Posession: Forbidden Alphas is an alpha/omega non-shifter dark romance book written by Liliana Carlisle.  It is set in a dystopian world, where alphas and omegas are treated incredibly poorly, while they are forcibly separated, and forced to stay away from each other.

I am not new, to the alpha/omega/beta books.  I have not read a ton of them, but I am not new to this genre.  This is first time I have personally seen this type of plot, and I LOVED IT.  In this world, in the United States, alphas and omegas have been forcibly separated, and are fed fear mongering tactics so that everyone is afraid of the alphas. 

The alphas, are locked in a prison, training every day for a war that may or may not come.  They are used, abused, and become reliant on an omegas scent just to stay sane.  A scent, which is heavily controlled. 

The omegas, aren’t living a much better life.  They are not allowed to leave the towns they live in (even for a small vacation), have special rooms where they have to lock themselves in, and are honestly not well thought of.   

The book starts when our omega Hazel, the female main character, notices that a 7 year old child in one of the classes she is teaching appears to be presenting as an alpha.  (side note, no idea what presenting actually means in this book.  That is never really fully explained.)  Conner, the child, gets taken away and serves as a catalyst to this story.  Abel, who is our male main character, is an alpha in the prison the child gets sent too.  Unable to take the abuse, unable to take the way they are all being treated anymore, Abel works with people inside his prison so he can break himself, and others out.

While Abel is working on breaking out, Hazel is testing the limits of her freedom, and she just so happens to be in the exact spot Abel is when he escapes.

I really did enjoy the plot of this book, and I loved the dystopian element of it.  The setting and the plot was incredibly well done by the author, and I could easily see something like this happening in the US.  My biggest problem with the plot, is that it was never fully explained how suddenly everyone started “presenting” as an alpha, omega, or beta.  When someone was presenting, it wasn’t fully explained what that meant either. 

Both of our main characters are heavily traumatized, rightfully so, and the author doesn’t just magically heal their trauma when they find each other.  We get to watch them fall in love, but still fulfill their mission (in Abel’s case) or break free of the fear tactics (Hazel’s case). 

There were two things that really bothered me about this book.  The first, was the author’s use of a “mating gland”.  I am sorry, I don’t know much about wolf anatomy, and maybe I don’t know enough about alpha/omega books to know if this is an actual thing.  But every time I read the term “mating gland” I got this weird image in my head of this little pink gland on the side of Hazel’s neck that oozed.  I have no idea why that was the image I got, it just is.  So when they would have sex, and he would lick that mating gland, I was grossed out.  I kept trying to picture anything else, didn’t work.

The other issue I had in this book, which was a much larger issue than the mating gland, was the author wrote in third person present tense.  I don’t know why this bothered me so much. I couldn’t pin point it even if I wanted too.  Typically if I am reading a book like this, it is either in first person present tense, or third person past tense.  And I truly did not like the third person present tense writing.  I found that it tripped me up a lot when reading, and I ended up having to reread passaged constantly.

Overall – This was a decent book, and I really enjoyed the authors take on alphas/betas/omegas.  I liked the world she created and the way that it was entirely realistic that it was the US that caused all of the problems.  While there is a second book in this series, this book does not end on a cliff hanger which I sincerely appreciated.  And though the author finished this story with a happily ever after, it isn’t a perfect happily ever after where everything is solved.  There are still problems, there is still work that needs to be done. 

Possession: Forbidden Alphas– Liliana Carlisle

Cost* – eBook is $2.99 and this novel is included on Kindle Unlimited. 

*Cost is based upon what the book cost when book review is published