Whisked Away

5⭐️2🌶

I finished Whisked Away by Enola M Douglas last night.  It was mind blowingly good.  The world building was expansive and vivid.  I could see every place, smell the foods, the markets it was really epically done.  There are nine Kingdoms in this world, we experience two of them in this book.  Aethonia, where Princess Reiyana is from is an island and one of the smaller Kingdoms.  The palace is close to the ocean.  This is an Omega verse novel.  Reiya awakened as an Omega late at the age of 20.  Omegas are rather scarce in this world and she is the only one in her family.  Overnight she became a political pawn.  Her marriage to a foreign Alpha would be a boon to her small kingdom.  The alliance it would yield is immeasurable.  Reiya is, of course, feeling like a commodity at the beginning of this book.  She sees her awakening as a death sentence.  Any chance at happiness, freedom, autonomy.... gone just like that.  She's also in love with a Beta from a well to do family.  That relationship was perfectly acceptable until her awakening, now she must give him up as well.  Her family arranges a tournament.  Whoever wins the tournament could be her husband but her family did give her the ultimate choice.  Kaelen and Alarik are half brother Alphas from Asadia.  Asadia is to the east and is mostly dessert.  They both enter the tournament against their father's wishes.  They win the tournament, of course.  There is a ball that evening.  The Pinces dance with her and carefully attempt to get her to choose them.  They even offer her time to get to know them.  At this point she is so overwhelmed by the circumstances she isn't really listening to what they're trying to tell her.  She sneaks away and pleades with her Beta lover Castiel to abscond.  They do and this is where everything goes off the rails.  I don't want to reveal too much more because this was such an epic story.  There is betrayal, found family, turmoil, court politics, intrigue, power struggles between Alphas Betaa and Omegas and a whole other subplot that I think will tie these stand alones together.  I have the ARC of the next book Cast Off which follow different characters in one of the other kingdoms, but there is a foul plot afoot.  For anyone else who sees a brain movie when they read, this is the book for you.  I'm not kidding on the vivd imagery.  This world is so beautiful.  Check it out!