Enough Already

Sport Not Person

Revisado: 04-27-25

A good introductory overview of the sport and some of its political backdrop. I had hoped to hear a bit more about the everyday lives of gladiators. One of the arguments that bothered me was the discussion of enslaved gladiators and the author’s suggestion that though enslaved they ate, had a place to sleep, developed (some) recognition and were even paid more than Roman soldiers (all of them though?). Regardless of whether this is all true or not, it is an argument that we still hear today and misses one crucial point, comfort within constraint is still not freedom. To be a slave is to be owned and to lose your right to make decisions about your own well being and those you love is a denial of humanity. It would help if scholars would articulate the conditions alongside some understanding of the principle of self determination and value.

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Kink is not abuse

Revisado: 04-05-25

I kept holding on, rooting for this to get better; it didn’t. It straddles a dom/sub narrative, but it is one that is never negotiated and that begins to straddle abuse and a lack of consent. You don’t find out if someone is okay with being spanked by spanking them, sorry- hard no. You don’t leash and collar someone by presenting them with a leash and collar, just before fastening said leash and collar, pure insanity. I’m fine with the reverse daddy/boy pairing; done well it is quite moving as the characters negotiate vulnerability and pleasure. Here, we have brat of a character who seems to assert dominance primarily through physical pain, and other punishments.

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Is This Really Set in Atlanta?

Revisado: 03-24-25

At best, you'll get invested in the characters, and following their stories from one book to the next fills out the characters. There's a lot of suspense and some spice. I like that it opens space to imagine different types of relationships. Some configurations might not be your cup of tea, but for some people, poly is a well-negotiated option (well, not always well-negotiated, but it exists). I'm even down for the preponderance of gay characters; I'm not going to offer a false equivalency of "Oh but we have departments of all straight people," true, no, I simply like the chutzpah of building a world where the averaged 5.5 percent (less if disaggregated by gender) of LGBT people in the US all find their tribe in the same department within policing; it's perfect. But come on, this book has to be set on Stepford Avenue, Atlanta, USA. This is ATLANTA, and almost to a person, everyone is blond, many with long flowing blond hair, with various hues of green or blue eyes, Seriously? So, no black officers in Atlanta, Georgia, made it on the task force? Brilliant. And, when we do have lesbian representation, they are man-hating serial killers who align their politics with feminism. What?!. I mean, the trope you go for is fifties pulp fiction lesbians, and 70/80s slasher feminists all rolled into one? Misogyny, anyone? A male gaze that comments on women's bodies and threatens to rip the arms off of a woman simply trying to do her job ON BEHALF OF THE STATE. This makes most of the narrative unnecessarily sophomoric. But, if you like white white, flowing blond hair, green/blue eyed, roped muscled gay bada-- police officers, with a five o' clock shadow, who, in terms of women, only seem to like or respect their maternal figures and the solitary female secretary (who eventually begins to do domestic chores, I'm serious), and casual judging of unmarked violence threats against women's and slut shaming, well this will keep you entertained for 51 hrs and 39 mins. The audio performance is stellar, Aiden Snow does an amazing job of distinguishing characters, giving each a distinct vocal identity. Great work on the narration.

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Wonderful

Revisado: 03-03-25

I recently learned about the Omegaverse genre and have read a ridiculous number of books in a fairly short period of time to fully understand the scope of world building that guides the work. This is hands down one of the best I have read, I loved the paranormal/omega blend. I’m always here for the mpreg gender bending dimension and this beautifully done, and the characters are so heartwarming; it is also well written, great dialog and such a creative flow. I thoroughly enjoyed this series.

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Could Have Been a Contender

Revisado: 02-27-25

In principle, a decent story idea. Execution was lazy. Dialog repetition, plot loops ( but didn’t this just happen), very little attention to building a credible relationship between main characters- fated mate doesn’t mean that the individuals know each other, in the better written novels this process is how we come to know our characters. I know absolutely nothing about the alpha beyond the fact that he is an alpha, pack leader and the town sheriff. An editor would have been a good investment, the story has a lot of potential maybe a rewrite and re-release? Audible, please write a blog post that discusses this tendency toward AI narrations, it is so unjust to authors that I would really like to read a nuanced discussion of this increasing usage, ie please let it be more than “it’s cheaper,” cause it is, but on the other hand, it is also really bad; more often than not I stop after the first few paragraphs, so please, say more.

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I Tried

Revisado: 02-18-25

I hadn’t heard of Omegaverse writing before and this seemed to be recommended by readers in the know. I’ve spent a bit of time thinking about this prior to writing this review and I’m now fairly certain that the gender representation here disturbs me. The passivity (as distinct from being a submissive) elicited way too much cringe. It’s not an age thing I am quite old and can sit gleefully with almost any genre if well-written and conceptualized. I’m down for deconstructionism but this book reminds me that I still need my books to have a plot. Recurring, unrelenting low self esteem just can’t be the only thing that drives a story. I tried to approach it through the idea of world building ie if this dystopian universe exited would the main character not be a credible character? Yes, certainly, but its expression becomes repetitive and grating, after the first hundred pages. I intentionally distinguish passivity from being a submissive because the difference is depth. A well-written submissive character is poetic, this is just a character looking for 99 ways to say oh why don’t you love me as you did five minutes ago? I also think the author was uncertain about where to go because this is character, who on meeting her, is a complete bad a— in a very dangerous world and suddenly you meet your alphas and you become gelatinous, it doesn’t ring true. I don’t know who the audience is but it can’t be adult women who get up everyday to give the world another go.

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Engaging

Revisado: 02-16-25

A fun ride. Great characters, laugh out loud moments with the right dose of cutesy and spice. Looking forward to the next in the series.

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Was this written first screen or page?

Revisado: 01-28-25

I love the series, I’ve read the other installments and the characters have my heart. This book read as thin on plot and conflict. I was driving and my jaw dropped when the final credits came on because I was still waiting for the story to begin. The through line required you to dismiss earlier character growth and content for this to hang together. I’m not a fan of contrived conflict among women in order to carry a book and the alterations to Sarah’s character/established persona in order for this to work seemed like a huge sacrifice narrative wise. So many characters read as though they had regressed, impulsive decision making, inexplicable venom, main characters reduced to scaffolding - “oh you need this piece of information to move to the next thing, et voila, I just got off the phone and oh here’s the piece of information the author needs to move on” Matthew should not be reduced to this kind of fetching. And, boy oh boy did we have a truckload of new characters with little grounding - so I guess the book version decided that the Congregation needed some diversity, add/stir/pour. I am fine with laying groundwork but there still has to be stand alone integrity, no? if not let’s just leave Africa and the Diaspora alone, please and thank you. I mean good lord there was even a raven that everyone seemed to know, except me, a little anchoring would not have gone amiss or undermine new revelations in the next book. And if my marriage had fizzled to where Matthew’s and Diana’s is right now, I’d take a sabbatical and never come back. But ignore me, I’m neither married nor a writer so what do I know. Ikeda as always is a dream.

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Disappointed

Revisado: 01-14-25

I didn’t finish this book. I tend not to review books if I didn’t read them completely, but the point at which I stopped, I think is important. This is now the second paranormal book I’ve read that starts off with a promising, feisty middle aged character and then by some majestic, celestial power this “I’ve paid my dues/been through the wars” woman gets transformed into what is understood, stereotypically, as a “desired body;” either made younger or in this case more voluptuous. This is now tiresome and disrespectful. It feels like a bit of a bait and switch for the readers who would have been attracted to the novel based on the blurb’s pre-transformation description of the protagonist. So, it’s simple, I am no longer giving an author the benefit of the doubt- you change a middle-aged woman into any kind of girlish embodiment and I change my reading selection. I think that’s a fair exchange.

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What a Wonderful Novel

Revisado: 01-11-25

I so empathized with the character's trajectory. Ruth was written with such balance, aloof, but with an adequate backstory so she never tipped into a trope or became unlikeable. Fine craftily laid out the complexity and complications that arise from sibling rivalries/hostilities; the capacity for these rivalries to last for decades and become so impacted that it is impossible to find the first layer. I hope more authors realize that there is an entire demographic of readers who are eager to see versions of their life on the page, wonderful older women (in the fullest sense of the word) navigating transitions, histories, losses, and an openness to new possibilities. The voice actor did a wonderful job of bringing Ruth to life, slightly curmudgeonly but with a vocal hesitance that helped us to see how Ruth herself was simply trying to put one foot in front of the other. A word to accents: when I was a child, there was a Sesame Street clip where one child was whooping and hollering, imitating the representation of Native Americans he saw in a Western movie. The other child said to him, "Indians don't talk like that., with all that me wanna, etc." the whooping child says in return, "Oh, yeah, how do you know?" to which the other child says "Cause, I'm an Indian." Please consider how you represent Black voices; moving between Antebellum Southern accents and urban sister-girl caricatures makes no sense, generally, but certainly not when rendering accomplished, educated professionals who happen to be black (nurse/ nationally renowned television host); these vocal tropes can really shut down the experience and distract from the issues that the author is inviting us to consider.

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