Susi Hawke (–2022)

Shamrock Spiced Omega is the sixth book in the ‘Hollydale Omegas’ series. It stars Greg, an omega and bartender, and Braden, a successful gamer. This is told in first person from both Greg and Braden’s povs.



The blurb does a good job of telling what the plot is about so I won’t go into much detail about it.

I’m not sure what to make of this story. Is it supposed to be a spoof about male friends who call each other ‘bro’ all the time? Because that’s what happened in this book. It was ‘bro’ this, ‘bro’ that, brotastic, bromatic, brodelicious, bro-make up any word and add bro to it, bro. I thought it was ridiculous. The constant ‘bro-ing’ made me unable to connect with the characters. Maybe it was supposed to show how Braden and Greg were trying to keep their friendship on a close bro-level, rather than slipping into a love relationship. If that’s the case, it was successful. So successful in fact, I couldn’t believe it when the two actually did fall in love. They didn’t communicate well with each other so I couldn’t believe in them as a couple when they became a couple.

The author did a decent job with creating distinct personalities for the characters. Braden was the more obnoxious ‘bro’ user. He stayed home as a gamer and was the sloppy roommate, whereas Greg was the neat one in the odd couple relationship. One thing I noticed was, I had a hard time keeping the two characters separate. I don’t know if it was because their voices were similar or what, because their names are nothing like each other. My favorite character was Seamus, or Shamie, the leprechaun and cage dancer at the bar, who popped in and out with advice for Braden and Greg and then disappeared, leaving a gold coin behind.

In the end, I didn’t care for the over-the-top bro-relationship and adding ‘bro’ to create new words. It was strange rather than cute. Doing so made it difficult for me to relate to the characters so I couldn’t believe it when they fell in love. My favorite character was Seamus. I give, Shamrock Spiced Omega, 3 Stars. This wasn’t a terrible book, but it will fade from memory like Seamus did from the Hollydale characters’ minds.




… (meer)

This was fine. Super short, easy to read, and there were sweet parts that I really liked. I sometimes feel bad reading books that are similar to this one and then giving them only okay ratings but also sometimes I will read a book that has a similar plot line that I think has done something special and that I do like a bit more.

As I mentioned in my last review I typically like it when children are in romance and I liked it here. Because this book was so short I did have some issues with the plotting. Because I read so fast, it's sometimes frankly hard for me to tell whether the pacing is off or if I'm just moving through it really fast. In this book, I do think it could have been improved by being a bit longer and having a few more quiet moments in between the action. However, I know some authors just prefer writing shorter books and that's fine too.

The romance in this was also fine. I wish we could have had a few more one on one interactions between our main couple just because there weren't a lot of moments away from the team or the kids. I did like that they were already in an established relationship because that's not something I see in a lot of romance.

I'm intrigued enough and I liked this book enough that I'll probably continue with the series. I have the box set from kindle unlimited so I have access to all the books already. I like that I know basically what I'm getting when I read these books and I can't say they're not entertaining. These books are really good at times like this where school is really picking up and I need something to take my mind of that and into a fun, easy read.
… (meer)

Pretty good follow-up to the first book. I didn't love this one just because I was less interested in this plot. I definitely want to read the third book because so far that plot summary has me the most intrigued.

This plot picks up from one of the cold cases discussed by the team in the first book. It was pretty similar to the first book, just with a different focus character and the fact that the relationship wasn't established. These books are good and I can absolutely fly through them. I know I've rated a lot of books 3 stars lately but for me, that's still a good rating. Three stars just means that I enjoyed the story but I didn't love it and there was nothing about the story that truly blew me away.

I will be continuing with the series and I hope the books just get better from here!… (meer)