Omega Glow is the second book in the ‘Crimson Cliff Pack’ series. It stars widowed omega Saxon, who has a young son, and Alpha Hutch. The story is told in first person through both Saxon and Hutch’s povs. The blurb does a good job of describing the plot so I won’t rehash it too much during my review.



I’ve read a few of this writing team's stories over different series. This book’s plot is the most interesting. The others are Alpha meets omega, they have sex and the omega male gets pregnant. It follows the script of a typical M/F story, but with males.

I think the easiest way for me to review this story is a list of Good and Needs Improvements. I’ll start with the Good:

1) I really liked the cover for this book. It’s probably the best I’ve seen of the books I’ve read by this writing team.

2) One of my complaints of previous plots was that they were very basic in the couples finding their partner without much of a plot. I didn’t like that the authors didn’t develop the world they’d created where human males got pregnant without much further explanation. The authors improved the world building in this story by creating more of a foundation for shifter and human interaction where humans didn’t know about shifters and weren’t supposed to. The world building still needs filling out and polishing however, and then the quality of the stories would improve. Right now, the universe the authors built feels more like a token rather than a desire to write a fulfilling fantasy world for readers to enjoy.

3) The characters had more depth than in other stories I’ve read. Saxon, the human, was widowed and concerned about keeping his job and taking care of his son. After he found out about shifters, he was concerned the packs would take his son from him. Saxon was kind and caring so pretty much everyone liked him. Hutch was a bit of a speciest and classist. He didn’t believe in mating with a human and when he met Saxon’s wife, Julia’s, pack, he looked down on them for their living conditions. He later repeated those thoughts later in the story. Hutch is not an open-minded character although he is very protective of his pack and those he cares about. Saxon’s son, Junior, was an enjoyable character. Like I mentioned in a previous review, these authors do a good job of keeping kids from being obnoxious. Junior is young but very intelligent, more so than a lot of adults, so his pattern of speech suits him.

4) I liked that the authors created a world where two Alphas could remain in the same pack with one Alpha agreeing to act as Beta. I don’t think I’ve read of this kind of situation before, so I give points to the authors for this interesting idea.

5) Each chapter was designated with the character’s name for pov which was nice.

6) I didn’t read the first book and I was able to keep up with what was happening. But reading the first book might make it easier to follow along with the characters who show up again in this one.


Here are the Needs Improvements:

1) Editing and proofing. I realize I received an ARC for my review, but there were so many errors in this book. Incorrect name usage, abrupt scene and sentence jumps, inconsistencies. The beginning was especially scattered with jumps that were hard to follow. I stopped marking errors after I found around forty, and I hadn’t even read half way through the story yet. I would hope the authors fixed the errors before releasing the book, but reading some of the other reviews tells me they didn’t. That is a disservice to readers and suggests more of an interest in publishing books to sell, rather than taking pride and time, in putting out a polished story.

2) I found it hard to believe that Saxon accepted the reality of shifters so easily. Sure he questioned if it due to the knock on his head, and the tea he drank, but he accepted the concept within a day without much of a question. The majority of parents would take time to grapple with new ideas that pertained to their children. So Saxon’s easy acceptance was not believable.

3) I’ve read other mpreg books, so I know it’s possible to create an interesting believable world where male characters get pregnant. Why these authors have yet to do so perplexes me. There are so many questions raised about Alphas and omegas in this book and why it appears that ONLY omegas can get pregnant. And so far it appears that ONLY males are omegas. This is an issue that needed clearing up but the authors didn’t take the time to answer, which only created confusion about not just shifters, but humans as well.

This is what is set up in the story. In this world, humans can be omegas and Alphas, although there is no mention of a human Alpha male in this story. Saxon is a HUMAN omega. Julia is an Alpha wolf shifter, but Saxon doesn’t know this. However, Julia mates with Saxon and gets HIM pregnant, not the other way around. So this means either HUMAN females or HUMAN Alpha females can’t get pregnant, or Alpha wolves, male or female, can’t get pregnant. It also means that females have pe****s in this world the authors created, since Julia impregnated Saxon. Why is that necessary? Can't omegas get other omegas pregnant or are they sterile? They have pen****s also, so what's their function if omegas or only for childbearing? Why was Julia called a female if she functioned as a male? Why not just Alpha? There's no mention that these stories are about trangenders. Saxon didn’t know that Julia was a shifter, but he was not surprised with her impregnating him and knotting him, because the authors didn’t mention otherwise. It has to be a normal thing among humans for ‘females’ to impregnate and knot males/omegas and is not exclusive to shifters because when Saxon remembers back on Julia and their marriage, he’s not surprised by any of the sex.

So we then get to the weird part. If omegas are impregnated the MM way, and the authors never mention any bodily changes taking place pre-birth to prepare for birthing, the baby has to come out the same way the omega was mated. In order for the biology to work, somehow the uterus (it’s mentioned Saxon has a uterus) is connected to the channel that births the baby and also expels bodily waste. Do you see how this doesn’t work, and how unsanitary that would be? Why don’t the authors take time to create a scientifically believable world and biology? If males get pregnant, then their bodies have to be able to function in a true fashion. I’ve read numerous books that make mpreg believable, why not stories by these authors? Instead, what little is revealed to anyone who knows a hint of biology is gross and unfeasible. The lack of science or believability with mpreg in the worlds these authors have created is distracting to the plot.


In conclusion, the same problems I had with the mpreg I encountered in the other books I’ve read by the authors, is still present in this story. Why do I keep reading their books, you may wonder? Hope springs eternal that this author team will improve their writing skills and not just publish mpreg stories because there is a market for them. I enjoy mpreg IF the author has taken time to give the readers a believable, unique world, which so far hasn’t happened, although the world has improved with this book. Will I read any more books from these authors in the future? I’ll probably give them one last try, likely from this series since it was the most interesting of the ones I’ve read. If the next book still has the same issues, I’ll stop reading because I’ll conclude the authors don’t care enough to create better backgrounds to support the plots and there are many other well-planned mpreg books around. I give Omega Glow, 3 Stars only because the authors improved on the plot and I enjoyed the character Junior.



I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review. ( )

Good

I liked watching Hutch figure things out. Saxon was lovely the whole time, and Junior was just such a fun kid. ( )