Review Tour: Alpha Heat by Leta Blake #Review #Giveaway

Buy Links: Amazon US | Amazon UK

Length: 130,000 words approx.

Cover Design: Dar Albert @ Wicked Strange Designs

Heat of Love Series

Book #1 - Slow Heat - Amazon US | Amazon UK

Blurb

A desperate young alpha. An older alpha with a hero complex. A forbidden love that can’t be denied.

Young Xan Heelies knows he can never have what he truly wants: a passionate romance and happy-ever-after with another alpha. It’s not only forbidden by the prevailing faith of the land, but such acts are illegal.

Urho Chase is a middle-aged alpha with a heartbreaking past. Careful, controlled, and steadfast, his friends dub him old-fashioned and staid. When Urho discovers a dangerous side to Xan’s life that he never imagined, his world is rocked and he’s consumed by desire. The carefully sewn seams that held him together after the loss of his omega and son come apart—and so does he.

But to love each other and make a life together, Xan and Urho risk utter ruin. With the acceptance and support of Caleb, Xan’s asexual and aromantic omega and dear friend, they must find the strength to embrace danger and build the family they deserve.

This gay romance novel by Leta Blake is the second in the Slow Heat universe. It’s 130,000 words, with a strong happy ending and a well-crafted, non-shifter Omegaverse. It features alphas, betas, omegas, male pregnancy, heat, and knotting. No cheating. Content warning for brief sexual violence.

Review

While this is book two in Leta Blake's Heat of Love Series I will tell you that you can absolutely read this as a standalone. I have read both books and while I love revisiting characters Alpha Heat focused on Xan and Urho's story.

This was SUCH a unique story and putting into words how it made me feel and the message the author pushed forth may be difficult. This world is one that has strict rules. Alphas are to be with Omegas. The end. So what happens when an alpha wants to be with another alpha? And what happens when one alpha feels, to their bones, they are truly an omega? And what happens when you're an asexual omega who must deal with heats.... There are SO many what if's in this world and one at a time the author tries to deal with them. Personally, I thought she did it brilliantly.

The underlining parallels to our society didn't go unnoticed by me. It won't for you either and it shows that while love is all powerful it can not change minds, it can not fix law, and it doesn't always extinguish hate.

Alpha Heat is just as amazing as Slow Heat and I positively adore this series for more reasons than I have time to put down in this review. It is Mpreg so if you don't like that thing, well, yeah. 

Leta Blake shows no matter what genre/subgenre/trope, she's writing in that she knows how to drill into those emotions and pluck them right out of you. She doesn't butter up the serious subject matter she deals with it.

Bravo to this author! 

May 15 - The Novel Approach, OMG Reads
May 19 - Love Bytes, My Fiction Nook, Cupcakes & Bookshelves, Mainely Stories
May 20 - MM Good Book Reviews
May 21 - Making It Happen, Dog-Eared Daydreams
May 22 - Bayou Book Junkie
May 23 - Mirrigold, Bayou Book Junkie, Scattered Thoughts & Rogue Words, Rainbow Gold Reviews, Diverse Reader, Wicked Faerie's Tales & Reviews, V's Reads, Oh My Shelves, Lillian Francis, Sexy Erotic Xciting, Kimmer's Erotic Book Banter, Gay Media Reviews
May 24 - Joyfully Jay

Author Bio

Author of the bestselling book Smoky Mountain Dreams and the fan favorite Training Season, Leta Blake’s educational and professional background is in psychology and finance, respectively. However, her passion has always been for writing. She enjoys crafting romance stories and exploring the psyches of made up people. At home in the Southern U.S., Leta works hard at achieving balance between her day job, her writing, and her family.

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/letablake
Twitter: https://twitter.com/LetaBlake
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/letablake
Website: https://letablake.wordpress.com

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Release Day Blitz: Saved by A.M. Arthur #Review #Excerpt #Giveaway

Title:  Saved

Series: Breaking Free #1

Author: A.M. Arthur

Publisher: Briggs-King Books

Release Date: September 12, 2017

Heat Level: 4 - Lots of Sex

Pairing: Male/Male

Length: 67,000 words

Genre: Romance, non-shifter Omegaverse, alternate universe, mpreg

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Synopsis

He didn’t want an alpha to save him, but fate had other ideas…

Braun Etting was raised to know his place as an omega by his alpha father’s cruel words and fast fists, and he expects nothing but violence from the alpha who may one day mate him. His older brother Kell mated a cruel alpha who abuses him daily, and Braun is terrified of that seemingly inevitable future. When Braun’s father dies in a car crash, leaving Braun an orphan, he’s sent to a halfway house for omegas. But on his fourth night there, he witnesses a horrifying crime that sends him fleeing to the streets alone—and edging into his first heat.

Tarek Bloom is settled in his workaholic, single lifestyle, even if it is somewhat embarrassing to be a twenty-eight year-old unmated alpha. He enjoys his job as a constable, helping people and solving problems, so he isn’t prepared for his life to flip upside-down when he walks into his beta friend Dex’s apartment to help with “a problem.”

The problem turns out to be an unmated, nearly in-heat omega orphan who Dex and his husband rescued off the street last night. The even bigger problem is that Tarek feels the mating bond for this terrified omega immediately—and he’s pretty sure the omega feels it, too. But Braun hates alphas as a general rule, and no way is he giving in to the bond. All mating leads to is violence and suffering, so no thank you. But Tarek’s gentle kindness slips under Braun’s emotional shields, and Braun begins to want. To dream. All Braun has ever known is violent alphas, but Tarek is determined to make Braun trust him—and to trust in the idea of their happily ever after.

NOTE: This is a non-shifter Omegaverse story with alpha/omega/beta dynamics, heats, knotting, and mpreg. In this world, omegas are second-class citizens with few civil rights and almost no protections under the law. Trigger warnings for physical, emotional, and sexual abuse. 67,000 words. 

Review

I didn't find this to be a light read at all. I like to make that clear because if you're hoping to delve into a book that's light and fluffy this is not that book. A.M. Arthur loves to write dark drama. Situations that are quite serious and she doesn't shy away from the rawness of each emotion, moment, or reality.

 This is a non-shifter m-preg romance. This means that yes, there's love and happiness when it's all said and done but there's no wolves. And yes there's male pregnancy. It's important to know that.

Braun is an Omega. Omegas are even less than second class citizens they are like 5th class citizens if that's even a thing. Almost born of the time of slaves. They have zero rights, they don't choose their Alpha, there is no law protecting them from sexual, physical, or emotional abuse, and they are treated like garbage. No lie it's terrible and of course you will see the parallels in our own society reading this.

Tarek is an officer (Constable) and he's an alpha, but he's not like most of the alpha's out there. He's a good man who is immediately attracted to Braun and desperate to protect and love him. He's fighting a stereotype that all Alphas are jerks and that's a sad situation for him.

The secondary characters in this story rock! Well, minus Kell's husband. He can just go light himself on fire. But Dex and Serge are amazing. They are Betas and Tarek's friends. They save Braun for a horrible fate and begin the process of Braun living a good life. 

Through this whole story though the looming horrors don't lie in what will happen to Braun but with his brother Kell who is in a very violent relationship with an alphahole. They need to save him and save other omegas and so the suspense and nervousness is created in the story.

As hard as some parts were to read, it was important to not sugar coat these situations or these characters' struggles.I recommend it and yes, heed the warnings but give it a go!

Excerpt

“Would you be able to describe exactly what you saw that night in detail?” Tarek pulled a notepad and pen out of his front pocket.

Braun’s entire body went rigid. “Why? Who are you really?”

“I really am Tarek Bloom.” For a moment, he actually seemed contrite. “What I didn’t tell you is that I’m also a constable.”

“Shit.” Braun bolted out of his chair and toward the front door, fork still in his hand.

In a flurry of movement, Tarek was in front of him, blocking his path to the door, and Braun lashed out with the fork. Dex grabbed his wrist and plucked the fork out of his hand, but that didn’t stop Braun from swinging. He punched Tarek in the chest. Twice. Panic settled in, overriding his common sense, and he tried to push past the brick wall of a man.

“Let me go! I won’t go back, I won’t!”

Arms wrapped around his torso from behind, pinning his arms to his sides. Serge’s comforting scent settled his racing mind a bit, but it was Tarek’s hand on the back of his neck that settled Braun completely.

“Calm down, firecracker,” Tarek said. His deep voice soothed Braun’s frazzled nerves, and his touch sent his pulse racing with delight. “You’re still safe, I promise. No one here wants to hurt you.”

“Why do you care?” Braun snarled. “I’m just some useless omega you’ve known for twenty minutes.”

“You’re far from useless, little one.”

Tarek’s other hand rose, nearing Braun’s face. Braun snapped at his fingers. “I’m only a womb to you.”

“Far from it, my firecracker.” The hand on his neck squeezed. “Far from it.”

The grounding touch made Braun want to roll over and show his belly, but he was done being passed around. Done letting other people control his life. He didn’t want to feel this mating bond to Tarek, but he also couldn’t turn it off. Even with the heat block, Tarek was under his skin, doing funny things to his insides.

Angry and confused, Braun dared look an alpha in the eye.

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Meet the Author

 

A.M. Arthur was born and raised in the same kind of small town that she likes to write about, a stone's throw from both beach resorts and generational farmland. She's been creating stories in her head since she was a child and scribbling them down nearly as long, in a losing battle to make the fictional voices stop. She credits an early fascination with male friendships (bromance hadn't been coined yet back then) with her later discovery of and subsequent love affair with m/m romance stories. A.M. Arthur's work is available from Carina Press, Dreamspinner Press, SMP Swerve, and Briggs-King Books.

When not exorcising the voices in her head, she toils away in a retail job that tests her patience and gives her lots of story fodder. She can also be found in her kitchen, pretending she's an amateur chef and trying to not poison herself or others with her cuisine experiments.

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