Omega’s Pretend Mate is the second book in the ‘Harris Cove Billionaires’ series. It stars Gabe Everest, an omega and attorney, and Christian Jeffries, an Alpha and fellow attorney. This is told in first person from both characters povs.

2.5 Stars



The blurb does a good job of describing the plot so I won’t rehash it.

I’m participating in the M/M Dusty bookshelf challenge and listed this book as one of the selections because I thought I hadn’t read it. This book was selected for me to read and once I started to read it, I realized I’d already read it, but never reviewed it, even though I thought I had. The fact that I couldn’t remember I’d read this book is kind of telling on its own. The story is pretty much a blank to me, which means I didn’t find it very memorable, but not super objectionable either. At the time I read it, I did make notes, so I’ll base my review on the notes.

Now that I’ve re-read my notes, I’m getting a feel for the story again. The first notes I mentioned were about how the author turned Gabe, who was very independent and confident at the beginning, into this needy and insecure omega once he and Christian started to get together. And that Christian had to remind Gabe that he was a strong and independent omega. I want to know why the author turned Gabe 180 degrees into a completely different personality? I’ve noticed this issue with the author’s other stories. Once the omega finds a mate or starts to have sex with the Alpha, they turn into a weak, insecure personality. This is the same type of behavior that occurs in M/F stories as soon as the female finds a man. I’m guessing the author writes M/F books also and isn’t good at writing relationship dynamics that aren’t the typical dominant male with the submissive female. She’s only changed the genders around in the mpreg books. Which is disappointing because she doesn’t believe in strong omegas, not really, just insecure, dependent omegas that need an Alpha to support them. So, this is a re-occurring theme in this author’s books that I don’t care for.

There was a large inconsistency in a scene where the mother of the omega told him she never realized how he felt, about the family pressuring him into marriage. The author pretty much pushed this info at the readers throughout the book about how Gabe repeatedly told his family he wasn’t interested in marrying and also why he moved far away. And suddenly we’re supposed to forget all that info as if it didn’t happen, and we’re supposed to believe the family never knew? A beta/proofer/editor should have told the author that the scene was inconsistent with all the information that the author had given before. This was so inconsistent, it had me writing a note about it.

Something else I found inconsistent, was after Gabe and Christian marry, Gabe takes his husband’s last name. If he’s so independent and has already made a name for himself in his chosen profession, why didn’t he at least hyphen his name? Why didn’t Christian also agree to joining their names? This emphasizes how the author’s ideas of an independent omega don’t really exist, that token gestures of their independence, meaning not having a partner, is only superficial at the beginning of the story, but once they find their mate, they become dependent, insecure, needy, and unable to create a separate name for themselves.

Finally, the birth scene is typical female positioning. So be warned that if you read this book or any of the author’s other mpreg books, they are pretty much M/F stories but with the kink of knotting, bond biting, breeding, and pregnancy. The stories just use M/M characters without giving the omega true independence, although I don’t know why she doesn’t write these as M/F stories since this is really a Chick-Lit story in disguise.

The author can make interesting plots, however falls into the typical M/F trap with M/M characters creating an mpreg story that is really Chick-Lit. The omegas are never really independent because they rely too much on their happiness and future with the Alphas. Their personalities almost always turn 180 degrees into needy omegas, which is telling about how the author sees M/M or M/F relationships because it’s so consistent across the books.

I’d like to give Omega’s Pretend Mate 2.5 Stars, but will give it 3 Stars because I can’t give half stars on Goodreads. I liked Gabe until he turned insecure and needy, and Christian was okay as well. I won’t be re-reading this again though. It is however a fast, easy, non-stressful read if that is what you’re looking for.

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