As the opener to a new series, “The Werewolves of Manhattan”, this one was a fair listen but it failed to leave me desperate for book two. I’m glad that I waited to listen to this on the Romance readers package rather than paying a full credit for it. I will listen to the next book since it is also on the package, but only to see if the author improves.
Things I liked:
A/B/O dynamics without a manufactured mpreg element. Male omegas are vanishingly rare and always have a preternatural gift. They are valued and precious for their gifts not as breeding stock. Oh, and all Alphas are gay and can only engender female children. Because… reasons.
The fainting flower omega rescues himself. Big bonus points.
Things that I did not like:
Multiple incorrect word choices. Example: “you are their ancestor.” = No. The 24 year old is their descendant. They are his ancestors. Not that it really matters here since we never meet these people.
Multiple explanations for werewolves in the New World with time lines ranging from 200 to 1000 years, which still doesn’t explain why a modern French-American werewolf who under any of these timelines would have been born in the US around the time of the Civil War and who lives in the American Southwest still has a heavy French accent when none of the other French werewolves have an accent.
The other were-accents are the butler/manservant who sounds generically “stuffy butler” until they get to New Mexico where his accent vanishes along with the attitude, who is mated to the Very Irish cook/housekeeper. the unnamed flight attendant with three lines who sounds what I would call “street British”, and the two Russian wolves who are actually from Russia. Just go with it.
Jean-Claude van Dam-he’s-hot sounds like he just flew in from Paris but he uses endearments that remind even his omega of the way one would address a 16 year old girl. The repetitious “Babe” is annoying, but they’re both ok with that so let it roll.
The Werewolves of Manhattan? Aren’t from Manhattan, they’re from New Mexico, New Jersey and Russia. They’re just visiting in Manhattan because it’s a neutral territory where werewolves aren’t supposed to do a lot of what apparently happens there. So basically Las Vegas for furry folks.
What clinched the two star rating was the ending. It’s not rushed, it’s a hatchet job that is literally Deus ex Machina from gods who haven’t been heard from in 100 years (I can’t calculate with the differing timelines, but sort of within the Uber-Alpha’s lifetime) with about a three paragraph “we’re all fine” denouement. That’s a horrible way to ginsu a really great lead up.
In summary, it was good enough that I will put the sequel on my TBR list, but I’m not tearing up the Interwebs to get to it.