*Sigh* Friends.

Do I need to hang up the towel (…hilarious…) on omegaverse? If you aren’t familiar with this genre, I’ll break it down for you. There are Alphas, Omegas, and Betas. Alphas are often dominants, who experience ruts when they are near an Omega in heat. They have a knot at the bottom of their…

…I can’t…I can’t…you know what? Google it. Just Google omegaverse.

There are elements that I like: fated mates, polycules (although not always), society structure, and how different authors interpret how the needs are handled slightly differently in their stories. That stuff is good. BUT. I just can’t rock with all of the…fluids. I’m sorry. Look, Nordika Night caused an awakening for me in this area, about which I should probably discuss with my therapist. HOWEVER, my god, the sheer volume and frequency with which fluids are the central focus of a scene are…not for me. And I get it, right? That’s kind of the point. The whole goal is for the Omega to get preggers and the way that that gets fast tracked is for Alpha/Omega bodies to function in, uh, that way to make it happen. I. Get. It. But do we have to reflect on it so often?

The other thing that I’ll say here is that the whole primal need to rut makes me a little worried about CNC edging into non-con territory. There’s the understanding that if an Omega goes into heat and is in close proximity to an Alpha, nature takes over and forces them to have sex. Not to yuck anyone’s yum, but personally, that’s not for me. I find consent to be very sexy.

All of that being said, here are some books I read and my feelings on them. Please keep in mind that this is strictly a me thing and that you might absolutely love this shit. Do you, babe. In fact, I recommend reading a wide variety of genres and tropes. You never know. You might learn something about yourself.

Heat Clinic presents a narrative, wherein heats are a part of life for Omegas. They have the option of dealing with them on their own, matching with an Alpha on a dating site like Tinder, or going to a heat clinic to either take suppression meds or do in-patient treatment; to ride it out, so to speak (sorry, I couldn’t resist). As the book title suggests, the MC chooses the clinic option. I’m absolutely going to let you discover for yourself what the in-patient treatment entails, but I will say that she meets her Alpha and other pack mates as a result of this stint at the clinic. They all fall in love and are together foreverzeez.

In Forbidden, the society is ruled by a strict government, who control their population by splitting them into designations. The feel of this book is a mix between Divergent and The Handmaids Tale as it is definitely more on the dark romance side. Omegas are forced into Designation Academies, where they are trained in how to remain “pure”, maintain their weight, and live in servitude to their alphas. In reality, these academies abuse their charges by punishing them for minor infractions with starvation, nesting denial, and so on. Emila’s take on the society structure and oppression of Omegas makes for an interesting plot conflict. The threat of being “found out” is a constant stressor for the FMC and when she is ultimately caught, she’s forced to move in with a pack, who are secretly working to take down the government and shut down the Designation Academies. I didn’t finish the series because I found the FMC to be, well, insufferable, which I understand is a quality of some Omegas and was truly a “me thing”. I still recommend this book because of the creative interpretation of the society structure and world, in which the characters live.

He’s So Slick is a hockey, why choose romance. I know, right? I was surprised about this one too, but it works. In a case of right place, wrong time, the MC happens across one of the players on her father’s team going into heat at an event. Up until that moment, he had lived his life as a Beta, as he had never presented as anything different. The MC being an Omega herself, recognized the signs and quietly sneaks him out of the event. His best friend, an Alpha, helps get them out and they decide to help him with his heat. The one heat turns into a deeper relationship that’s fun to see develop over the course of the book. It’s a sweet, enjoyable story, that’s not as intense as some other Omegaverses.

Whiskey and Sin is a cute little MM romance written by none other than Emily Rath! Yes, the author of Pucking Around and many others. There is a suspense element to it, as one of the MMCs is running from the law, lest he be discovered for taking heat suppressant drugs. It was interesting to see how this one dealt with the whole A/O pairing, since it’s MM. Some stories in this genre will include MPreg, which is exactly what you think it is, but that element was left out (thank you Dr. Rath! That’s right. Did you know that Emily Rath has a DOCTORATE??? That fact should be shouted from the mountain tops, but I digress…). The trope that was definitely NOT left out was “grumpy loner becomes cinnamon roll for his partner”. Swoon. By the time we get to the heat scene, you’re guaranteed to be chanting “bite him, bite him, bite him”. Also, this is a stand alone, which is difficult to find these days as the romance market is saturated with series.

Now this is top tier Omegaverse. Lola and the Millionaires was the first OV that I read and not only is it well written, but there’s so much more to the plot in addition to the pack dynamic. It’s a full bodied wine, rich, complex, and satisfying. There’s found family, mafia vibes, sassy side characters, and burn the world down for her. Although this is part of a larger world, loosely connected series called the Sweetverse, the Lola story is a completed duology that you can read apart from the others. The FMC is a Beta, which, kind of…takes the pressure off, if that makes sense? So many of the MCs in OVs are the Omega and there’s nothing wrong with that, it’s just that they experience the world in a heightened emotional state, so it makes for a more intense perspective. It allows the reader to focus on the plot a bit more, rather than honing in on the heat cycles, etc. If you’re new to OV, I would recommend starting with Lola and the Millionaire and go from there.

As I was writing the synopses of these books, I started to pick out the things that I really do like, so now I’m questioning everything. If you have any Omegaverse books that you recommend that I try, let me know! Yeah yeah I realize that I’m totally going against my initial thesis for this post, but what can I say? I’m an unreliable narrator.

Hope ya’ll are enjoying the end of summer and getting excited for fall! I know I am. At some point soon I need to plan out my spooky season books. Maybe I’ll write a post, sharing some of my favorites. Don’t hold your breath though. I’ve tucked in to this struggle bus/writers block/whatever this is and I haven’t quite figured out how to break out. So. Patience. Thank you.