Review: Knot Playing Fair: Book One by Ember Blaze

Knot Playing Fair: Book One (Knot Playing Fair #1)
by Ember Blaze

My Rating: 4 stars

Genre: Omegaverse
Age Category: Adult
Type of romance: Polyamory

Blurb:
My husband demanded an open marriage.

Now he’s angry that I’m dating a pack of hot guys, like somehow the rules are supposed to be different for me?

I can’t divorce him. We’re business partners in St. Louis’ hottest new Michelin star restaurant, and the place is mortgaged to the hilt. Still, the unfairness of it all is grinding me down day by day.

The only bright spot is the new men I’ve met. Together, Zalen, Emiel, Byron, and Luca run the Hope Project, a center for at-risk youth in that middle of East St. Louis’ gangland. I feel more at home with them than I ever did in my beta-style marriage… at least until their dangerous pasts start to creep into my present-day life, threatening the one thing I’ve worked so hard to achieve—my success as the chef-owner of the Elderflower Inn.

With everything falling apart, can a misfit pack of broken former gang members somehow help me stitch my life back together?

* * *

Knot Playing Fair: Book One is the first half of an alphomic non-shifter duology, originally published on Kindle Vella. It contains M/F and M/M.

My Review

I really like Ember Blaze’s omegaverse books and I was so exicted to read this book. I waited till book 2 released as well so I could read them close together if I wanted. I really enjoyed this book, I liked reading about Mia and getting to know the men she’s falling for. The ending is a bit abrupt, but I expected that based on the other omegaverse series by this author and I already have book 2 and might just start that right away so I can continue the story.

Mia is an omega married to Nat who is a beta, their marriage is having troubles and when Nat proposes an open marriage Mia is hurt. She meets another omega and grows closer to him and the alphas he shares a house with. While there is some steam early on, but I felt the focus really was on establishing the different characters and their deepening bonds.

This book kept me reading and engaged during a time where I felt very stressed and I appreciated that. There is plenty going on plot wise and the characters are interesting. There are some good steamy scenes which are nicely spread throughout the book and there’s plenty of relationship building as well.

I have to admit I wasn’t quite sure what to think of the whole plot line surrounding Nat and how that would play out. Usually when there is an ex or troubled marriage in books I don’t even get why they even cared for each other and while I had some of that here at first as Nat could be quite rude early on, I also thought Nat actually was a decent guy especially later in this book that becomes clear. And I just kept being confused where this was going and I thought things would get resolved and this would just be the starting point of Mia finding her pack, but then it just kept dragging on. It did feel realistic, but also not what I am used to seeing in books. By the end I think I know why the author did this and where it’s going and it will be interesting to see how things play out in book 2.

The characters were interesting to read about and I liked the sweeter scenes were they grow closer or open up to each other. And the scenes involving Princess were so sweet too. All of the characters in this one are pretty broken, the omega Luca and two of the alphas have a hard background and came from gangs. Not all the details are revealed yet, but I felt so bad for them and what they struggled with. I wasn’t a big fan of the attempt of suspense that got added sometimes with the gang related plot line as I rather read more about the characters and romance. And I just want to see all of them happy and seeing they deserve good things. Looking forward to book 2!

To summarize: This was a great start to a new omegaverse series. I liked reading about these characters. I liked the relationship building and seeing the characters get to know each other, but there also were some steamy scenes spread throughout this book already, which I thought worked well here. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from the marriage plot line with Mia and her almost ex-husband Nat, as it felt that kept dragging on, but by the end of the book I think I understand why and am curious to see how that plays out in book 2. I wasn’t a big fan of the slight suspense gang related bits, but the rest of the book was great and I enjoyed reading about the characters and the romance.

Links:
– Goodreads
– Bookbub
– Amazon

You can also read my review on Goodreads and Bookbub.