New Release Review: Him Improvement by Tanya Chris #Review #Giveaway

Title: Him Improvement
Author: Tanya Chris
Dreamspun Desires Series
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Cover Artist: Alexandria Corza
Publication Date: September 3, 2019
Length: 227 Pages 

Reviewed by Morningstar

Synopsis

The course of true love runs through every neighborhood….

Only one thing stands between Gregory MacPherson II and his dream revitalization project for the gritty neighborhood of Ball’s End: a rinky-dink, run-down used bookstore called Hailey’s Comic. But when master negotiator Mac shows up to make a deal with the owner, he comes face-to-face with quirky, colorful Hailey—unexpectedly good-humored about Mac’s attempted eviction and, also unexpectedly, a hot guy.

Hailey won’t give up his lease, no matter how much money Mac offers. When it comes to consummating their mutual attraction, though, he’s a lot more flexible. Soon Mac has as hard a time prying himself out of Hailey’s bed as he does prying Hailey out of the building. But Hailey doubts Mac’s plans serve Ball’s End’s best interests, and he insists Mac give him a chance to prove his case. If they’re going to build a happy ever after, one of them will have to be remade….

Purchase Links

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Amazon

Review

Sadly, this book was not what I thought it would be. I did something with this book I never do and that’s write notes down while reading it because it frustrated me that much.

First, for the first time reading a book that was single POV I can say it did a huge disservice to the story and understanding both sides of the story. Hearing everything from Mac’s POV made me feel like Mac did. Every step of the way—even now that I finished the book—I question if Hailey truly loved Mac for Mac. Everything was about Mac changing. And I never felt the emotions from Hailey toward Mac that I felt from Mac for Hailey.

Second, yes, Mac was a butt to the max with his snobby attitude at the beginning of the story, but I didn’t think he deserved to be treated the way he was. What do I mean by that? Hailey was built up like he was the perfect character/guy. Legit like he had NO flaws. Which is impossible and believe me just reading this story I found his flaws even if that wasn’t meant to happen. He was just as much of a butt as Mac. No one is perfect and everyone needs to go through some evolution of change in stories. Hailey had lessons to learn as well. Life isn’t a fairy tale and life doesn’t work as he wanted. Capitalism is a thing we have to live with and that fact that Mac went and not only changed who he was but also changed how his company fundamentally worked while Hailey got to sit back and give NOTHING killed me inside.

Third, by the end of the story, I hated Hailey and his holier than thou personality and Mac’s BFF Declan had it right when he asked what he gets in return. Yeah Mac was made a better man by seeing how the people in Balls End lived and how his project affected them. But that was not Hailey’s doing, that was Mac’s because Relationship Rule 101 you can’t change a person unless they want it.  

Fourth, the “Love Resume” scene at the end came across condescending AF from Hailey. Yeah Mac (who Hailey called Greg because Mac was a nickname) was feeling insecure, crap, I felt insecure with him the whole way not knowing whether Hailey loved him or just found him hot but the way that scene was handled felt like a “oh you silly boy” thing than Hailey trying to show Mac what was so great about him especially when the reason he gave for loving Mac was that he was trying to change for Hailey.

Lastly, that last line of the book (told from Hailey’s POV a little too late IMO) summed what I felt this story was truly about…

“He was exactly who Greg wanted, and he hadn’t had to change a bit.”

That is not how relationships go and all it did was make me not like Hailey and feel bad for Mac for falling for someone so self-centered.

Sadly, like I said this was a miss for me. It may be just my personal opinion but I can’t brush my feelings off when reading a book because emotions are vital to how a book affects us.

I will say grammar, sentence structure, all the technical stuff in regards to the book were wonderful so while this was a miss for me you may see it differently and encourage you to give it a read.

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Random Review: Omega Released by Tanya Chris #Review #Giveaway

Author: Tanya Chris
Title: Omega Released 
Series:Omega Reimagined book 3
Publication Date: February 21, 2019
Length: 199 pages

Reviewed by Sammy

Synopsis

Growing up in the Hinterlands hasn’t prepared Benjy for life in North Leland where the alphas grow to an alarming size and he’s expected to get a job. He’s never been farther than running distance from his den until the morning his father drops him off in the city to be claimed by the first alpha who‘ll have him. Of all the things Benjy isn’t prepared for, finding his own mate is at the top of the list.

Fortunately, JT has all that covered—a bed to sleep in, a job at the library he’s in the process of opening, even matchmaking services. There might be wolves in North Leland who disapprove of JT’s wild omega ways, but he knows all the hottest alphas and he for sure knows how to take care of himself. He can take care of Benjy too, even when Benjy goes into his first heat. But could any of North Leland’s alphas really be good enough for his precious potato?

As the library takes shape, Benjy makes friends and settles into life in North Leland, but he’s not getting any closer to picking out an alpha. Why would he want to when JT gives him everything he needs, including a very special sort of knot? But it takes an inconveniently timed heat and a predatory alpha to make Benjy realize who he really wants for a mate.

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Review

Take one extremely naïve and sheltered omega, add a three month deadline to find an alpha in a strange land and you have a recipe for something akin to disaster. Benjy is the last of his siblings to be mated and his father has taken him to a neighboring territory to find his mate. Leaving him in the care of one of the Alpha Princes of the land, his father returns home with the admonition that if Benjy can’t find his mate in three months’ time he will be brought back home--no doubt to spend his life in isolation and alone. But the place he’s been brought to views the rights of omegas differently—they are no longer just there to be used and claimed but can have a life of their own even if not mated. When Benjy is taken under JT’s wing little does he ever dream the independent, sexually active omega will change his life.

On one hand I feel as though this novella was mislabeled and should come under the heading of erotica rather than romance. With more sex than anything else, this is certainly not the average Alpha/Beta/Omega story. Instead we have an incredibly young omega who has not yet encountered his first heat, virtually abandoned in a foreign land by his father with the threat of finding himself an alpha or face the embarrassment of being brought back home and returned to the incredibly cloistered life he had before the trip. It was never really explained why Benjy and his siblings had to be kept apart from the rest of the pack and guarded other than the idea that an alpha would essentially rape them if they were caught outside by themselves. So in light of that, the town where Benjy was taken to find a mate was a really unique and wonderful place—for the most part, omegas moved freely in that society—even holding jobs and going unmated if they desired to do so.

The premise of Omega Release by Tanya Chris was a good one—I liked the idea of a more progressive territory where omegas weren’t treated as just a hole to fill or a slave to mate. I liked JT right away for the brash way in which he lived his life and the clever way he kept alphas away from Benjy while he slowly fell in love with him even though he kept repeatedly reassuring him that he was only interested in mating for love and therefore unlikely to ever agree to being tied to another. JT took care of Benjy—both pushing him to experience independence for the first time while also looking after the young omega and keeping him from harm. 

Where this story fell apart for me was the incredible naivete Benjy exhibited. He just came off as so very young and since he was begging for sex a great deal of this novel that made for an interesting read, to say the least. I wanted to understand why Benjy was so incredibly backwards not just in the ways of the world but going as far as not even not knowing about his heat and what it would be like. Surely one of his parents or another of his siblings could have given him some sort of guidance before they set him loose in a strange land? I did understand his father hoped the Alpha Prince would make a match for him but to just walk away without any assurance that would happen when your son was essentially completely in the dark as to how to find and keep a mate was a bit cavalier.

The other plot element that eventually left me rather bored was the unending sex. I got that these guys were in heat and I knew that meant an insatiable need for sexual gratification but honestly I just felt like we moved from one sex scene to another with very little story line to pull them together—again, it felt more like erotica than a romance. I really enjoyed those few moments where Benjy and JT talked about their dreams and the library JT wanted to build—that made the rest of the story palatable for me, in the end.

Omega Released was a fast moving erotic story that had a tiny bit of romance thrown in for good measure. It nicely created a different world where omegas had the opportunity to be independent and not just used as something to be owned as is per usual in an omegaverse story. I do wish there had been a bit more to the plot and a little less sex but you must decide on how much is too much for yourself. I do think fans of this author will enjoy this novella immensely.

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