Empty Heat is the second or maybe first book, in the ‘Omega Island’ series. There is a short story that comes before this one called, ‘High Heat’. This book stars Callum, an omega, and Lev, an Alpha and sex surrogate. It’s told in first person from both Callum and Lev’s povs.
3.5


First the cover. I think the cover model is supposed to be Callum. Unfortunately, he doesn’t work for me. Yes, he has the dark hair and blue eyes of Callum, but he doesn’t convey the image the book description gives. Second, the author used the same model on her ‘Captive Alpha’ series, for the book Cold, and the cover model screams Alpha, not a hesitant and insecure omega. I don’t know why the author chose the same cover model for two different books. I’m disappointed the cover doesn’t match the character Callum.

The blurb does a good job of explaining the plot so I won't add much to it. I didn’t read the first book, but I don’t think it’s necessary to understand this one. The author did a good job of explaining the type of island and services the sexual surrogate therapy offered. The descriptions throughout the book are lush, which is probably the best word to describe it. It felt like I had to take more concentration to read this than the usual M/M romances. It was fine, but at times it felt like it moved along slowly because of the writing style, and analogies were used often. The first person pov was probably to draw readers in, but for some reason I felt like I was on the outside looking through a haze or dreamworld when I wanted to be immersed.

I had some questions about how scenes and continuities played out. Since I read an ARC of this book, I’m not sure about errors since they may have been corrected before the book was published. For instance, in the bath scene where Lev talks about drawing baths for omegas and how he was good at it. He drew cool baths, not cold, to help omegas cool down during their heats. But when Callum steps into the bath, he talks about the ‘warm’ water. There are small things like that, that jumped out at me. The most obvious was that Callum fired Lev from being his surrogate after he found out about the lies by him and the institute. But during his heat, he asked if Lev would be his surrogate again if he asked, Lev said ‘Yes’, and Callum’s answer is ‘Mine, too.’ So that means Callum accepts Lev as his sex surrogate again. The chapter is even titled, ‘My Surrogate.’ Then the following scenes swing back and forth between, ‘is he or isn’t he?’, my surrogate. I suppose the author was trying to convey how Lev crossed the line into a lover and the situation changed. Unfortunately, I found the switching confusing and annoying. The change from surrogate to lover didn’t come across smoothly as a gradual happening, but flipped back and forth. I’m sure it was for conflict, only I found the whole situation annoying. By the end of the heat, Callum was insecure again and thinking Lev was only a teacher/surrogate, and sent Lev away.

The sex scenes start at about half way through the book and continue almost to the end. The ‘soulmate’ theme is subtle. Neither really notices it at first. Lev is suspicious, then realizes that’s the attraction between them. But because the company policy is to always let the customer have control of all situations, he can’t do anything about Callum’s rejection for the second time. I have to say the emotion ratcheted up for me once the two parted, and at the airport scene, when Lev and Callum met again really hit me in the feels. I think that was the best part of the book, the reunion. I liked how the theme of the Caribbean’s tone ran throughout the story. The epilogue seemed to be told from a pov about ten years in the future after Callum and Lev had children. I’m not a fan of time jumping to that large of an extent, so wasn’t fond of the epilogue.

As to Lev, Callum and the institute. I’m sure it was to create conflict for the book, but I have no idea why a respected institute would implement a policy of lying to clients when the client is already in a fragile mental and emotional state. Totally weird and wrong, but I guess for plot conflict it was necessary. Callum was a jerk. I suppose he did that to protect himself, but at the same time, he wanted help but wouldn’t really open up about his problems. He seemed to expect mind-reading from everyone. He was so insecure even after Lev told him how he crossed so many surrogate lines for Callum, Callum still shut Lev out and hurt him deeply. The way Callum was written, he came across more like a twink or someone quite young. The way he spoke, and his thoughts told me he was not the image of the Alpha male on the cover. Lev seemed too good to be true. He had all the attributes of a perfect surrogate: patience, experience, a terrific reader of emotions and body language. Lev was a Marty Stu.

Overall, I liked the plot of this story and would likely read more in the series. Descriptions of environment and emotions were a little overdone for me, but still nice. I’m guessing many people love this kind of prose. Characters were okay, but I found their voices too slow, coming across like a meditation rather than how normal people speak. I’d really like to give this story 3.5 stars, because it’s better than average but I can’t give half stars. So, I’m going with 3 Stars, because I couldn’t quite get into the characters the way I wanted until the emotional scene where they were reunited. I recommend this book.


I received an ARC from the author. I am giving my honest and unbiased opinion. ( )