I can’t do this!

Not a romance

I have mixed emotions about this book. I liked the writing. I liked most of the characters. I appreciated the moderate amount of angst. I didn’t like the heavy waffling of Vale. I wanted more romance. This was definitely not a romance. was love in various forms. In a way this felt like an extremely long prologue. It introduced and provided heavy discourse on the roles, abilities, limitations, etc. of alphas, betas, and omegas within the new world.

The scenes of passion and longing were well written. I struggled to get a good vision of the appearance of Vale. This dampened some of the sexiness of the erotic scenes.

I know previous reviews have mentioned the focus on miscarriage. I should have paid more attention to this. This book revolved around the wombs of omegas.

So confused! I feel like a lot of the above is overly negative. I mean this book was almost a dnf for me. Yet, the writing was compelling enough to make me consider reading further into the series. ( )

I think one of the reasons I can't really connect with MPREG books as a whole is less to do with the male pregnancy thing and more to do with the why. The reader suddenly discovers a man is pregnant and there is no reason behind it, or just a perfunctory mention. Not so with this book. Leta Blake has given us a whole well built backstory on the world and why male pregnancy is necessary (there are literally no female humans, due to THE GREAT DEATH). Making Jason a student was a stroke of genius because it allowed her to have a reason to introduce the world-building information without it appearing as info dumps.

I cried ugly tears in this one several times. I thought my heart would be ripped out when I read about Xan (Jason's best friend) and the last 20% of the book had me in tears almost constantly.

Jason was a sweetheart and Vale too independent (which was good) and full of self loathing (which was understandable). I didn't like Urho (until I did--you'll know when). In fact the whole group, including the cat, were great as an ensemble cast.

If you only read one MPREG book, make it this one. ( )

I'm DNFing this without giving it a lot of chance, admittedly. While I often enjoy a/b/o, I'm really uncomfortable with the apparent portrayal of omegas in this book, as only wanting to have a big strong alpha take care of them. Far too paternalistic for my taste.

Proof, that an mpreg story can be enjoyable, if and when the author writes it with utmost care and pays attention to the minutest of details.

I am in awe of how perfectly written this book is. Leta Blake created a beautiful world, where male pregnancy actually made sense to me, where women don’t exist and the hierarchy was made of alphas, betas and omegas. I absolutely loved that it mirrored the defects of our current world: alphas can’t have sexual relations with other alphas (ring a bell?); conservative views on abortion (sounds familiar?), and other tidbits that reflect on our distorted society.

There was a big age difference between Jason and Vale, but oddly it didn’t bother me, in fact I preferred it that way, this story wouldn’t have been what it was without it.

So, imagine a 19-year-old alpha barely out of diapers, who suddenly finds his omega in a 35-year-old professor. Jason was so cute and adorkable, trying to be the alpha that Vale needed, and I gotta say there wasn’t any fumbling on his part, maybe a bit of hesitancy due to not knowing how to woo a male. LoL But he managed just fine. :)

Vale had his own hang-ups about the whole situation. He figured he was past the age when he would find his mate, he gave up hope, and was actually comfortable in his life. He had an alpha who took care of him during his heats and had a great teaching job. So it was a bit of a shock when a student nearly knocked him on his ass in the middle of campus and wanted to claim him while everyone watched on.

It seemed like he wasn’t too old to be someone’s omega after all. He tried to resist the urge, but despite his fears and his past, he came to adore his baby alpha and couldn’t deny him.

*Now, let’s say there’s a gif right here, but since I couldn’t find one and didn’t actually have time to look for hours for something perfect, instead imagine this (not a direct quote):

He was clawing at his own clothes with fumbling fingers, body shaking all over. He wanted it so much. Bumping into the kitchen counter they toppled over and landed on the floor in a sprawled heap. They gazed at each other, both breathing heavily. He was sure his alpha could smell him, his need. Keening sounds left his mouth and he whimpered at the sheer look of want he saw mirrored in his alpha’s eyes. Mine. The look seemed to convey. Fingers caressing, mouth sucking, little lovebites already forming on his neck; and that tongue, he wanted that tongue deep in his mouth, he wanted to be claimed. Throwing his mate off, he turned on his hands and knees, arching his back and presenting himself, waiting to be mounted.

Don’t mind me, I’m enjoying myself here. XD

The story was a bit slow-moving (and that’s not the same as slow-burn, insta-lust is guaranteed), and I admit that at certain points I felt a bit overwhelmed by all the sex talk, condoms, pills, and babies, and all the rules; and at times it was a bit too wet and slick for my taste, if you get my meaning. It was hot, don’t get me wrong. ;P

Even though personally I couldn’t care less about marriage and babies, I still loved this book. And if I could choose, I’d probably want to be a beta, no drama for me thank you very much.


After a failed attempt to acquaint myself with this genre, my reintroduction couldn’t have gone better with this book. Highly recommended! ( )