There are enough gushy reviews, so these are just some things I wanted to know before I started, and was glad to find after I bought it anyway.
(SPOILERS… ish?)
Bullet point version:
1. There is NO rape (…sort of)
2. This book isn’t a kinky-threesome-alien-prison-“female dog”(I can’t use swear words)-erotica with some plot laced in
3. The characters aren’t some typical alpha/omega stereotypes
4. The aliens aren’t just humanoid with different colored skin, they’re furry, cat-like (sort of), and all sorts of how an alien should be if the author puts more work into creating them
5. The aliens are completely sentient and have great character development, but there’s a language barrier between them and the Carter
Longer version:
1. Because they’re slaves I was expecting rape, but was hoping there wasn’t. It does mention that the bug aliens will rape some prisoners, but because of how sharp their… “parts” are it will rip up the insides of the person so it’s pretty much a death sentence (at least that’s what I gathered). So none of the three main characters have been used that way (it does become a close thing though, so if near-rape-but-rescued is triggering for you, maybe avoid this book)
2. There IS sex, and it’s good, but there’s so much more to the story, the summary was misleading for me
3. Because the title said “Human Omega”, I was kind of expecting stereotypes (most alpha/omega books are like that, sadly), but when I listened to the book it felt a lot more unique and set apart from the norm (it might just be me though, I liked the differences).
4. I’m not good at imagining things I’ve never seen before, so I wasn’t sure how to picture the aliens, but it was a pleasant surprise that they actually FELT like aliens, both from their perspective and from Carter’s. And they weren’t just like, blue with pointed ears or something.
5. The language and cultural barrier between Carter, Pykh and Siel was somehow adorable even while their situation had me almost on the edge of my seat (metaphorically speaking)
What you should take away:
This book is really nothing like what I expected from the summary (and maybe what you first thought as well), but was so much better. If it sounds interesting then go ahead and check it out, you might love it as much as I did. I’m eagerly waiting for the next one to come out (only a few more days! And it’s twice as long!)
(Joel Leslie has been a favorite of mine for a while now, so I don’t have much to say about his performance except I loved it. He even made Carter’s chapters sound different from the aliens’, so I could tell it was his chapter before I heard his name)