omega's bodyguardRating: 3.5 stars
Buy Links: 
 Amazon | All Romance | Amazon UK
Length: Novella


Rusty Jamison was a Marine in the elite Force Recon, but he had to leave the military as his wolf side was making the work impossible. Now he has taken a job working for one of his former team members as a bodyguard, protecting an IT genius with a stalker. From the moment Rusty meets Sam Hurley, he can tell the guy is a latent omega — a human with wolf blood and the potential to be an omega. Rusty’s alpha side is drawn to Sam immediately and intensely. And Sam’s feelings are just as strong in return. Their wolf instincts mean that the guys can barely keep their hands off each other.

Rusty realizes that Sam’s stalker must be another alpha wolf looking to claim him based on the guy’s extreme reaction to Sam. Now Rusty must figure out how to tell Sam about his wolf side and try to determine who is hunting Sam so they can stop the stalker and move on to their new life and pack together.

There are some books that I think of as “cracky paranormals,” stories that take the traditional shifter romance and just run with the trope: bold, dominant alphas; sweet, somewhat timid omegas with a bit of a hidden strength; instalove; intense mating bonds, etc. And every once in a while, that is the type of story I am totally in the mood to read and The Omega’s Bodyguard completely delivers on that front with some good old, tropey shifter fun. We have Rusty, the tough, confident former Marine who knows exactly what to do and how to handle the situation. And he is paired up with Sam, the virgin IT genius who is immediately captivated by Rusty and wants to just turn himself over to the man, but at the same time is brilliant and with a fierceness in his own right when needed. I particularly liked Sam’s character, brilliant beyond his years and not without his own strengths, but also so perfectly suited to his role as omega. I also liked the set up here with Rusty and his role in the military and how his wolf side affected him. It isn’t explored much, but it is an interesting bit of background. I don’t think either of these guys are fleshed out in much detail so we only get to know them on somewhat of a surface level, but I think Lux has given us some interesting tidbits to work with.

And boy do we have instalove here. The guys meet and are so instantly besotted they can barely speak. You can practically see the cartoon eyeballs sproinging out when they see each other and the hearts floating above their heads. The lust is rolling off of them in waves so intense that Rusty’s boss Mike recognizes it immediately and questions whether they can even work together. The guys go from strangers to sex in about a half an hour. And this isn’t two guys at a bar looking to score who then get together. These are people who are meeting in order to work together who basically fall so immediately in lust they can’t keep their hands off each other long enough to get anything done. The entire story takes place within less than 24 hours and they go from strangers to mated and starting their own pack over the course of the book. Not to mention that Sam hasn’t even known about the existence of wolves or his own latent wolf blood until this point and he is still able to go all in within hours. So you really have to be on board with the immediate connection and total instinct-fueled attraction here or this book isn’t going to work for you at all. It is fun, sexy, crazy, and totally unrealistic, so you just need be able to go with it.

For whatever the reason, I did find I could go along for the ride here for the most part. Again, I was looking for some good old shifter fun and that is what I got. But there were definitely some issues here as well. I mean we are talking lightning fast attraction. But what I found a bigger problem is a lack of clarity as to what was driving their relationship. It seemed totally and completely lust fueled with no actual romantic feelings. We know Sam’s omega potential makes him cat nip for wolves and he has been attracting unwanted attention for years. Rusty’s initial attraction seems clearly a result of that same alpha/omega lust and I never got the sense that it moves to anything else. And for Sam’s part, he is totally in lust too. He immediately not only wants Rusty, but trusts and believes in him completely and is willing to turn himself over to Rusty, both sexually and with the stalker. But again, I never got the sense of them falling for one another in any way other than just acting on their lust.

I also couldn’t understand why now after all these people have been hitting on Sam and it is a total turn off, why suddenly Rusty’s interest works for him. Or even more, who all these people are that were always hitting on him. We learn from the time Sam was 14 and in college (genius here), men were hitting on him. It is such a problem that his work had to implement a screening strategy with potential hires to make sure they wouldn’t harass Sam. Are these all wolves? When Rusty does some investigating, there are only a handful of unmated alphas who are considered potential threats as the stalker. So who are these people coming out the woodwork all over Sam? Or he is just that alluring to humans? And just male humans (no women ever hit on him? everyone knows he is gay?). I just found this part kind of vague and confusing for such a pivotal plot point. I also couldn’t help but wonder how Sam could so calmly accept the news about wolves and move on with barely a shock (and later another character does the same in an almost absurdly calm way given everything that happens). We are talking major life revelations, world changing events, and it all happens in a matter of hours, but still everything is chill.

So I definitely had some issues here, but in the end I found this one enough fun and entertainment that I enjoyed it. And I’ll admit, I am really intrigued by where the series is going. Lux has an interesting take on the omega role here and basically they help bond the pack through sex since most packs are made by adults being bitten as opposed to families. So it sounds like the second book is all about the group sex bonding, and I’ll admit, I’m all in for that one. I am definitely curious enough to want to keep going and see what more there is to come. So a fun, easy read here with lots of sex, lots of instalust, and a bit of a suspense plot thrown in.

jay signature