GL Carriger - The Omega Objection

Can a gentle giant with a trampled heart show a man who’s been running all his life that sometimes there are monsters worth running towards?
A werewolf walks into a bar.
Tank is working as a bouncer when he notices something odd about the new sexy-as-sin bartender. He’s odorless, he’s amazingly popular with shifters, and he’s terrified.
A man without a smell.
Isaac is trying to escape his past. He hides in San Francisco because everyone knows that there are no werewolves in the Bay Area.
Until one walks into his bar.
Can Tank figure out Isaac’s secrets in time to save him? And can Isaac forgive Tank for being a wolf in time to learn how to love? 

Comment: This is the second installment in the San Andreas Shifters series by GL Carriger. Once again, we are able to see what else happens in the lives of the pack members even if the focus is in one specific couple.

In this second full length story, the protagonist is Tank. He has always had the impression he was redundant in his old pack, just a number there and not unique enough. In this new pack what he really liked about it is that everyone is special, everyone is friendly and Tank likes hanging out with people who like him, even if he recognizes he isn't that important.

One day he meets and smells a man at the bar while working that night as part of his pack's contract. Isaac is popular among shifters and he seems to have a kind word for everyone but Tank probably wouldn't even get his attention...or would he?

Isaac knows shifters can't smell what he is and that is a good thing, considering what he running from. But Tank seems to match all his preferences in a partner except the fact he is a wolf. When danger returns and Isaac feels like running again, can he really let go of a guy he can't seem to stay away from?

Some readers have focused their reading of this book too much on specific details I suppose and that can explain some lower ratings. However, despite some of those details being a little annoying (I'd also change this or that), the majority of this novel is so appealing, so vibrant and so addictive, I actually struggled to put it down when necessary.

Again, different books work for different people for a multitude of reasons and for me, this book, worked out very well indeed.

The best element I love about this book (and the previous one too) is the amazing characterization of the characters. They are so well fleshed and have so much depth, it's both interesting and captivating to keep reading about them, so that we can discover a little more about them.

Then, there's also the pack interactions. If there is one thing any and all writers out there should do when creating paranormal worlds featuring families/communities/groups is that if they don't mesh well, if they don't seem to interact, the story doesn't seem as solid.

When this happens, the whole world feels populated, strong, alive (see Nalini Singh's psy-changeling series with shifters or Larissa Ione's Demonica world with a multitude of species). I'm very glad I was able to have this feeling with the world GL Carriger has created.

There's a romance, of course, between Isaac and Tank. I think a little detail regarding their relationship wasn't as necessary to exist as we are led to see but it's sort of explained. I dislike bdsm types of stories and in this case I didn't really like Tank was so submissive sexually but gratefully the focus wasn't this.

Isaac and Tank are a good match because, as cliché as it sounds, they do complement each other. Tank is someone who explains why a pack exists: he is the reason why other members have their own positions. Without pack members, why bother? Isaac, on the other hand, is an omega which means he is someone who unites, who helps the others bond and be calm. It was very good to see that as their relationship got stronger, so did the importance of each one of them individually.

I think I'd have preferred their sexual connection to be more balanced but well, nothing is perfect.

While the plot is developing, we get to learn several things about how packs work, about personal expectations (I really liked how Tank's personality was created) and why certain situations in this world with shifters happen. The story itself isn't that complicated but the author has added so many details, every character becomes alive and part of this, not only being just a prop. The reasons for Isaac's mystery aura aren't as impossible as I imagined but it did allow some more characteristics of the world to be presented.

All in all, a very good installment, wonderful scenes to devour and now I'm very eager to read the next one, it will feature an unlikely couple and I want it now but alas, it only comes out in the second semester of next year...

Grade: 9/10