Red-Haired Ash Reads

As a huge fan of the Alpha & Omega series, Asil is a character that I have been patiently waiting to see if he will have a second chance at love. This anthology of short stories feature Asil going on five different blind dates that have been set up by a Concerned Friend for Christmas, even though Asil doesn’t celebrate the holiday. 

As you can imagine, these five dates are not anywhere close to normal, especially since they involve Asil who is an extremely old wolf who is very close to losing control completely. Asil finds himself dealing with a vampire at a vampire-themed masquerade, big cat traffickers, a wyrm living in a hoarder house, a fae enslaving another, and a high ranking vampire of Bonarata’s court. 

While we see Asil deal with a lot of various issues around the area on these dates, we also see him gain a little more confidence in himself because he is helping people for once and it shows him that he isn’t gone completely yet. I especially enjoyed the fourth date where he meets Ruby because it changes everything for Asil and his wolf. Ruby was a very interesting woman and I liked what little bit we got to see of her. She was a competent and dangerous woman who finally fights back and gains freedom. 

My only real complaint with this anthology was that I would have loved to have seen more of Asil and Ruby actually together. It’s clear in the fourth and fifth date that they have a connection and we see them together briefly in both stories, but I was really hoping for a short story with these two on an actual date together getting to know each other. I did enjoy the brief glimpse we do see of them in the future, but it just wasn’t enough for me. 

Overall, this was a really enjoyable collection of Asil stories. I love that we are getting short stories with some of the background characters in the pack and hope Briggs continues doing this with other characters. Also, I hope these two show up in future A&O books so we can see them as a couple. 

TW: death; animal captivity, fighting, and trafficking; violence, gore, and injuries; abduction, stalking, and torture discussed; 

*ARC provided by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.*

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Previous books and reviews for the series:

• Alpha & Omega Series