Reviewed by Stephen K
TITLE: The Omega from the Ocean
SERIES: Heron Manor #1
AUTHOR: Amy Bellows
NARRATOR: Lance West
PUBLISHER: Amy Bellows
LENGTH: 8 Hours 48 Minutes
RELEASE DATE: September 13th 2021
BLURB:
Merman Jack is a terrible virgin sacrifice. Mostly because he isn’t virginal. At all.
Hopefully the Sea King won’t notice.
For Jack, the human world has too many wonderful temptations, and too many alphas to resist. He only has two months left before he has to give himself to the Sea King, and he doesn’t want to spend them in the cold, dark catacombs where the Mermen of Rixton live. It may be forbidden for Jack to go to shore, but when did that ever stop him?
Peter is a terrible dragon shifter. He can’t figure out what he’s supposed to collect for his hoard. Without his hoard, he can’t do any of the important dragon-shifter things, like take his dragon form or find his fated mate. After years of losing his lovers to their fated mates, Peter’s feeling his age, and he’s tired of being alone.
When Peter sees a beautiful merman on the beach, he thinks he’s finally found his fated mate. Jack falls hard for Peter too, but he knows they can’t be together forever. If Jack doesn’t show up on the day of his sacrifice, the Sea King will kill his father and take his brother instead.
Will the love between a terrible virgin sacrifice and a terrible dragon shifter be enough to change their fate?
Omega from the Ocean is a gritty, age-gap romance with knotting, light D/s, and Mpreg of the dragon-egg variety. This is not a stand-alone book. While the ending may be an HEA for Jack and Peter, it’s an HFN for the rest of the Mermen of Rixton.
REVIEW:
Tenderfoot (Noun): a newcomer in a comparatively rough region. Since mermen don’t normally have feet, can one call a merman a tenderfoot? Perhaps he’s just a fish out of water, but Jack is the quintessential twink. Jack’s a babe in the woods who’s curious about life above the surface and the tale of this mismatched pair starts out as a joyous flight of fancy. And it’s very clear that the two MCs here fancy each other.
But…. This is also a bit of a bait and switch While the opening chapters are a happy go lucky horny twink tale, the story soon takes a darker and colder turn. Just below the surface, this is a much bleaker, more complex tale. The Sea King has somehow subjugated the mermen, broken their spirit and is exploiting them, regularly demanding tribute. That Jack is destined to be part of that tribute in two months just ups those stakes.
The world building here is terrific and we get to meet various types of dragons, see life above the surface from a fresh new perspective and suffer along with a dragon shifter who just can’t seem to find what’s necessary to allow him to shift.
There is a happy ending for our main characters here but only after a hard-won victory and it doesn’t come without sacrifices. While that which doesn’t kill us makes us stronger, in this case it makes for a more satisfying story. But it’s also such a dark story that I don’t see it becoming one of my frequent repeats. In a way that’s a real shame, as the innocence and newness that we get when discovering life above the surface through Jack’s eyes are some of the most light-hearted moments I’ve encountered in a while.
Narrator Lance West (in what I believe to be his debut performance) does a good job with overall pacing and giving each character their distinctive vocal identities. While Jack’s (Seafoam’s) voice conveys that he may not be a full-on brat, he’s pretty high on the Sassy Spectrum. Peter, the pushing 40 Dragon shifter, is suitably measured when compared to Jack and the two make a good contrast.
Among the more minor characters, Arch, the heron shifter, has a suitably world weary/ironic (arch?) tone. Orca’s voice suits his character after we get to know him a bit. It did strike an odd note was when the narrator first assumed his deepest voice for Orca. What made it odd was that Orca wasn’t speaking the dialogue just signing it. (Who knew mermen used a variation on ASL?). As Orca’s background becomes more well explained, the voice does seem to fit him more. Lance does a reasonably good job with both male and female voices though his naturally youthful voice makes a few of the characters, (particularly Peter’s two moms) younger than they’re described… but then how old is old when you’re a dragon?
Overall, I thought that this was a fine adventure. While it wasn’t exactly what I expected from the book blurb, I enjoyed it. It does look to be the first in a series and I’m hoping that in later volumes we’ll be able to see these shifters in a lighter adventure.
RATING: 
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