Abel’s Omega by Ann-Katrin Byrde

So, Abel’s Omega was a bit of a strange read.

It’s the story of Baxter – an Omega who was mated off at too young an age – and Abel – an Alpha who is working his ass off to provide for his pack. The story takes place in a world where shifters are forced into small enclaves and are strictly policed by humans. And in this world, where shifters are second-class citizens and Omegas are the lowest ranking among all shifters, Bax is just trying to give his pups the best life they can have. When Bax’s mate dies and he’s about to be forced to give up his pups, he flees to another enclave where he’s hoping to find refuge. He wasn’t expecting to meet Abel though. Because even if he’s one hot piece of man, Bax knows that Alphas can’t be trusted.

In a sense this is a regular mpreg, alpha-omega universe story. There’s omega oppression, abusive alphas, general prejudice towards shifters, shifter enclave conflict, custody battles and of course the alpha-omega love story. But even though there’s lots of stuff happening, the entire thing felt oddly uneventful. Or rather, everything that happened, every conflict and all the build up never amounted to anything. Either the resolution was entirely anti-climactic or it simply fizzled out without any sense of closure.

I kept reading, and waiting for… something. But the story just went on and on and… when I was 93% through the book (gotta love how precise Kindle is), I just didn’t have the energy to finish.

Abel’s Omega is a very long story. The author could have easily divided it into two or even three installments. I’m thinking that might actually have been better. Then maybe each of the show-downs and each dramatic turn of events would have gotten the attention it deserved. Instead, the story is just a very long sequence of events that objectively should be dramatic and engaging but in actuality just ends up de-sensitizing the reader. In other words, instead of getting immersed in the story and feeling all the feels, the never-ending flow of events made me rather numb and uncaring about the characters.

I liked the world-building in this story a whole lot. It was frankly awesome. And the book was also very well-written. That’s why it’s extra disappointing that Byrde’s storytelling was lacking. Because the story itself and the characters had such potential.