Reviews

Following Review by Elijah B. for Explore Authors Magazine | Vote

Living in today’s world as a young woman holds dangers that one must be aware of. No one knows this as well as Inga Adamsen, a young, gifted graduate with a bright future. Thanks to her father’s influence, she was taught to keep her head on a swivel and to always question her surroundings and those within them. However, at her lowest moment, the devil appears in the disguise of a fellowship to Lyndhurst Biotech Labs, a cutting-edge biogenetics company that would solve all her money woes.

And against her better judgment, she takes it, thus forever altering her life.

Author and teacher Sonia Choquette once said, “Intuition doesn’t tell you what you want to hear; it tells you what you need to hear,” and in J.R. Marzolf’s Omega Rose, readers will see firsthand how failing to listen to that intuition can lead to disastrous results.

There is so much to say about Omega Rose that readers will enjoy and appreciate. J.R. Marzolf does a magnificent job building the suspense throughout the story at large, but special mention goes to the events that lead our heroine, Inga Adamsen, into the hands of danger.

Throughout the earlier chapters, Inga is in a constant battle with herself. Because of how she was raised by her semi-absentee adopted father, archeologist Einar Adamsen, she was taught from a young age to be not only independent but also to always question her surroundings and protect herself. However, this causes her to brush off her intuition several times due to feeling as if she is too paranoid.

She brushes her uncomfortable feelings off when she meets the mysterious but charming Sean Sinclair. She brushes her concerns aside when her application for her fellowship at Lyndhurst is accepted, soon after this meeting with Sean. She pushes her worries to the back of her mind when her personal space is invaded by the biotech labs, which take samples of her blood, along with asking invasive questions, and by the time she finally acts on her intuition, it’s too little, too late.

However, it never feels like Inga is doing this solely to get the plot into place, like many victims in the opening scenes of a horror movie do when they make foolish decision after foolish decision. It feels like a natural progression of her character due to how she grew up. This is a credit to J.R. Marzolf’s writing, which allows readers to fill in the gaps as she is growing up with these character traits. This allows the reader to understand Inga as a character.

While Inga is the main character and audience surrogate, the story becomes an ensemble piece, placing the spotlight on Eiren, Sean, Inga’s roommate and friend Samantha Jones, and the pair of Nikola and Sebastian, two digital nomads and thieves, and with the strong writing of Marzolf’s, all the characters feel fleshed out and real.

The world-building is also great, where the reader is given the dark underworld’s lore piecemeal, allowing the reader to put it together over time rather than overexplaining. It allows the reader to react to the glimpses of both the underworld and the regular world organically. Not only that, but as this is part of a series, the book ends on a strong note while keeping certain side plots open to explore in the next entry of the series.

With its strong writing, likable characters, impressive world-building, and an engaging, suspenseful plot, Omega Rose leaves a great impression and a strong start to a new series, along with a grade A recommendation from me. -- Elijah B.