Slow Heat

By: Leta Blake

Narrated by: Michael Ferraiuolo

A lustful young alpha meets his match in an older omega with a past.

Professor Vale Aman has crafted a good life for himself. An unbonded omega in his mid-30s, he's long since given up hope that he'll meet a compatible alpha, let alone his destined mate. He's fulfilled by his career, his poetry, his cat, and his friends.

When Jason Sabel, a much younger alpha, imprints on Vale in a shocking and public way, longings are ignited that can't be ignored. Fighting their strong sexual urges, Jason and Vale must agree to contract with each other before they can consummate their passion.

But for Vale, being with Jason means giving up his independence and placing his future in the hands of an untested alpha - as well as facing the scars of his own tumultuous past. He isn't sure it's worth it. But Jason isn't giving up his destined mate without a fight.

This is a stand-alone gay romance novel, 118,000 words, with a strong HFN ending, as well as a well-crafted, non-shifter omegaverse, with alphas, betas, omegas, male pregnancy, heat, and knotting. Content warning for pregnancy loss and aftermath.

©2017 Leta Blake (P)2018 Leta Blake

Great story and superb narration

Very hot and sweet. Mildly angsty and definitely a slow burn. Great characters and storyline. Narrator was the perfection. Highly recommend!

Loved it

Love the story of Jason & Vale! Love Michael's voices, so glad he did 2!

Amazing Lovely Story!

Lovely! Amazing story, Original, heartfelt. An automatic reread! The characters are well developed, and can be followed through the whole series

Phenomenal Writer

Great story to get lost in. Very talented writer who creates stories that are thoughtful, insightful and spicy 🌶

Fabulous story, wonderful narration.

OMG – I love this story and narrator. This is my first Leta Blake book and my first audio book performed by Michael Ferraiuolo. I've found a new-to-me voice actor to follow as well as a new-to-me author.

I never thought I'd like another voice actor as much as Joel Leslie but Michael Ferraiuolo is giving him a run for his money. Once I started listening to Slow Heat I just couldn't stop. The different voices Michael does are fabulous and I devoured this audio as much as I would have if it were a book I was reading. One minor note: I thought his speech was a bit slow so I listened to this at 1.25 speed and liked it better.

This story really has all the feels. It's an Omegaverse story (non-shifter, alphas, betas, omegas, MPreg) featuring a younger alpha, Jason and his older omega, Vale. Slow Heat is one of the best books I've listened to this year and I can't recommend it enough.

While Slow Heat is a standalone story (118,000 words / 14h 7m) I was happy to find out that Jason's friend, Xan has his own book, Alpha Heat, only available in ebook at this point but I do hope that Michael Ferraiuolo will be doing an audio version soon.

A copy of this audiobook was provided to me but my review was voluntary and not influenced by the author.

***Reviewed for Xtreme-Delusions dot com***

Intensely Romantic

Why did I wait so long to listen to such a great book. Fantastic story written by Leta Blake and brought to life marvelously by Michael Ferraiuolo. I really loved how each character including the secondary characters expressed their depth of feeling.

And read by Michael Ferriauolo? Five stars!!!

That's it! That's it! I didn't know I NEEDED that! Leta Blake gives readers a plausible reason why Alpha, Beta, and Omega males exist in her universe! The world as it was experiences something called 'The Big Death' that results in the destruction of many of earth's lifeforms--including human women. But a sequence of wolf genes makes it possible for the world to carry on with Alphas being the strongest males, and Omegas being the weakest males with the ability to bear young. And let's not forget the Betas that are not the strongest nor weakest and are infertile. Just imagine the kind of community that can result from such dynamics? From there, Ms. Blake crafts a series where the society, the events, and the interactions between characters are credible, though at times weirdly fascinating and disturbing. In 'Slow Heat' we find two alphas from wonderful families that are at university. These young men have formed a forbidden kind of relationship with each other that is derailed as one of the young men finds his destined mate--an omega who is a 35-year-old university professor. Oh, the absolute drama of it all! I found myself having a truly visceral reaction to the (audio)book. There was pacing, a bit of yelling, and some pillow-pounding--I sincerely LOVED it. And read by one of the best narrators out there, I'm looking forward to diving into the second book of the truly incredible series.

Fantastic narration!

Slow Heat is set in a world populated by male non-shifters with wolf-spliced DNA, there are alphas, omegas and betas and each has their own role in their society. As world-buildings go, Ms. Blake did a great job, giving detailed background information so the reader knew what they were getting into. As paranormal books go, this one was pretty good! The writing as always was stellar and while it's not as angsty as other books by this author, it still had enough to keep me in tenterhooks until the very end. Still, please mind the warnings, there are some scenes that can be triggering for some.

As when reading the book, I loved Jason. He was a lovely boy, but he was just that, a 19-year-old boy and it showed in some of his actions. Still, he was definitely my favorite of the two. I loved that he wanted to be the best alpha he could be for Vale and was willing to put his happiness above everything else.

I liked Vale, however, he got on my nerves more than a few times. The constant "I'm not good enough" and "I'm too old for him" and "He deserves someone that will give him babies", was just a bit too much sometimes.

Jason and Vale had great chemistry, though, and Leta Blake excels at writing sex scenes that aren't only hot, but passionate, intense and loving.

The narration was amazing. Michael Ferraiuolo's voice is very pleasant and he did an outstanding job with the different characters in the story, giving them all different 'voices' and accents that made them easily identifiable and managed to bring forth the different emotions that the characters were feeling.

Very recommendable!!!

absolutely love

this is one of my favorite stories. it give me a whole new view on Alpha and Omega relations in books. it's heartwarming very relatable even if the characters are alpha and omega and both male. I think the main character the alpha one is very kind and understanding. I also believe that the Omega plays a very understanding role and acts like any wood would receiving news that he has. I highly recommend this story for anybody who likes Alpha and Omega type books this is not a shifter book but it is still a great book to read even if you just like shifter books I'm sure you would love this one as well. I am so happy that I found it I actually found it accidentally but I am so glad I did. And I am happy that it was an audio. as soon as the second book came out I totally bought that and then I totally bought the audio for it and then when the third book came out I bought that and I can't wait for an audio version of it come out. love this author they are a great writer and have a great imagination when it comes to creating characters and situations that are believable and relatable.

A Future of All Men.

When women no longer exist and men adapt to three kinds: Alpha, Beta Nd Omega, the World continues. Jason, a teenager, stumbles upon his perfect Omega and almost loses control with the power of his lust. Their quest for a future is beautiful, painful and an adventure of discovery. Great performance.