The Fake Mate
Lana Ferguson
Mackenzie hasn't had a successful date in months. She's only a year out of residency, and her grandmother's obsession with finding the perfect mate threatens to drive her barking mad, so it should be a small thing when she lies about meeting someone . . . until she blurts out the name of the last man she would ever date: Noah 'The Big Bad Wolf of Denver General' Taylor. Noah, interventional cardiologist and all-round grump, has spent his entire life hiding what he is - an unmated alpha. But when an anonymous tip brings everything to light, he's left with two choices: come clean to the board and risk his career or find himself a mate. So, when the chatty, overly friendly ER doctor asks him to be her fake boyfriend the same day he's called to meet the board, it must be kismet, right? Mackenzie gets her grandmother off her back, and Noah gets the chance to prove he can continue to work without a real mate - it's a mutually beneficial business transaction. But when the fake-mate act turns to a very real friends-with-benefits arrangement, lines start to blur, and they quickly realise love is a whole different kind of animal.
I have not read (and finished) very many things categorized as omegaverse. I have read the element where characters go into heats that are soothed by sex, but my impression is that they are not always actually shifter beings, sometimes they're just ~human? I also feel like male/male pairings and mpreg is ~common in omegaverse. The Fake Mate has the Alpha and Omega designations, heats, knotting, scent glands... But is this enough to make it count as omegaverse? (the couple times I've read omegaverse I felt like there were weird power dynamics and blurry consent issues that I didn't like. and I'm really unsure how to feel about mpreg.)
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0I definitely read Wattpad werewolf romances but I somehow avoided any omegaverse stories and I just don’t think it’s for me. I love the mate idea don’t like the omegaverse.
So if you’re into that kinda thing this book is probably for you.
0I didn't love the audiobook narrators for this, I felt like Mackenzie's voice was too quirky with too much voice modulation whereas Noah's perspective was read too stoically and straight, lacking emotion. Overall I thought the writing was okay, readable and had a nice cadence. I love in fake dating when people start to question if their feelings are true /if the other person is just acting. In this case it is an element about whether or not their hormones and Alpha and Omega designations are what is really pulling them together or causing the attraction and feelings. While the characters do have many scenes and interactions together and do start to realize that the other person isn't quite so grumpy / annoying, I would have liked a little bit more of showing how these two were well matched or what made them compatible or realistic together, over just the physical compatibility stuff. I haven't read a ton of Omegaverse stuff, and so this had some elements of the genre but I'm not really sure if this would be called omegaverse-light over paranormal? Other than the heat element and the fated mates bit, these two characters being Alpha and Omega wasn't particularly relevant? Why would a business (in this case a hospital) care if Noah is mated? At least there was some stereotypical prejudicial reason presented here. Both of these characters needed fake partners, then lines were crossed and blurred when adding in sex, it almost didn't really matter what their designations were. The third act drama was extremely flimsy to me, so it was obvious about how to resolve it. Noah makes a bad decision and that was super predictable, but at least it got resolved quickly. Some reviewers found Mackenzie to be flighty, immature, too much-- and many found Noah sweet but boring and low personality and I can see it with both of them. One review points out how the stakes were pretty much minimal because we get to see via dual point of view how both characters want to real-date each other so early on and this lowers the tension. Overall many reviewers declare how smutty this book was and many did not like that much. Overall this was a cute fun steamy book and I had a fun time reading it.
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