Update: 5/13/2025 - Finished 13 of 17 - Marking Completed

Overall: I got a bug up my ass to jump back into OV recently and since most of what I read before was back in the fanfiction.net days (omg) I reached out to a few groups on some recommendations. Since I wasn't familiar with any authors this collection was recommended as like a sampling of authors. It was sold to me as MM OV MPREG which I was down for. I was surprised by the shifter part, I know its rather common in the OV space but for a long time I was reading OV without the shifter part and while I'm okay with shifters its my less favorite.

I got to the last three stories before I gave up, about 200 pages left. I feel a bit like a quitter (ha!) but I couldn't get into the last ones. I added notes about each of the stories. Overall it was enjoyable and while I have authors I might check out later it was a solid middle of the road experience. I defiantly have worked out this fucking trope though, probably won't want to read Shifter MPREG for a fucking while.

Per short, in order:

1. A Real Alpha: 3⭐ : Cute, adorable. I felt like this was a great opening story, little heavy in terms of the context but still feel good and well written. The main pair felt like they were well fleshed out and while there were side characters, they didn't overshadow the rest.

2. His Pretty Omega: 3⭐ : This one felt like more of a story and more depth. I liked the premise and did enjoy how the story unfolded past that. It felt 'realistic', I mean the OV stuff and shifter stuff not much but the one night stand that led to more and more back and forth and figuring stuff out.

3. Tor and the Turtle: 2⭐ : I didn't care as much about this one. Maybe it was the shifter babies? I'm not sure. It felt like I was having a full sugar soda after years of diet. Maybe I wasn't ready for how sweet the fluffy the story was.

4. The Perfect Boy: 1⭐ : Honestly, this was the worst one and I got to like the second to last chapter of this and DNF'd. I don't know if its because the Little kink weirds me out but even still. I wasn't a fan of the boss/daddy character and felt he didn't deserve his little.

5. The Barghest Bond: 3⭐ : I really liked how this started like maybe the first two chapters but it fell off quickly. People complain about instal-love.. and while I understand these are novella and about getting the Omega pregnant, this one was so over the top. It was still enjoyable but the characters felt a bit flat and the story felt rushed.

6. His Prize: 4⭐ : HOT DAMN. HOT FUCKING DAMN. This was 5/5 spice. There was story in there and man, do I love these stories. BDSM clubs and their owners are my idea of a good time for a book and this was *chef's kiss*.

7. Ranch Down: 3⭐: There were so many side characters in this, so so many people just popping in to just pop in. This is clearly a side story for a larger novel set. I didn't learn anyone's names. The story with Trey and Cassidy was adorable and if you ignore the side characters, it's a good time. I'm putting this series on my TBR, I think I might like to read it eventually.

8. Wings of Frost and Flame: 2⭐: star rating because of lack of editing/proofing, would have been a 4: Right. This was a slog to read but I wanted to read it which is unusual when something is a slog for me. The author is verbose, in the way that high fantasy novelists are. Only here, there are a lot of wrong words, incorrect spellings, names being messed up, lines indicating one character is talking when it's actually another. The author would also sometimes jump ahead in time mid paragraph but wouldn't really call it out, but then a character would imagine a situation and it would be difficult to tell if it happened or not for like several paragraphs. And it kept happening. At the end of this story the author seemed to indicate they were making a more fleshed out version of this story, which, I hope they get an editor for. Also, The end. They say that the Omega drops and egg and then that egg has to be infused daily for 5 years by both parents. But then they mention that it's twins and describes the children. BUT THEN, it describes Akhtar as being sweaty and tired.. like he JUST birthed the egg. So like.. what? was this 5 years in the future?  There is a ton of world building at the beginning, after that I was interested.

9. Rescuing His Mate: 2⭐ : More dragon shifters, but these seem more true 'shifters' and less dragonborn. After the last short story was so fucking dense and verbose, this one seems to go the other direction with so little description I feel like I've gotten whiplash. Conflicts were resolved too easily, there was no depth. It felt a bit like a rough draft/first draft. The blurb made this feel like there was goign to be a lot of tension and hovering once the kidnapping was resolved and how the pregnant mate would hate it. That never happened

10. Bad Professor: 2⭐ : The Stepfathers POV is weird (I probably should have dnf'd). I'm not a big fan of the whole Stepfather trope (turns out I can enjoy the stepbrother though.. ha!). I know they aren't blood but it's a power thing I think. The fact that the professor (view spoiler) I kind of hated this whole OV universe. I felt rather betrayed by the Blurb for this story. I was expecting a taboo of a professor falling for and pining for his student, I got a weird and creepy story where another alpha used power to get what he wanted from an omega. I ended up getting VERY MAD at this novella and just yelling at my kindle

11. Noble's Omega: 3⭐ : I ended up liking this more than I expected. It didn't have the OMFG inst-love. Yes, mates but they took it slow. It would have been nice for a slightly longer story with more dates + more BS with Port. I was expecting a lot worse than what happened. Not bad for a short novella. Better than some of the others, there was depth and more going on even even thought it was short. I might check out this author.

12. Billy and Cord: 2⭐ : This was in interesting world and the premise was cute but rather.. sweet? Like almost too sweet for what the blurb promised. First, It would have been great if we got to see more of what happened on Billy's side while Cord was away. But second, we get this like "the world is very bad. Omega get drugged, Bill had a super shit life and had to find his way in world where Omega's are pampered into their 20's" view of this world and then its like the dark stuff is just there superficially. I GET this is a novella and only so much can be done, especially since this collection is all about getting the Omega pregnant, but it feels so glossed over and really just overall anti-climactic. I would loved to have more insight into How Billy felt.

13. Night Train: 3⭐ : Hot. I don't have a lacation kink but damn, I could appreciate this still. (that said in another book I read there was it and it felt very gross, so still not my thing but hot damn). I loved the train, I loved the start and the end. It was hot and sweet and probably This and Hi Prize are my favorite in the collection so far.

14. Castaway Heat: 3⭐ : A NONSHIFTER! Shifters are nice and all but its generally not my cup of tea and finding non-shifter OV seems to be a challenge for me. This was cute and very fluffy. Overall I liked this, but their friend Sage was an absolute fucker and maybe he helped out with one of the MC's in the end but overall this person was a dick and really just made me kind of hate this.

15. Knot Mine to Love: DNF: I start it but it felt. corny. Mafia romances are VERY miss for me and all I could picture was like a 1950's like street gang like Happy Days or Pony Boy. (I know those are different things). I couldn't get the image out of my head of wolfs with pompadours and really.. I knew I was over this book.

16. Mate March: Curtis and Jae: DNR : I read the blurb and it seemed so generic and I'm so over this micro trope. It looks like it had potential, just not for me

17. He Slept with the Most Famous Internet Celebrity...: DNR : It's similar to the one before it, except instead of dating it's Grindr (um, ok. it weirds me out when I see the real names for things in books that are fiction). Which.. I got like 4 pages in and just felt rather no about the title and the concept. I just think I'm over this whole trope at this point. 

Plot: 4/5
Spice: 1.5/5 (This was low spice, seriously low. No penetrative. That's not bad! ACE representation!)
Characters: 5/5

Overall reco: I'm waffling if this is a 4 or 5 star for me, so I'm landing in the middle. I have really enjoyed JJ Mulder's hockey series (both of them) and this book did not disappoint. Henri is.. like a golden child. I think most of the readers of this series feel in love with him in Carter's story. The steadfast and quiet(ish) German. The teddy bear. Henri is one of those characters that is just so fucking loveable. Atlas was a jerk, and understandable jerk, but a jerk none the less. There is a 3rd act breakup but I didn't mind it. It felt realistic, especially for Atlas and the way it resolved felt like exactly what they needed.
I 10000% loved how Henri's sexuality presented, I love how that affected their relationship and the progression and absolutely loved how it changed the open door nature of the book.

(Other Notes)
Nate is getting a book right? The amount of shit going on with that boy.. I think I see that there are other books slated to come out so I HOPE the next is Nate and I REALLY want to know what is up with him.
We had a lot of cross over with other book dudes and honestly, I loved it. JJ Mulder isn't really great about their wrap ups It's like they glimpse us a bit into the characters lives and then we have to get the rest of the details from other people. Like in the epilogue where we find out that Anthony and Nico finally get married. One can only hope we will get a Happily ever after novella with some of these moments. I want to read about them! 

 

Plot: 3/5
Spice: 3/5
Characters: 5/5

Overall reco: I started my walk into the Sadenverse because Egotistical Puckboys get so much hype and while I enjoyed Fake Boyfriends for it's more adult take (adults being adults) on like I was itching to get back into my favorite genre, MM Hockey. I generally do not like college level stories but MM Hockey tends to be an outlier.
Zack was so fucking adorable. I wanted to pull a Seth and bundle him up and protect him from everything. It's obtuseness about people was cute and while it did feel a bit tropey when he didn't just magically lose it by the end it felt more real.
Foster was.. lovely. That sounds rather sarcastic and I do love Foster. I do. He's the perfect complement to Zack. Patient, curious, supportive without being over the top. His relationship with Seth felt sad, especially since I'm writing this review and I'm halfway through Seth's book. Foster is a great communicator, just not with his brother.
Overall, Highly enjoyable and the other books in the series I've been devouring. 

Plot: 3/5
Spice: 3/5
Characters: 5/5

Overall reco: I wasn't expecting me to be so into Cohen and Seth's story. Seth was sort of a villain in Zach and Fosters story and I was hesitant to start. I ready it for Cohen, because he's a adorable dumbass and I honestly felt a little bad about how much he seemed to get picked on during Beck/Jacob's story. I really liked the premise though, and having read a few other stories with the dating app trope and only one did it really well, I was interested.
Their chatter was absolutely adorable and I was quickly able to let go of my dislike of Seth. Cohen though.. Cohen fucking sold me on this story. I love that absolutely god damn cinnamon roll. The boy maybe a bit blunt in putting shit together but he's a god damn King in how he handles Seth. I can't talk about my love for Cohen enough. I get why Seth took the steps that he did and it was great character growth for him in the book but Cohen is so god damn steadfast and good and just.. There is a big moment when Seth does something that is good but so fucking stupid and all because he just fails to communicate (a lot like Zach failed to communicate and doom spiraled.. I can see why these two are besties). Cohen is just so great with the whole thing around it. He communicates well, he's honest, he doesn't lash out and say things because he's angry and frustrated. He clearly communicates.
I love a book where at least one person communicates. Shit, it's why I liked Foster and Beck. Well.. I love Beck because he's an arrogant over the top personality. Speaking of which, loved Beck's role in a lot of this. 

 

Plot: 3/5
Spice: 3/5
Characters: 5/5

Overall reco: I am a sucker for a Cocky Asshole. In a MM romance? hell yes. In an MM Hockey romance? Fuck yeah. In the Sadenverse? oh fucking let's go!
Seriously though. Beck and Jacob's dynamic was fun and ridiculous. I think Beck is like my new favorite dude. Cocky to a fault almost, but honest. I loved reading his POV's. Their spice scenes were so hot, shit even just the kissing. Them figuring things out together was adorable. Honestly, this book was the fun part of an amusement park. Highly enjoyable, difficult to explain why at great lengths, LOL