Squeak: A Balloon Animal Omegaverse Tale (Squeakverse) Paperback – March 5, 2023

So. I read this after seeing a tiktok. Its a fairly short story, 54 pages. Took about half an hour, an hour to read, I'd say. There were a few things about it that I didn't like. Some grammar stuff and the end of the story is very clearly rushed. However, I've never had a book make me laugh out loud quite like this one did. I had to stop a few times because I was laughing too much. That's not bad. I think that's a positive thing honestly. And I enjoyed the interactions between the characters. When Poppy and Keane had the genuine talk in the storage room, it was nice to see. So, overall it was a fun read. And its a fun book to recap to friends.

When your friends start talking about romance novels with doors, pillows, and now balloon animals, you start to worry about yourself when you in turn are sucked in and are totally invested in the story!Easily 4-4.5 stars! This is a duology, but Squeak comes in at less than 100 pages and easily devoured in an hour or so. I’m now completely hooked on this story!We follow balloon animal shifters Keane and Sebastian on their journey to break free of their captor and find the sigils to keep them in their shifted human form. Poppy is an art student who is completely drawn to the guys while out at the zoo. She’s highly attracted to them and they in turn, are drawn to her. The why is best part.The MM spice was delicious (and makes you crave funnel cakes) and the MF action is just as steamy! Squeak is a fast-paced, omega-verse with a few surprises and an interesting take on shifting and mating. Poppy and the guys learn somethings about themselves and what may be in store for them next.When the past comes to face the trio, Poppy is ready to protect what is hers. I’m thoroughly intrigued for book 2!

Oh my latex! I kind of love this gloriously bizarre short story. It's a fun twist on Omegaverse with lots of laugh out loud moments, angsty action, a race against time, and a dollop of sweet, steamy goodness. There are two male, alpha-esque, balloon animal shifters and one female, omegaish, human as the main characters. I loved the misunderstanding of what the men needed, versus what the female main character thought.Sebastian and Keane are fascinating. Their predicament as bewitched balloons is taut as the clock ticks towards their deflation. The villain lurks in their background, and makes a brief appearance. I wish that big conflict had been expanded, although the climax was pretty satisfying.I love Poppy. She's an art student who enjoys the zoo and drawing the animals and people. Her naivety is hilarious as she learns about these two magically delicious men.I especially enjoyed the puns! It took me a while to get into this story, but the puns were flying, floating, and bouncing around, so I kept going until the pace picked up. I am SO going to read the squeakquel.Also, there are a bunch of typos and grammatical errors. It was a little distracting, but it didn't burst my reading bubble.

I wouldn't say it was great nor was it horrible. Just interesting. If I said I knew I'd be reading a balloon animal,shape shifting smut today, I would've probably said nah. But here we are.

2.5-3 starsThis was free for stuff your kindle day recently and curiosity demanded I read it. LOL It was just as weird and bonkers as you’d imagine (seriously, did I ever think I would read a balloon shifter Omegaverse lite romance novella?!) It’s a super quick and unique read that doesn’t make the most sense at times, but parts were surprisingly wholesome and sweet. Kudos to the author for the creative anatomy choices and use of breath ;) Because it’s a novella there isn’t much character development, but I liked everyone and this was a fun read. I do wish there had been more on page interactions with all 3 main characters though (we’re told briefly about their fun times, but only get an on page MM and a MF scene). Also, the ending wraps up very, very quickly and the big bad our characters have been trying to escape is dealt with in just a handful of sentences. I see there’s a “squeakquel” though and I’m helpless to resist it. LOLContent warnings/notes from the author:Squeak is a balloon animal shifter omegaverse novella with (artistic takes on) OV designations and omegaverse-specific concepts like knotting, heats, ruts, nests, mate bites, bondings, and more. There is discussion of past violence and sexual compulsion/slavery, but it’s all occured by the time the story starts.

When I first saw the ad for this book, the bright colorful balloon animals drew me in to read the description. Curiosity about how someone could possibly be a balloon animal SHIFTER??? is what made me hit pre-order. Soon as this novelette hit my kindle app, I was all in.I do not read much steam and/or AOB things. But I thought the steam was described well so I could easily picture what was ahem happening. And Vera created a really fun approach to omega in this tale.I enjoyed the characters, especially Sebastian. And was very happy all three of them had a happy ending together. No one left out in a weird love triangle this time!The issues I had with this book were minimal. Like someone else mentioned, the first pages had first/third person POV mishaps that were jarring, but once I pushed past those pages, it wasn’t an issue anymore. (Maybe it was originally third person POV). The other issue; the ending was rushed! It was too much telling when it could have easily been a bit longer of story with a cool fight scene, more steam scenes, and some character connection scenes. There was so much lore hinted at that we didn’t get because the final chapter is just Sebastian telling us everything that happened.Vera, this is a great concept! You could turn this into a full length novella and I would purchase it again and reread! Keep up the good weird storytelling!

I can not get enough of Vera's off kilter stories. I am just going to go down the line and read them all. This one was adorable and I can not wait to read the squeakual.