Warning, if you don’t know a lot about an*l sex, like the author in book 1, and are freaked out by frank discussions about it this might not be the review for you, and/or don’t read further than the end of “Good”
Good: a mate who is unattractive, or feels that way, the other two novels talk about how beautiful everything, including their c*cks, so it’s refreshing to have a mate who is ashamed of his looks, afraid people will think he’s ugly etc
Bad: there is so much, I actually didn’t like that the author gets more and more aware or descriptive of the fact that there is hair around the rectum and that isn’t attractive or some people like it to be shaved off, and that especially there is a certain amount of preparation one does to have an*l s*x, or things get messy and I’m not talking about lube. So if one ignores that whole realism side to be more fanciful than fine, but instead by book 3 he’s doing it all to prepare and yet book 1, the most experienced mate, there is ‘nary a mention of preparation.
Also the mates get more virginal as the books go along. 1 had sex before, 2 has had some experience but not everything, 3 none— although it is realistic as he got his scar as a boy, it’s just awfully conveniently written into the novel like other things in this world
Ugly: why, oh why, do all the mates have to be penetrated during the mating ritual and not the other way around? Or a mutual both penetration or neither is penetrated (not all gay men like an*l s*x regardless of some straight men’s fears or fantasies)? And, honestly, like I said for book 2 I feel the mates are representatives of women hence why they are the penetrated not the pentratee and the author’s portray does nothing for either women or gay men, it’s a disservice to both. The mates act like little stepford wives, serving their mates before them— how convenient the alpha is above them. It’s not clear is the mate of the head alpha higher or lower than the next alpha? They are willing to drop everything in their lives just to be with their alphas and figuring at first they are just going to be decorative until the alpha “lets” them do school or whatever. Let’s them work? Wow. How generous. Why isn’t the mate also an alpha once he has s*x with his alpha? This isn’t explained.
Also the pillow. Sigh. Anal sex doesn’t have to be painful if you do it gradually use a lotta lube, go even more gradually, use an*l plugs to gradually stretch the rectum, instead of just fingers (fingers and d*cks are not the same length but no one has figured that out in this world) etc plus you might not achieve comfortable penetration of anything as big as a d*ck on night one, bodies don’t always work the same way for one person bs another so how could they guarantee the whole penetrative sex would go as planned? If they truly didn’t want to hurt their mate that is what they could have done, wait a few nights, but instead they just go ahead and then the pillow is brought out. To me the pillow doesn’t signify the pain of an*l sex and/or a too large member but a loss of virginity. The pillow is brought out book 1 to indicate virginity lost as even though the omega has had sex he’s never had that vigorous of a s*x life and the alphas are supposed to be very large so they are still stretching their mate’s rectums more than they’ve ever been stretched and that’s why he’s sore and needs the pillow Just like a sheet used to show a loss of virginity it’s brought out with each mate like it’s expected. If a mate said oh I don’t need a pillow the rest of them probably would assume the alpha is tiny or the mate is a sl*t, I assume.
(Sorry about all the * but I wasn’t sure where audible draws the line on obscenity so I assumed conservative, well relatively.)