Fue increíble como el autor pudo contar una historia tan interesante sobre el recorrido de Ishto para poder recordar y entender su pasado y al mismo tiempo hacernos como lectores estar conscientes de los eventos de la historia de Guatemala que fueron tan impactantes. Pude sentir la frustración de Ishto y también el amor y la lealted tan hermosa que pudo formar con sus amistades en el camino. Creo que la parte que me tocó más que todo emocionalmente fue el final cuando Ishto les agradece a sus padres adoptivos todo el amor que le han ofrecido. He conocido a muchas personas que critican la adopción rotundamente, y fue genial poder ver un ejemplo tan positivo de una historia de adopción. Aún siendo un poco agridulce el final de la historia, siento que me dejó increíblemente satisfecha y estaría feliz de leer mas libros escritos por Marvin de Los Reyes.

Super funny and easy manga to get through. We get to see more of Momose and Katakura in high school when they first met which was really fun. Nao and Ko are on their way to being a couple I think from what I can see. It was great that Nao caught Ko coming out of the restroom like that. The conversation after that must have been interesting. I'm looking forward to volume 3, this is very entertaining. Hirotaka is opening up more to Narumi and I'm looking forward to see him do that more.

Up until now in submissive wolves have only been mentioned in passing in this world. In this installment, we are given more information on submissive wolves and I like that it is explained that they are not necessarily weaker than more dominant wolves, it’s just a difference of roles in the pack. Something else I really appreciated is that we got glimpses of Anna’s trauma and it is a very realistic depiction of how trauma isn’t something a person just “gets over”. It’s a process and takes time and Anna is shown going through the motions. There was not a lot of time to develop Charles and Anna’s relationship in the first book, but this book makes up for it. Charles further displays that he is a respectful romantic partner and is very conscientious about making Anna feel as comfortable as possible in their relationship.



**MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD**



This is clearly shown when Charles chooses to lay Anna on top of him while they are in bed so that she doesn’t panic in the middle of the night if he wakes up on top of her. Clearly this is something he could only know happens if Anna has panicked in the past when he did that, so kudos to Charles for opting to not trigger his romantic partner. I know that’s probably like bare minimum decent partner behavior, but I’m sure Anna still appreciates how observant and caring is about her needs, so I think it deserves to be observed. It’s also a testament to her survival of sexual abuse and the psychological repercussions that show up within her intimate relationship with Charles. 

We also get to see how his and Anna’s relationship with their wolves are very different. Charles seems to have more open communication with his wolf, and it feels more like he is having an internal conversation with him. On the other hand, Ana’s wolf seems to take over as more of a separate personality when she is feeling more impulsive or emotional. That would explain why Anna’s wolf seems to be more prominent in their sex life. Charles is aware of this and does a pretty good job of making sure that anything they do together Anna is aware of and consents to as well. Anna and Charles have excellent communication when it comes to placing boundaries as shown by their conversation about Anna and her wolf being separate entities and whether Anna’s sexual attraction towards Charles is genuinely because of her or just a symptom of her Anna’s wolf meeting her needs and wants. The idea of Anna not being as attracted to him as her wolf is something that hurts Charles to think about, but I really appreciated that he was open about not wanting the same sort of relationship his father, Bran, has with his wife Leah. It was clear from Cry Wolf that Bran and Leah are in more of a partnership of convenience than anything else. Charles makes known through his internal narration that he wants his feelings to be fully reciprocated by Anna and he is constantly afraid that they may not be due to the mating nature of their relationship. Overall I think this sequel gave Anna and Charles's relationship a lot 
more depth and gave more perspective as to how Anna’s sex life and interpersonal relationship 
with her new husband is affected by her past abuse. 

As far as the ultimate mystery the plot revolves around, I was both very interested in the 
outcome and quite disheartened. I loved Arthur and Sunny as characters which made their deaths 
so much more unfortunate. I know that it was a running joke that Arthur thought he was the 
reincarnation of King Arthur, but I didn’t predict he was quite that nuts. I mean, he planned the murder of his wife who he really did care about. It’s amazing to think that most of his actions were based on the illusion that Anna was the reincarnation of Guinevere and that he was meant to be with her. He was definitely off his rocker; I just didn’t expect it to be that bad. Again, in a sense it was disappointing to me that Arthur was the killer because I liked Sunny and him so much. Sunny had no idea what an asshole she was married to. A coward too considering he had to hire other people to outsmart and kill his enemies for him because he couldn’t do it himself. It still made for an interesting story and Arthur will be a character that will stick in my memory.  Just as an honorable mention, I really liked getting to meet Tag. He seems like a fun character and I hope we get to see more of his friendship with Anna. We didn’t see quite that much of him here, but he was so charming that we didn’t really have to have more time with him for him to be likeable. I’m looking forward to seeing him in future books.

I really liked that we got to know more about pack dynamics in this installment and how pack dynamics affect each member of the pack. In Adam’s case, not having Mercy live with him actually makes his control over the pack more unstable. It makes sense why she isn’t wanting to move in, though. She’s been living alone for a long time and I’m sure I’d feel weird about moving in with an entire pack of werewolves with supernatural hearing. On top of that, she was right to be concerned about Sam considering he tried to commit suicide and was only stopped by his wolf, Samuel. It’s clear that Sam’s declining mental health affects his relationship with his wolf drastically. We are told but also shown that one cannot exist without the other to balance them out. 

Watching Samuel (the wolf) attempt to pass for human really showed how the wolf and the human side of Sam are different entities. The anxiety that Mercy was feeling the whole time Samuel was interacting with Sylvia’s children also showed how dangerous werewolves can be. The author didn’t have to say anything verbally for that to be understood, so I think she did that very well. The first thing that came to mind for me when Samuel was with the children is that he’s really just a big depressed fluffy puppy, just with sharper teeth and more of a killing instinct, because you know, werewolf. Mercy and I as a reader know Samuel wasn’t going to really hurt Sylvia’s kids, but I can understand why she had that falling out with Mercy after finding out Samuel was a werewolf and not a dog. Her kids could have been in danger and Mercy didn’t tell her and her children’s safety comes first. I just think it’s a shame that Gabriel was forced to quit working for Mercy as a consequence. I hope that Sylvia and Mercy are able to makeup in the future. Gabriel seems to be doing well being an apprentice under Mercy and I’m hoping he has a future in that profession. Speaking of Sylvia, I had no idea that Ted was head over heels in love with her and it’s a subplot I would want to have more of. 

As for Henry, he’s nothing but a coward to me. He was obviously part of the plan to dethrone Adam despite not being the first contender to fight him. How much of a weasel do you have to be to purposely set up your alpha to get injured right before a fight for the leadership position so that you have the advantage? He ended up shooting himself in the foot anyway, since Adam won. The best part for me was probably when Mercy shot him to shut him up. Mary Jo also acted out of jealousy for Adam, but at least she didn’t have the intention of permanently hurting Adam and attempted to redeem herself somewhat. 

We get a glimpse into the Tri-City Pack’s relationships with one another a lot in this book and I think my favorite was seeing Aurielle and Daryll interact with each other like a normal married couple. Despite being in the middle of an event that would literally determine the future of the pack they had a marital spat and to me it was super funny. On another note, I do feel like the introduction of Ariana as Sam’s ex-lover was last minute, but I’m hoping we find out more about how they met and fell in love. They both seem to be broken and battered by life in many ways, but I love that Sam now has someone to help him out of his depressive rut at least. I’m looking forward to glimpses of their relationship as the books continue. Last of all, I have to say that I’m glad Mercy’s cat is okay. Part of me was sad for a second there when I thought she had died inside Mercys’ house. You don’t find a cat every day that likes vampire and werewolves and thank God Mercy’s cat is one of them. I highly enjoyed this installment and I’m looking forward to seeing how Mercy adapts to living with Adam.

We got more introspection into how Charles’s job affects him psychologically. Charles seems to be so much fluffier on the inside than most people give him credit for. He is very emotionally sensitive and it really shows with how he encapsulates his emotions to the point of even shutting down his mating bond with Anna temporarily. He is very encouraging when it comes to Anna being emotionally vulnerable with him when she needs it. However, it seems that he isn’t as candid with her with his own struggles. I think going through something so difficult as someone who is married now helped him grow as a person and also an individual in the relationship, so I liked that we get to see him a bit more downtrodden.

There are definitely more sex scenes in the Alpha & Omega books compared to Mercy Thompson, which is fine, because I really like Charles and Anna together and I feel like the sex scenes reveal the level of intimacy of their relationship that helps contribute to their character development. It also helps that Briggs doesn’t use weird euphemisms in her sex scenes. I’ve read enough of those to want to avoid seeing them when possible.



**SPOILERS AHEAD**



Also, it was really funny to have them have what is technically public sex and then have Anna be horrified at the fact thereafter. A very entertaining sequence of events to say the least.



**END OF SPOILERS**



I originally had the notion that wolves don’t deal well with black witches most of the time. However, the only real relationships we have gotten between black witches and werewolves so far have been all but negative. Bran isn’t exactly a fan of them for obvious reasons so I’m glad we got another perspective on them. It does make me be a bit scared for Isaac, though. I hope his relationship with that witch doesn’t go sour because they are a dangerous force to be reckoned with. I’m looking forward to reading the next book because I really like these characters and seeing them grow.

I had forgotten how much fun this manga is. I left off between volumes 15-16 a few years ago and I decided to take the deep dive to finish reading it all now. Ranma has some luck for attracting all of the stalkers, man or woman. If Ranma was actually interested in Kuno I”m sure he would come off as much more romantic, but since Ranma isn’t interested, Kuno is just an obnoxious idiot that won’t leave him alone. He wasn’t even able to take advantage of him when he tried. Ukyo is also really interesting to me because she is someone who could potentially be a good romantic partner, but Ranma obviously isn’t very interested and is even oblivious to her affections. That boy is dense. However, that’s what makes this so much fun. I’m looking forward to continue reading this. Lots of laughs ahead.

I am so happy that I finally decided to pick this one up because I was thirsting for a pirate book and this book delivered. Alosa is also a very interesting female lead, with a dad that hasn’t been the most loving father, but has taught her how to defend herself well in a world of pirates. She shows her strength through her intelligence and ability at the beginning of the book to fight other pirates off. Riden and her have a good amount of banter throughout the book and it’s clear that he doesn’t want to hurt her if he can help it despite having to hold her prisoner on the ship. Draxen comes off as a lot more sleazy, but it’s hard to tell how much of that was due to being under Alosa’s siren spell or his own doing. He also doesn’t underestimate Alosa’s skill after she gets out of her cell the first time. Then again, she managed to give him a good kick in the royal jewels, which was very funny to read about. I think it was also interesting that he saw her altercation with Sheck and didn’t try to help her. I don’t think that is necessarily something I view negatively considering that Riden knows Alosa is a pirate and can fend for herself and I’m also sure that if he felt she couldn’t handle something, he would have stepped in. Honestly, it probably speaks more to his trust in Alosa’s ability to handle herself than anything else. Clearly, based on how much he risked his life for her later on he’s perfectly willing to put himself in danger for her sake since he cares about her. Riden is really charming and his banter with Alosa is one of my favorite parts of this book. The lore with the sirens was also cool and I hope it gets explored more in the sequel. More importantly, I highly appreciated the fact that Riden and Alosa are not necessarily in love with each other, but definitely care for each other romantically. A lot of times romances like this develop pretty quickly and I like the change of pace. I am looking forward to seeing them get to know each other better and see how their circumstances will determine how they handle their relationship. They are pirates after all and it’s not necessarily a safe and stable way of life, so that can definitely complicate things. I’m sure Alosa’s father will have some opinions on them being together as well. He’s the pirate king after all, so I doubt he’s a ray of sunshine.

I wasn’t sure what I was in for considering this book had a warning about sexually explicit content. Usually that can fall anywhere on a scale of “all right” to “get it away from me”. This book deals heavily with sexual abuse and sexual slavery, so it’s not for the faint of heart. I did appreciate that we were able to see a man in a very Roman Empire inspired world have to deal with sexual abuse and the guilt and negative emotions that come with it. It’s an interesting take on such a heavy topic. We got to spend a lot of time in Acheron’s head and the author did an excellent job of capturing his guilt revolving around sex because of what he’s experienced. Kora also had reasonably believable reactions to Acheron’s strange behavior. Most people don’t guess that the reason their partner runs away any time they’re doing something sexual is because they were a victim of sex slavery. Acheron reflects the pain many victims go through feeling like he is the one that is disgusting rather than the perpetrators of the abuse. It takes a long while in the book for him to establish a more open and stable romantic relationship with Kora because of it Thankfully, she is wonderfully understanding and patient with him when she finds out about his past. They had a rocky start, but they end up establishing a very strong relationship in the end. They had to work hard for it and I really like that, because you don’t see a lot of romances where couples don’t get off to a great start but work on their relationship so that it improves. A very dark romance, so don’t come into this one expecting a light read, but if you want a well fleshed out romantic relationship, you’ll definitely get it here.

I’ve read two other Emma Hamm books and this one is a bit lackluster in comparison if I’m being honest. I think there was one thing in particular that caused me to feel this way over anything else. There was an ongoing metaphor in the book about how merrow men are hideous and treat the women in their society in a demeaning and condescending way. It made it feel like the message was that ugly people aren’t great people but people that are more handsome are, and that message rubbed me the wrong way. It is a bit ridiculous for every single person of a single gender in a society be that horrible. If the author was attempting to come off as progressive I think it failed. Instead it came off more as a discriminatory metaphor, which to her defense, I am sure was not her intention, but my criticism still stands. 

In addition, Saorsia was given somewhat of a compelling reason to escape with Manus, however I do think their feelings for each other were a bit intense for the short amount of time they knew each other. I also wish that the world building had been a bit more thorough. The small amount of time Manus and Saorsia spent exploring the local town was nice, but there weren’t any details about the town that didn’t feel generic, so I would have wanted for the city to have various cultures, foods, smells, etc. I’m hoping I have a better time with the next book I read from her, because so far 2/3 of the ones I’ve read have been good. If you don’t like this one like me, try reading Heart of the Fae and Veins of Magic. They both have much better writing.