Hide or Die by Ember BlazeMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
I’d probably give this book 4.5 ⭐ if I could.
This is the first book in a continuing series, as such even though the story ends at a natural break in the plot, it feels very much like a cliffhanger!
I was lucky enough to get my hands on an Advanced Reader Copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. It’s an Omegaverse novel and if you don’t know what that is you need to read this. Now you have the basic idea of what Omegaverse is all about, you need to understand this book has a bit of a different twist on things. This book is set in a world where alphas and omegas are enslaved, mutilated and chemically controlled. Every alpha and omega must be registered and being unregistered is a death sentence. Betas are in control of the world and they rule with an iron fist.
Leona is an omega who was born of respectable beta parents who decided to hide her gender using their money and contacts to buy black market drugs to suppress all signs of her status. Living as a beta she worked her way up to a high rank in the diplomatic corps and was doing her best to improve the living conditions of alphas and omegas, despite taking her life in her hands whilst she was doing it.
Leona’s assistant Kam, is also an omega in hiding, except he was discovered as a pre-teen and had his reproductive organs removed in punishment for not being a good little omega in the slave pens. He eventually escaped and now he and Leona form their own little lopsided pack. They are unable to live as their instincts tell them, unable to have love the way they want to experience it, never daring to be themselves even in their own homes.
When on assignment they are kidnapped along with one of their alpha guards and they fear their secret will finally be exposed, as Leona goes into heat without her hormones. Their kidnappers are beta fundamentalists and threaten to use a weapon against all alphas and omegas to wipe them off the face of the earth.
There’s a lot going on in this book. There are echoes within the writing of slavery and the fight for emancipation and LGBTQIA+ rights. There is also an intelligent discourse on diplomacy and the way the business of politics is done. At the same time as all the interesting subtext, there is a compelling story. The characters are interesting and diverse and they are believable in the context of the world that the author has built. The characters all have interesting backstories which are revealed throughout the course of the book in a natural way.
I really like that this is essentially more of a ‘Sweetverse’ book than a straight ‘Omegaverse’ book, as I’m not a huge fan of those books. There is nothing non/dubiously consensual in this book, which is one of the things I don’t normally like about Omegaverse books, with hormones basically taking away the will of the omega to say no. In this book, however, the alphas are protective and nurturing and are trapped within the system as much as the omegas are and take care of the omegas when they are unable to protect themselves.
This is an excellent introduction to a new series and it gives me high hopes for the rest of it, because the intelligent plot structure seems to indicate very interesting things to come, especially when accompanied by the very engaging and sympathetic main characters.
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