Perfectly Mismatched (Pine Wood Falls #4)

Perfectly Mismatched

by Sarah Havan

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The content warnings for this one include sexual assault and prolonged ("natural") childbirth scenes. Pay attention to these warnings.

The alpha in this one was pretty awful, as they so often are in this series. 

Broadly speaking, the world-building of the entire series has been pretty good. 

Again, the pregnancy and relationship development progress in parallel. There is an added plot element, the sexual assaults and aftermath. The characters are well depicted. 

As through the whole series, the omegas are all slim and sensitive, and the alphas are all large and pretty awful. This book includes an awful shouty family (who are amoung the good guys, not the vilains).

In this series the characters are all very pro "natural birth" by which they mean childbirth without pain killers and the minimum of medical intervention. The childbirth workers such as the doula, nurses, midwives and doctors are all cheerfully nonchalant while the person giving birth writhes and screams in extreme pain and distress for hours on end. As I understand it, this is pretty much what normal childbirth is like.

Because all 4 books feature it, I am left with the impression that the author favours natural birth (at home if possible). It would have been nice if there had been some variety, ie in hospital, c-section etc. Also some acceptance that all options are valid and no-one elses' damn business.

Because we live in a patriarchy, with Western medicine being arch-patriarchal the entire conversation around having babies is wildly politicised and distorted. Everyone has an opinion. Personally I was annoyed by the automatic assumptions around natural birth in this series. In the series the pregnant omegas are exposed to other omegas during childbirth so at least their choice is a bit informed.

Mpreg authors tend to have had children themselves. I see the entire genre as such women processing the interaction of patriarchal society, marriage, gender roles, sex, pregnancy and parenting while substituting males as the child bearers. This is why I give it the time of day. It is one way women cast a social lens through their own lives and realities.



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