this book focuses in a lot on the alpha-omega dynamic for needing to have sex and whatnot...
...It was actually pretty sweet. Not perfect, but sweet.
So, what's the story? Well, your average human (Terran) girl, Elli, makes a wrong turn when speeding places, and ends up going through a wormhole to....the wrong planet, more or less. There, she quickly finds herself...er..."rescued", but also majorly horny at the same time as she discovers that she is in fact an omega, and the alpha who rescued her is pretty much a "need sex NOW" hottie--as in she needs sex, not necessarily the hottie.
But the hottie in question, Rhen, is actually a police officer/soldier/warrior who's tasked with making sure the other alphas don't get out of hand, so it goes without saying that he's not looking to lose control himself. Because which, Rhen feels himself to be "compromised", since his purr--a mechanism that's supposed to calm omegas down--doesn't work as well after an accident.
This makes no difference to Elli though, who's a cancer survivor and therefore also sees herself as "compromised". Through a series of expositions, basically she's stuck on the planet for a month, during which time it's guaranteed that she's going to "go into heat", and therefore needs a responsible alpha to "take care of her" during that time--aka give her mind-blowing sex because...I guess there's supposed to be a consequence for the "if not" option, except that we never really find out what that is.
Anyway, Rhen is top choice, and thus begins their "contract" in Heat for Hire.
____________
So...time to catalogue the pluses and minuses of this to give reads an idea of what's good and what's not-so-good about everything here:
Pluses
+ Both Elli and Rhen are likable enough characters. While I wouldn't say that they're particularly original or anything like that, I like them both fine and chances are you will too!
+ It's NOT just jumping straight into sex, despite the book's heavy dependence on this topic. Like...yes, Elli and Rhen both want and need to have sex with each other, but Elli's not into doing it right away (despite her horniness) and so insists that she and Rhen get to know each other better first. They do this, and it works out great!--that's the best news!
+ Elli and Rhen's bonding is mega cute! <3
+ Oh yeah, the sex scenes are also steamy and great. Whew! (It definitely makes it hotter knowing that it's a desperate NEED for both of them to get down and dirty, no matter how intense it gets. Oh, they both WANT to, no worries, but the NEED element also counts for a lot here.)
And now...
The Minuses
- Descriptions of Elli's "slick" make her sound like a waterfall, or a hot water bag just full and...leaking. Like, I get descriptions of horny women in this genre, I really do, but there's a difference between a "squirt" and a "hose", get me?
- The ONLY conflict in this book is the whole "are we just a contract or can we mean more to each other" commitment-or-not thing. See, on the one hand, both Rhen and Elli like each other, but because they're just having sex as a contract for the hormone-keep-under-control reason or whatever, their main conflict ends up being whether they want to commit to one another or not. See, I'm usually quite against contract-starter relationships in general, but this time I was willing to give it a try because it was an interesting enough premise. And the premise works fine, don't get me wrong; it's just that when it becomes the major conflict in the book that could easily be resolved if the characters just openly COMMUNICATED, suddenly the plot doesn't become as engaging anymore. It just opens doors for "stupid misunderstandings", and those are a big no-no for me in any and all contexts.
- And...I guess that if it all comes down to it, Rhen and especially Elli COULD have been given a bit more character. *cough cough* Just saying.
- And another thing, just for those of us who don't know as much about the whole "omegaverse" thing: a few of the rules like the difference between rutting and knotting and whatnot could have been explained in a bit more detail. *coughs coughs* Just saying.
_____________
So...yup, that's about it! All in all, I'd still rate this up to a four-star read and recommend checking it out, but at the same time don't think that this is "shooting for the moon" or anything like that. Ultimately, it's just a nice story and pairing in this genre with a lot of hot sex along the way. Yup, that's it.