Monday, June 18, 2018

Whole by A.M. Arthur


Two broken hearts… one perfect fit.

Alpha Morris Danvers likes his quiet life as a paralegal and as the uncle to his beta brother Morgan’s infant son Aeron. Raised by an abusive sire, Morris and Morgan have relied on each other for years, and Morris doesn’t trust himself to do right by an omega mate. When a tragic accident leaves Morris alone to raise a baby, he reaches out to his boss Ronin Cross for help—and gets more help than he ever imagined from Ronin’s mate and their friends. But Morris can’t take bereavement leave forever and Aeron needs a caregiver.

After surviving an abduction and months of torture, all omega Jaysan Rowe wanted was to give away the baby he never asked for and move on. But after months of acting out, Jaysan finally hits rock bottom on the one-year anniversary of his child’s birth. Desperate to get his act together, he meets with an alpha who needs full-time daycare for his infant nephew. But the instant Jaysan sets his sights on little Aeron he knows: Aeron is his biological child. Even Morris’s nose can tell the pair belongs to each other. His nose also tells him something even more shocking: Jaysan is his bondmate.

Both men feel the bond, but neither is ready to mate, period, so they come to a business arrangement. Jaysan wants a relationship with Aeron, and Morris needs a sitter. It should have been perfect, except for that pesky mating bond. A bond that draws them together, over and over, no matter how hard each man fights it. Jaysan swore long ago he’d never mate or let another alpha touch him during heat—except everything about Morris makes him feel safe. Wanted. Whole. But Morris deserves an unsoiled mate, not someone as dirty and used as Jaysan, and Jaysan will do anything to prove it to the stubborn alpha… even if it means giving up his son a second time.

NOTE: This is a non-shifter Omegaverse story with alpha/omega/beta dynamics, heats, knotting, and mpreg. In this world, omegas are second-class citizens with few civil rights and almost no protections under the law. Trigger warnings for physical, emotional, and sexual abuse. This series is best read in numerical order.

Add to Goodreads –


Book 5
Buy Links

Amazon US  ~  Amazon UK  ~  Amazon Au  ~  Amazon Ca
~  Available with KindleUnlimited  ~



Reviews by the Wicked Reads Review Team

Avid Reader☆☆☆☆
M/M Romance, Male Pregnancy
Triggers: Click HERE to see Avid Reader’s review on Goodreads for trigger warnings.

I suggest reading the previous books as there are several characters who made repeat appearances.

Morris is an alpha who grew up without a great role model for how an alpha should treat their partner. His childhood consisted of abuse and more abuse. When he and his brother are able to live their own lives, Morris knows deep down that he will not want a mate, but is happy to play uncle to his brother's adopted son. When tragedy strikes, Morris will need to rely on his friends to help him heal and teach him how to raise his nephew.

Jaysan has had a tough road. He was imprisoned and made to fight in a gambling ring, abused, and ultimately made a sacrifice that he might not have been ready to make. He is surrounded by friends and members who were also systematically abused, but he is having difficulty opening up and truly healing. When he needs to feel, he seeks out dangerous situations.

When Morris finds himself needing a nanny, his friends suggest Jaysan. What they didn't know was that they were destined to be together. No matter how hard they fight against their bond, both have to decide if the risk is worth it. They both bring to the relationship their own issues and neither is without reason.

I enjoyed this story a lot, but found that sometimes, Jaysan was a little annoying in his communication style and Morris was almost too accommodating. However, overall, this was a good read with great secondary characters and it showed both main characters' ability to heal and grow from their experiences.


Erica☆☆☆☆
Whole is the fifth installment in the Breaking Free series. While I suggest reading in series order, as there would be confusion if read as a standalone, once you have a feel for the world-building, you can pick up a book in the series at random without any confusion. Curious to read the newest release, I skipped book four without any confusion.

Without going into book report mode, this is mpreg, which features alpha, beta, and omega as genders, with specific gender roles, which obviously showcase stereotypes/gender roles/sexism/bigotry that has plagued specific genders/orientations in our history and in today's political climate. While this is the foundation of the series itself, the romance between the two narrators is the focus.

Jaysan is one of many who had been kidnapped and used in an illegal fighting ring, forced to fight other omegas, with the loser being assaulted by the alpha who purchased the right. Omegas have little rights in this world, even as an adult, Jaysan has to have guardians until he's mated.

Morris is an alpha who is struggling with the loss of his beta brother and brother-in-law while raising his nephew.

Morris and Jaysan are thrown together in a fated fashion, Morris needing someone to care for his new ward and Jaysan needing independence and a pathway in life. This sets up the angst, as neither male wants to be mated.

While I enjoyed the novel, which had all the feels of a hurt-comfort read for both sides, and there was angst abound, there wasn't much going on otherwise. It was heavily focused on the building of the relationship, which I appreciated, but spent loads of time with both narrators ruminating things to redundancy, slowing the pacing down and creating a feel of a much longer read. What little conflict there was felt out of place, slightly forced, as if thrown in there for some added excitement.

All the warm and fuzzies, the heart-clenching emotions were there, but dampened as the book crawled to a foregone conclusion.

I highly recommend this series to mpreg fans, especially new readers to the sub-genre, as the mpreg portion is a given, not explained in a scientific way or explained at all really. I also recommend to those wishing to read a take on gender roles and how they hobble us as a society.


Also Available in the Breaking Free Series

Book 1
Buy Links

Amazon US  ~  Amazon UK  ~  Amazon Au  ~  Amazon Ca
~  Available with KindleUnlimited  ~

For reviews & more info, check out our Saved post.


Book 2
Buy Links

Amazon US  ~  Amazon UK  ~  Amazon Au  ~  Amazon Ca
~  Available with KindleUnlimited  ~

For reviews & more info, check out our Seen post.


Book 3
Buy Links

Amazon US  ~  Amazon UK  ~  Amazon Au  ~  Amazon Ca
~  Available with KindleUnlimited  ~

For reviews & more info, check out our Heard post.


Book 4
Buy Links

Amazon US  ~  Amazon UK  ~  Amazon Au  ~  Amazon Ca
~  Available with KindleUnlimited  ~

For reviews & more info, check out our Found post.



A.M. Arthur was born and raised in the same kind of small town that she likes to write about, a stone's throw from both beach resorts and generational farmland. She's been creating stories in her head since she was a child and scribbling them down nearly as long, in a losing battle to make the fictional voices stop. She credits an early fascination with male friendships (bromance hadn't been coined yet back then) with her later discovery of and subsequent love affair with m/m romance stories. A.M. Arthur's work is available from Carina Press, Dreamspinner Press, SMP Swerve, and Briggs-King Books.

When not exorcising the voices in her head, she toils away in a retail job that tests her patience and gives her lots of story fodder. She can also be found in her kitchen, pretending she's an amateur chef and trying to not poison herself or others with her cuisine experiments.

Contact her at am_arthur@yahoo.com with your cooking tips (or book comments).

Connect with A.M.

Facebook  ~  Twitter  ~  Google+  ~  Blog  ~  Goodreads


Reviewers on the Wicked Reads Review Team were provided a free copy of Whole: An Omegaverse Story (Breaking Free #5) by A.M. Arthur to read and review.

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