Rating: 4 stars
Buy Link: Amazon | iBooks | Amazon UK
Length: Novel
Luxor is a divided city where powerful families rule with iron fists and ruthless private armies . Hanni is an Omega police officer from the Central Empire — one of the three districts in Luxor City — and not just an Omega behind a desk playing secretary or working with computers. He’s an actual detective, and while he’s small and slender, he’s trained hard to get where he is and won’t back down from a fight. Nor does he lose his temper when things go wrong. Such as when he ends up crossing the border into the Southern Empire while chasing a suspect.
When Alpha Jaemin Yi has him pinned against a wall, it’s all Hanni can do to not either fight back or give in. The Alpha is tall, powerful, charming, and everything Hanni could want, if it weren’t for the fact that they belong to two very different sides. Jaemin would be within his rights to have Hanni killed for sneaking across the border. Instead, he helps him keep his cover and takes him out to dinner where he flirts …and Hanni finds himself flirting back. Until Jaemsin goes too far and Hanni slaps him. In public.
What should have been the end of his career instead begins a very curious courtship as Jaemin trails after Hanni like a golden retriever, rather than the wolf he is.
The author has written two other books that take place in Luxor City — The Empires of Luxor City and Between Empires and Continents — but each one is a standalone, dystopian story loosely connected by powerful families and setting. They are Omegaverse books with no shifting, but with scenting, heats, and knotting. They tend to be fairly high heat, low angst, and with a focus on happy couples trading quips back and forth. And this book is no different, as Hanni and Jaemin spend a lot of time flirting.
Hanni is strictly no-nonsense at work, though he allows himself to be bullied and harassed by his only other Omega coworker. Her obsessive friendship, cheerful stalking, and joyful shipping of Hanni and Jaemin toe the line more than once, but Hanni simply allows it to happen. If she were a Beta or Alpha, he’d have put her in her place, but he’s kinder to Omegas. Hanni is also a by-the-book cop, leaving no room for doubt about his abilities, and firmly checks Jaemin and otherswhen they go too far.
Jaemin is always willing to listen to Hanni’s wants and needs. When he says no, Jaemin backs off. When he pushes him away, no matter how hot and heavy they’ve been moments before, Jaemin respects him enough to take a step away. And whenever Hanni pulls him in for a kiss, Jaemin is always willing to dive right in. And it’s interesting that he almost always waits for Hanni to make the first move, giving the Omega ample time to decide this is what he wants, not something Jaemin is pulling him into. To be honest, Jaemin is an absolute golden retriever, all smiles and devotion and good temper who texts with emojis — \( ^ o ^)/ and <3 — and who, for the first official date, takes Hanni to an arcade. He’s an Alpha, yes, and a dangerous mobster … but he’s also adorable.
Hanni and Jaemin work well together. They have a bright, easy chemistry and the plot moving around in the background requires very little of their attention. It seems to exist to make the world feel larger and more dangerous, to add the idea of consequences to actions without adding angst or drama or harm to either of the characters. This really is a sweet and fluffy book … with mobsters who send people off to prison camps for stealing their money, or who kill them without thought or care.
If you like omegaverse books, happily ever afters, so much flirting, and only the tiniest dash of angst as seasoning, you’ll enjoy this book. And while you’re at it, try the other two, as well.
