Reviewed by Larissa

TITLE: Ugly

SERIES:  Winter Sun, Book 1

AUTHOR: Roe Horvat

PUBLISHER: Self-published

LENGTH: 188 pages

RELEASE DATE: December 1, 2021

BLURB: 

When a homeless young omega comes by Burke’s pub asking for work, Burke doesn’t have the heart to send him away. He lets the boy help with some chores in exchange for food, and soon, Emerson’s visits become regular. Then one frosty December night, the boy keeps his head down, hiding in a corner until closing time and looking like he wants to disappear into the ground. Emerson is about to go into heat, and he has nowhere to hide.

People say Burke is ugly and scary, but Emerson has never been afraid of the burly pub owner. The big alpha has scars down the side of his face, but so what? He must have been in a lot of pain once, poor man. When snow covers Dalton City, and Emerson realizes he’s only days away from his first heat, his feet carry him to the pub by themselves. Burke is the only alpha Emerson trusts not to hurt him. And given the choice between freezing to death or getting abused, Emerson would much rather offer himself to Burke.

Except Burke is probably the nicest man in the entire city. Stunned, Emerson finds himself safe and warm during the snowstorm, without having to sacrifice anything. Maybe he’s even a little bit in love with his rescuer.

Ugly is an omegaverse gay romance, mpreg, non-shifter. High heat, monogamous couple, HEA.

REVIEW: 

Ugly is my first Roe Horvat book and has piqued my interest in Horvat’s other works.  Ugly is poignant, emotional, and raw with dark topics like Emerson’s battle to survive on the streets as a young omega.  Emerson is taken under the wing of another homeless boy, Kirby, who helps him stay alive. However, with Emerson’s first heat approaching, he finds himself in a desperate situation.

Kind-hearted, generous pub owner Burke takes one look at Emerson and knows he needs help. He starts with small unobtrusive things like letting Emerson stay in the warm pub all day and letting him take out the trash in exchange for food. This expands into Burke allowing Emerson to stay in his apartment above the pub during his first heat. Burke assures himself he can help Emerson through it without giving in to his attraction and alpha urges to physically engage with him through his heat.

Horvat sets out an excellent premise with subtext about seeing beneath the surface to the heart of who a person is.  Burke is physically deformed and, coupled with his large imposing figure, is seen as intimidating if not downright scary.  However, Emerson doesn’t see that at all. Instead, he sees through to Burke’s true kind nature and beautiful spirit.

Emerson and Burke’s improbable relationship works under Horvat’s skilled hand.  However, he squanders an opportunity to deepen this story by not exploring Burke’s backstory more and fleshing out the conflict with his pub cook, Mark.  The story felt one-dimensional at times, and the explicit heat scenes take up most of the story.  Nevertheless, the epilogue delivers a fulfilling HEA.  I’m glad the next book, Unexpected, focuses on Richard. His relationship with Burke, their long friendship, time together in business school, and Richard’s relationship plight all grabbed my attention, but are not addressed other than superficially in the story.

Overall, Ugly is an enjoyable, if incomplete, scorching hot omegaverse love story.  If you don’t like extensive, extremely detailed heat scenes, skip this book. That’s essentially what comprises this story, albeit within the outlines of an intriguing plot that, unfortunately, isn’t brought to fruition in a satisfying way. That being said, I liked it enough that I am definitely on board to read book two.

RATING:

BUY LINKS: 

Amazon