A review by bojangles
His Reluctant Omega by L.C. Davis
2.5
This was…not good. There were scenes where the prose was clunky, punctuation marks were missing, and sudden changes in plot, pacing, and world building that all could’ve been easily fixed. The main characters go from traumatized and afraid, and grappling with genuinely troubling power dynamics in the wake of trauma, to madly in love and expecting a baby, in just a few weeks. The motivations of the omega, who is also a survivor is sex trafficking, were also extremely underdeveloped. The reasons he went from not enjoying anyone’s touch to craving his alpha’s touch in constant longing horniness was left largely unexplored, and hand waved away as “well, they’re true love mates!” I hate that! You can have true love and trauma, but they don’t cancel each other out like feelings PEDMAS!!!
There is truly fascinating lore and magical elements that are not explained well, so they become lazy plot devices to move the story along and gesture at world building that didn’t actually happen. What is the omega cannibalism feeding ritual that keeps being referenced but never discussed?? Why is there a sanctioned and unsanctioned way to feed on wolf flesh?? What powers does it supposedly give and why does no one seem unaffected by not feeding??? Why is there a magic prescient crow?? Why is this one specific wolf pack so geographically and demographically massive compared to literally every other one in the world???? Why doesn’t the omega know what KNOTTING is!?!!?!?!?
The most interesting and realistic relationships were the friendships between characters, and the efforts of the survivors to support other omegas in their gender subjugation. But all the important moments of healing happened largely off the page and were just summarized by a character in a line or two. Getting to actually see the survivors engaging in the process of their own healing, and community engagement with their peers in solidarity, and witnessing them actively being agents in the world would’ve really strengthened this whole story.
Honestly, I think it needed one or two more rounds of development and proofreading edits. It felt like the narrative ran right to the edge of having something truly thoughtful to say about sexual pleasure in the wake of sexual violence, and navigating intimacy while healing from trauma, and then stopped short of taking the necessary leaps to actually tell that story, rather than gesture at it in between sex scenes.
What saved this for me was that the aftermath of the abuse suffered by the omegas seemed to try to take the survivors’ understanding of Justice seriously, and the fact that the characters seemed to genuinely be trying to think about sexual violence as a manifestation of structural oppression. This is a thoughtful way of handling this topic, and not one I usually see in any kind of romance or erotica. So I gotta commend it for that.
Buuuutttt that ends up ruined when
One thing this book did have going for it, and the reason it did not merit a lower score is that I think the larger philosophical and social Justice themes it’s clearly trying to depict are really difficult to do in the erotic genre, given the need to balance depicting the awfulness of the thing being survived, with the genuine and complicated forms of joy and erotic pleasure that survivors crave and deserve. And because the narrative didn’t totally fail at that, I think it’s worth 2.5 stars. I wouldn’t ever reread this though, nor would I recommend it to anyone except the most hungry for trans representqtion in ABO narratives. And even then, I would only recommend it with significant amounts of salt.
The prose of the sex scenes is so awkward too that I just have to highlight it:
- “When he got a taste of the sweet nectar leaking from the tip, care went out the window and he found himself sucking Angel's cock like he had spent a week starving in the desert and all he had on him was a fucking lollipop.” (a lollipop in the desert!?!?)
- “Angel rode his dick like he was planning on taking it up as a sport” (what does this metaphor actually entail?? Obviously I get the spirit of it, but what does one do when planning to take up a sport that is the analogy here??)
- “If he had thought the omega consumed his thoughts before, his mind had become the twenty-four hour Angel Broadcasting Network ever since they had tied.” (this reads like corny wattpad prose)
There is truly fascinating lore and magical elements that are not explained well, so they become lazy plot devices to move the story along and gesture at world building that didn’t actually happen. What is the omega cannibalism feeding ritual that keeps being referenced but never discussed?? Why is there a sanctioned and unsanctioned way to feed on wolf flesh?? What powers does it supposedly give and why does no one seem unaffected by not feeding??? Why is there a magic prescient crow?? Why is this one specific wolf pack so geographically and demographically massive compared to literally every other one in the world???? Why doesn’t the omega know what KNOTTING is!?!!?!?!?
The most interesting and realistic relationships were the friendships between characters, and the efforts of the survivors to support other omegas in their gender subjugation. But all the important moments of healing happened largely off the page and were just summarized by a character in a line or two. Getting to actually see the survivors engaging in the process of their own healing, and community engagement with their peers in solidarity, and witnessing them actively being agents in the world would’ve really strengthened this whole story.
Honestly, I think it needed one or two more rounds of development and proofreading edits. It felt like the narrative ran right to the edge of having something truly thoughtful to say about sexual pleasure in the wake of sexual violence, and navigating intimacy while healing from trauma, and then stopped short of taking the necessary leaps to actually tell that story, rather than gesture at it in between sex scenes.
What saved this for me was that the aftermath of the abuse suffered by the omegas seemed to try to take the survivors’ understanding of Justice seriously, and the fact that the characters seemed to genuinely be trying to think about sexual violence as a manifestation of structural oppression. This is a thoughtful way of handling this topic, and not one I usually see in any kind of romance or erotica. So I gotta commend it for that.
Buuuutttt that ends up ruined when
Spoiler
Collin attempts to make the trial all about his grief over Mitchell killing his older brother several de axes prior to the start of the narrative. The trial was then dismissed on the basis of a council member’s actions, rather than the testimony of the survivors. So I’m the end, the survivors got what they wanted, but not because they received due process of the laws of their people. Which seems to really betray all the effort the narrative did to centre the needs of survivors.One thing this book did have going for it, and the reason it did not merit a lower score is that I think the larger philosophical and social Justice themes it’s clearly trying to depict are really difficult to do in the erotic genre, given the need to balance depicting the awfulness of the thing being survived, with the genuine and complicated forms of joy and erotic pleasure that survivors crave and deserve. And because the narrative didn’t totally fail at that, I think it’s worth 2.5 stars. I wouldn’t ever reread this though, nor would I recommend it to anyone except the most hungry for trans representqtion in ABO narratives. And even then, I would only recommend it with significant amounts of salt.
The prose of the sex scenes is so awkward too that I just have to highlight it:
- “When he got a taste of the sweet nectar leaking from the tip, care went out the window and he found himself sucking Angel's cock like he had spent a week starving in the desert and all he had on him was a fucking lollipop.” (a lollipop in the desert!?!?)
- “Angel rode his dick like he was planning on taking it up as a sport” (what does this metaphor actually entail?? Obviously I get the spirit of it, but what does one do when planning to take up a sport that is the analogy here??)
- “If he had thought the omega consumed his thoughts before, his mind had become the twenty-four hour Angel Broadcasting Network ever since they had tied.” (this reads like corny wattpad prose)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual violence and Sexual assault