Predetory/Prey mm Romance review

Swept Away by Amy Bellows & C.W. Gray

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Blurb:

​Tru Willis refuses to feel sorry for himself.

Sure, he’s a barren rabbit shifter who has to spend his heat alone every year. And of course, he’d love to have a mate and children of his own. But he’s too busy nursing wild animals back to health and babysitting his cute nieces and nephews to feel lonely.

Until someone starts leaving gifts on his doorstep. Sweet, handmade gifts that make Tru feel special and treasured. The gifts all smell of alpha–an alpha Tru has never met face to face.

One day Tru finds a letter on his doorstep instead of a gift. In it, the alpha requests to help Tru through his heat. He even leaves a photo of himself, and he’s breathtaking.

But the stranger doesn’t offer anything else. Just one heat. Just a handful of days, and then he’ll be gone.

Can Tru handle giving himself to a man he won’t be able to keep? And if he can’t, does he have the willpower to say no?

Swept Away is shifter romance set in the omegaverse with MPreg, knotting, and nesting. It’s book one in the Rabbit Hollow series.

For Those Who Like: 

• ​A little bit of misplaced angst
• No tension
• Sweet read
• Lots of Sex

My Review:

WARNING!
​I make fun of myself, my genre, and other authors. Please stop here if you have a hard time with super hard words like conflict, poking fun or reality. If so, go get this book Swept Away! It's totally for you, but this review is not.

I usually enjoy the kind of tension that pulls the reader in and follows with a great romp (like Sam Burns The Fantastic Fluke series). I've read a few of Amy Bellows stuff and I turn to her when I want a no drama fluff read with a few poignant lines that might come out preachy (to some).

I don't really have to think about the message with her books as she gladly spells it out for readers. Definitely a tin-man story where the readers doesn't need a brain. But I don't have a problem when the message is "Love each other".

I do have some mental stops when biology gets thrown out the window, but that's just due to me not wanting to let go of things like reality. It's totally cool to yell at me about suspension of disbelief, but there's only so much my mind can bend before I try and rationalize the inconsistencies. 

I can get into a predator species loving a prey species. I even love the mpreg thing because I can rationalize it, somehow. But there are some stops in this story that make my brain go...

...wut?

Dear heavens I hope aliens are not reading this litératuré and come to earth thinking they can mate with males who will produce milk for their babies. Oh my gawd! Can you imagine a grey coming down, nabbing a human male, bringing him onto his space ship and then being like:

Alien: "Feed my babies with your male breast milk."
Human: *eyes popping out* "Our biology doesn't work that way!" (internal thought: the milk I give might not be so nutritional but more importantly... ew ew ew)
Alien: *Holds out a kindle paperwhite with an Amy Bellows title* "But this history book says you can."
Human: *internal screaming* "That's a story! Fiction. You know made up?" 
Alien: "Here are my young. Their mother died in tragic masturbation accident and now I must feed them."
Human: *drowns in a sea of little grey's tackling him* 

Fuck, now I think I have to write THAT story.

My only defense to save my sanity and keep reading? "FM". Fucking Magic. Fiction authors use it everywhere. Everyday. It just wish sometimes they didn't. 

Before one might think I hated the story which is not at all my sentiment, know that I finished the book.

If you've read any of my reviews, you'll see my DNF pile stacks almost as high as the books read. That I completed the book is in itself saying something. Either I was totally desperate for Amy Bellows (and C.W. Gray) or willing to read a low stakes story. Probably both in my search for the book I can rave about in between Megan Derr's releases. 

But I don't want to leave readers with a bad impression of this book. You should totally give it a try when you're in the mood for fluffy bunnies and those few passages pointing out every "Alpha" should be this way and yet saying that everyone has a right to be who they want to be. 

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BORING AUTHOR THOUGHTS BELOW.
​SKIP TO THE NEXT SECTION OF THE REVIEW.

​Now I want to address something that a majority of readers don't often think about. The second author. I've read Amy Bellows stuff enough to know that there was some of C.W. Gray in there, but this felt like an Amy Bellows story. Will it make readers look into Gray? Maybe, but it was a thought only because I tend to follow authors.

Will it help Gray boost sales for their books? I don't know. I've only read "The Guppy Prince" from their The Silver Isles series. BTW... The third book cover in that series totally threw me off. I'm so used to branding books that I almost skipped over the third book thinking it was different and driving myself crazy know there were 3 books in the series.

So I KNOW Gray and Bellows are a great fit. They write very alike. I think Gray knows how to write with higher tension which is why I see so much of Bellows in this book. ​The usual Gray tension is not there. 

But the main thing is:
1. Did they have fun writing it.
2. Did they make money?

I know money should be before fun, but if you're going to do something as hard as writing, it should be fun. That way both the author(s) and the reader(s) both enjoy it. Dear lord no one should write if they don't find it fun, a calling or gratifying in some way. It's not like working in a factory. Mostly. 

​Anyway...

** Boring Author Rant over **
It's interesting to read now

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Amy Bellows has the ability to make the inane sorta interesting. And that is a gift.

I could not write 50k words about two guys getting together with nothing really happening but two characters smoldering in feelings for the entire ride. I can dwell into the hearts of people I just need action to propel that emotional deep dive.

Which I can tear apart my own stories on that subject but hey, I can take criticism because nobody rips apart my story like me.

I didn't have to finish "Swept Away" but I did because I found it interesting enough to follow along with Griffin and Tru's story. The perfect read FOR ME is out there. I'll keep reading for it! In the meantime, this one might be of interest to you.

Unitl next time...
...happy reading!

​~ Stephy