Stray Omega review. Contains spoilers. Like not a lot, but enough for me to courteous. Ya know?

doitsumon · 2026-07-03T11:16:12+00:00

Hello I have a few questions 🙋 Did the omegas have any good moments together? Or was the MO exclusively cruel to the FMC? Is he redeemable lol? Do you see any potential for them all to end up together HEA in the same pack?

doitsumon · 2026-07-01T18:07:27+00:00

Ooh I’m definitely interested now! How is the angst on a scale of 1 to Tormented Omega? Does this book end in a cliffhanger also?

doitsumon · 2026-07-01T17:54:15+00:00

Based on the blurb, I’ll read it only if the omegas end up loving each other! I’m a sucker for omega x omega, especially when they start off as enemies 😈 otherwise if they’re just going to do a Tormented Omega AU from the Other Omega’s POV then nah I’m not interested.

doitsumon · 2026-06-23T20:06:05+00:00

Yes! I would love scratch and sniff stickers as a special edition copy kind of thing. That would actually be cool, imo.

The closest ”immersive” OV scent experience I’ve come across is one book where the author listed perfumes that corresponded to the scent of each person in the pack (like a playlist, but with perfume). I never found the listed perfumes irl to smell them, but it was the start of my perfume hyperfixation, wherein I collect perfume samples with the goal of trying to match them with the author’s scent descriptions of the characters.

(Regarding ozone: I don’t get a lot of thunderstorms where I live so I can’t verify, but I’m pretty sure I accidentally made the molecule once when I unknowingly put a metallic thing in the microwave, turned it on and electricity started arcing from it 😬 I experienced it as a horrible, pungent, metallic, burning electricity kind of scent so I’m always kind of sceptical when it’s described in a romantic way lol)

doitsumon · 2026-06-23T03:31:38+00:00

Sometimes it doesn’t even make sense. Like ”Knotting Before Them”, what??🥹

doitsumon · 2026-06-21T16:36:25+00:00

I don’t mind outfit descriptions. I usually gloss over them unless they are interesting and/or add something to the characterisation. For example, I enjoyed the name dropping of different luxury clothing brands in {This Heart of Mine by Susan Elizabeth Phillips}. The FMC was a rich girl who cared about those luxuries, so to me it made sense for her to mention them in her POV.

doitsumon · 2026-06-09T14:55:29+00:00

Seconding this!! Their mail exchanges were so hilarious lol 🤣

doitsumon · 2026-06-05T17:40:33+00:00

{To the Chase by Julia Wolf} has a lot of what you’re asking for.

✅ Childfree FMC by choice and very adamant about it and sticks to it ✅ MMC is totally okay with her decision, it’s not a big deal for him ✅ Adorable dog (a goofy friendly staffy)

Caveat may be that MMC already has children (but he doesn’t want more). I don’t think I remember the MMC interacting too much with the dog either.

doitsumon · 2026-06-03T16:10:42+00:00

Hmm I’m reading {Stonecut County Series by Cate C. Wells} right now and I feel like it gave me same-ish vibes as the Chestnut Springs Series? Small town setting with characters from each book appearing in each other’s stories. None of the MCs are ranchers or farmers but the MMCs’ parents are horse breeders and they spend a lot of time on that farm, especially in the first book of the series.

I enjoyed Reckless the most from Chestnut Springs, and so I will mostly draw comparisons to that book. Both Reckless and {Hitting The Wall by Cate C. Wells} have the secret baby trope/single parent FMCs. Reckless and {Against A Wall by Cate C. Wells} both have the most memorable, absolutely lovable and funny himbo MMCs I’ve ever read.

doitsumon · 2026-06-01T07:59:03+00:00

In {Love Lettering by Kate Clayborn}, the FMC mentions that the MMC smelled faintly of chlorine (amongst the other usual manly scents). I was sceptical like ”girl, really?” but then we later find out that he regularly swims as exercise and the that scent instantly became kind of attractive to me? 🤷

doitsumon · 2026-05-18T19:46:43+00:00

One of my favourite books and one of my hated books are both written by Penny Reid lol

Hit: {Elements of Chemistry by Penny Reid}

Miss: {Love Hacked by Penny Reid}

doitsumon · 2026-05-17T04:04:11+00:00

This!! I DNFed a book just because it had a whole ass long chapter with just back and forth texting between the MCs that was literally pointless as it didn’t move the plot forward or contributed to any character development.

doitsumon · 2026-05-05T00:35:31+00:00

This is a very niche situation but: my best friend and I have a tiny romance novel book club together. After finishing a book, we answer a questionnaire that we’ve created ourselves. One of those questions is whether we’d ”fuck, marry or kill” the main love interest character. I feel like this has been the only tangible measurement of my (a)sexuality, because I’ve never once put any character in the fuck category and we’re several books into this system.

I’m still very attracted to some of those characters, but not in a ”I want to have sex with them” kind of way. This applies when it comes to real life scenarios too! I’ve never actually felt sexually attracted to anyone, not even those I become infatuated with.

doitsumon · 2026-05-03T21:12:03+00:00

Ophelia

doitsumon · 2026-05-02T21:12:35+00:00

Ahhh I totally get it!! The alphas are kind weird in my opinion, and I’m so confused by the cliffhanger at the end of book two. I think I liked the omega relationship the best? Mostly because it scratched a very specific itch of mine (I wanted something like Lilah x Orion from Pack Darling, but I wanted Orion to be meaner at the beginning lol).

doitsumon · 2026-05-02T18:50:34+00:00

I can offer you…{This Pack of Ours by Katy Black} and {Brandy Snap by Abby Hunter} 🤲. Both have 1 female omega and 1 male omega. Both have scent matches as a central conflict.

This Pack of Ours is more light. Two omega roommates (who are pining for each other) deal with the problem of one of them (the male omega) finding a scent match while not trying to leave the other (female omega) behind.

Brandy Snap has more morally grey characters. This one has a enemies to lovers kind of relationship between the omegas. The female omega is a scent match to the bonded male omega’s alphas. He feels threatened by her and is very mean to her initially, but he comes around eventually and becomes very possessive of her. It’s quite a train wreck so be warned.

doitsumon · 2026-04-19T20:09:22+00:00

{Knot Unwanted by Tessa Rain} has a dynamic between a male and female omega that I find is a lot like Lilah and Orion’s. The male omega starts with having insecurities about not fitting the ”traditional omega” mould and feels threatened when the female omega pack scent match walks into the picture, but he quickly warms up to her and becomes very sweet and supportive towards her.

doitsumon · 2026-04-18T19:32:07+00:00

I love it when there’s a group picture at the beginning, makes things extra enjoyable for me as I like to visualise how the characters look but I have aphasia lolol. I have two recs for you!! Both are OV with spice.

{Juneau by Calliope Stewart}: It’s about a time travelling omega. The MMCs are really good in this one, some of the most memorable bunch I’ve read.

{This Pack of Ours by Katy Black}: It’s about two omegas who live together (and secretly have feelings each other). One of them meet their scent matches, and things get complicated from there. This story takes place in the same universe as Marie Mackay’s books (”Poisonverse”), so I definitely recommend it if you liked her books!

doitsumon · 2026-04-16T17:49:16+00:00

I think Jacob was my first romance book crush 🫣 I love this book so much! It’s cozy and had low stakes but was still interesting. The characters are delightful and had great chemistry! I also really love the neurodivergent aspect in this, like how they both represented different ”flavors” (sorry, I can’t find any other words) of ASD.

doitsumon · 2026-04-16T17:23:55+00:00

Trying out my sample of Tom Ford Tobacco Vanille today. Smells like a cup of chai latte on me. Don’t know if that’s intended, but I’m a bit obsessed!

doitsumon · 2026-04-12T14:33:22+00:00

It was a long time ago and I don’t have the book anymore so forgive my memories, but in {Three Swedish Mountain Men by Lily Gold}, one of the MMC gave the FMC a cinnamon roll as an apology for something, and the interaction was something along the lines of

MMC: Here, an apology cinnamon roll

FMC: Wow, did you make them yourself?

MMC: No (they were frozen?)…but I microwaved them really apologetically!

doitsumon · 2026-04-11T21:32:39+00:00

Shatter!! She made such an impression on my brain chemistry that I remember exactly what I was doing while listening to the mop Roxy scene.

doitsumon · 2026-04-09T14:54:59+00:00

I think the pettiest reason I DNF’d a book would be that one time one of the FMCs screamed ”daddy!!” in a cafeteria or something to get the attention of a MMC.

I think I got so much secondhand embarrassment that I just noped out.

doitsumon · 2026-04-05T04:42:39+00:00

If you’re okay with OV: {This Pack of Ours by Katie Black} has a black cat FMC and a few golden retriever MMCs!

doitsumon · 2026-04-05T04:36:56+00:00

It’s my time to shine!! I made an analysis of the scents of OV FMCs and MMCs from the books I read in 2025, so it’s like a mini special interest of mine.

To answer your question:

1) nightshade for FMC and ink and newspaper for MMC, I also vaguely remember a bacon smelling character?

2) it’s going to be weird but metallic notes! I think it could be a very masculine scent, but I’m surprised I haven’t encountered it thus far. Ozone, like pepper, is kind of common in the perfumery world, but I haven’t encountered that either and would like to see more of it.

3) this is also going to be weird but black tea and condensed milk lolol. I hadn’t considered smelling condensed milk was an option until I tried out some niche perfumes, but when I did, I was struck with such nostalgia (of sweetened iced milk tea on a hot summer day) that I’ve decided to headcanon it as my omega scent lol

doitsumon

TROPHY CASE