Review: Evil Omega by S. Rodman

Blurb:

Gay. Necromancer. Werewolf. Supervillain.

Silas Northstar is an omega with plans.

• Become a supervillain

• Embrace necromancy

• Enjoy being a boss in the bedroom

Not part of his plans,

• Being captured the night he goes into heat

• Liking the stupid alpha guarding him

• Having way too much fun with him

It's all good though, as by the morning he has escaped. He can put the fiery night behind him and forget it ever happened.

It's not like Dean, the stupid alpha, is going to come looking for him, is it?

Please note this book touches on dark themes, contains strong survivors and emotional growth. It is high heat and knotty. There is no mpreg. HEA guaranteed. Although this book is first in a series that follows the same couple, there is NO cliffhanger and it can be enjoyed as a standalone.

Review:

Story

Firstly, I would also like to point out that, and this one's on me, based on the blurb and where I first found the book - I thought this was an urban fantasy with a romantic subplot! It wasn’t until I started writing the review that I realized it was ranked under the romance and LGBT categories, not Urban Fantasy. Because, the setting is Urban - we have a city with werewolves and vampires, laws to keep the humans from finding out the truth, witches, a council - all very interesting and familiar things that I appreciate.

So, the mindset I went into when reading this was: Urban Fantasy (as a quick side note: I only very recently returned to reading this subgenre). And because of that, to me Evil Omega reads less like a story and more of an erotica. Not saying that’s a bad thing, but that’s not the mindset I started reading this book with and threw me off. I get that with omegaverse there is the whole heat-thing and a need for sex, but the plot fell into the background for me because of all the sex happening. Not that it was bad, it was well written and it strayed away from some common tropes in omegaverse that have me closing a book so fast, but it was just… not what I thought it would be.

Based on the blurb, I honestly imagined it to be more along the lines of a checklist on how to be evil (and fail) along the lines of Despicable Me - but definitely for adults!! Please do not let that reference influence anything - this is spicy!!! And while I did get a general feel of the main character trying to be evil, I believe the heat factor and growing relationship between Silas and Dean was much more prominent than anything else in Evil Omega.

We do have an interesting plot try to emerge at one point with a council, a stone, vampires vs. werewolves, and even hunters show up (briefly) - but all of that felt like it was thrown in just to give the characters obstacles from getting together, rather than to enhance the plot. Again, not a bad thing, just not what I wanted out of this book. 

Throw in some action sequences in the latter half that had me hating Silas for his choices (very well written!) and questioning Dean’s sanity (again! Very well done!) and I could have honestly taken the second half of this book and read it as a standalone and enjoyed it just as much, if not more, than the whole of the book. Also, I do appreciate that, as stated in the blurb, the book can be read as a standalone. I don’t see myself continuing the series, even if I did devour this book in a single day. It was such a fast-paced and engaging read (because yes, the spice was good!) 

Characters

We have Silas, who has a check-list of things to do in order to become known as the most evil person in his city. And he… doesn’t do them. Due to a tragic and dark past (that, I appreciate the content warnings for), he goes into the whole mindset of “If they call me evil, I will be” and he doesn’t do a very good job of it, in my opinion. I can honestly imagine him helping old ladies across the street and getting cats down from trees, only to snuff his nose or threaten someone who saw him do so. He may not be the Evil Omega, but he is responding to the situation around him in a way that he makes it work for him.

As for our ML Dean, I have so many questions and want to learn more about him. Not to the point where I felt frustrated on how his character was introduced or what we did learn, but to the point of wanting to get to know him better. I think Rodman did a very good job at giving us a good guy with a past, without making it an over dramatic one. When compared to Silas, I think we as the readers needed somebody more relatable. Dean was sweet, nice, smart, and his reactions to what was happening around him were relevant to both the situation and the growing relationship between him and Silas.

The only question about Dean that I would have liked answered earlier was the constant reference back to why he was a lone wolf in the past and wouldn’t want to be again. We got enough about his past to know that it wasn’t dark, but it wasn’t the happiest either. It felt like something that he himself was too focused on, but it got past teasing at one point. Fortunately, it was at that point that things started changing - both his focus and the events around him - which allowed for us to learn more about who he was outside of the regular boring work for a stupid alpha (see below). 

And the rest of the characters were not important. Not to the plot or the growing relationship between the two. We have the alpha of Dean’s pack who is constantly referred to as an idiot and who has no clue how to lead a pack (though I do appreciate the insight into Dean’s reasonings on remaining with the pack even with such a leader), we have a few other pack members that make an appearance and two of which actually become more prominent later on - but to me none of them fleshed out as anything more that structural support to make Dean look better and for there to be an extra hand in specific situations. 

Having said that, I really do appreciate Silas and how he responds to the situations he’s constantly being thrown into (and gets himself into), how Dean’s character changes because of their growing relationship, and the teasers into a wider universe with some intrigue regarding councils, humans, and even hunters. In fact, although I don’t plan on continuing the series (and this may change), I will be stalking the reviews for the other books in the series with the hope of learning how evil exactly he becomes (especially when considering that the other two books are titled: Evilest Omega and Evil Overlord Omega).