We met River in the last Alphabits book as he was part of the team rescuing a young boy from an uncle about to sell him. Petey, the young boy called River his “pretty kitty” and trusted him to keep him safe. In this new series, Petey has been reunited with his father Vasily Novak, part of a mob family. River has fought hard to maintain his independence and establish a life as an Omega unclaimed by any Alpha. He is appalled to discover Vasily is his fated mate – all he can see from that is a life restricted to the Novak compound, “protected” and confined so he flees from Vasily. Petey is kidnapped by his late Omega’s family to be trained to take over their nefarious businesses and Vasily and River are forced to work as a team to rescue him. They accomplish their mission, get a huge surprise and both learn some lessons about trust, independence and love. The author does a wonderful job of showing these two working together in sync in many different situations ratcheting up both the tension about rescuing Petey and the heat as they develop their mate relationship. Interesting world building here as we learn more about Alpha/Omega biology and how this series will integrate with the Alphabits series. Characters from there make wonderful cameos that are integral to the plot of this story, not just tacked on.
I was initially sceptical that I could get behind series where mafia members are heroes and love interests. If you are too, just listen to one of these authors’ books and it won’t be any time at all until you will totally accept the premise and find yourself liking these guys immensely.
Kirt Graves does an amazing job again with the voices from young Petey up through the aging mafia godfathers. You are never confused about who is speaking in the large cast. What is particularly amazing is that characters from the Alphabits series we have met before sound exactly like they did in those audiobooks so we recognise them immediately. A tour de force performance!