Really Short Reviews: The Alphaville Series by Christine Warren

Something to Howl About
(Alphaville #.5)
Christine Warren
Release: January 2, 2018
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ARC provided by the publisher via Netgalley

WELCOME TO ALPHAVILLE, where the she-wolves and alpha-males play. . .for keeps, in a brand-new paranormal romance series from New York Times bestselling author Christine Warren.

Dr. Annie Cryer has been called many things: Genius. Child prodigy. Scientific wonder.

Wolf Shifter.

Banished from her pack years ago, Annie’s lone wolf wandering has brought her to Alpha, Washington, home to all shifters who don't quite fit in in the "normal" shifter word. Now Annie has the chance to go back home...if only she can make good on a favor her alpha owes the mayor of “Alphaville.” But it's not much of a favor when you're helping the hottest shifter in town...

Grizzly shifter Jonas Browning has a clan in trouble. They haven't had a child born in over a hundred years...and their clan faces going completely extinct. Genetic scientist Anne Cryer has been sent to help save them. But what Jonas doesn't count on is being irresistibly drawn to the small wolf shifter, and his bear isn't about to let her go...

Review:

This is a pretty short prequel story so there's not a lot of development. Not as much is needed because of the shifters' fated mates, but I feel like the plot could have supported a longer story. It would have been interesting to go into Annie's research a little. While the story does introduce the town of Alphaville, I would also have liked to learn more about the residents and the packs/clans. I'm hoping that I'll get that in the first full book of the series.

I also felt like consent was questionable at the early (kissing) stages of Jonas and Annie's relationship. With so much attention on sexual harassment and assault lately, that over the top alpha behavior, even though it's pretty standard in shifter romances, feels especially squicky.

This story is set about a year before Baby, I'm Howling For You. Jonas does appear in that book but it's not absolutely necessary to read this one first.

    

3  stars

Baby, I'm Howling For You
(Alphaville #1)
Christine Warren
Release: January 30, 2018
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ARC provided by the publisher via Netgalley

WELCOME TO ALPHAVILLE, where the she-wolves and alpha-males play. . .for keeps.

Renny Landry is a wolf on the run. Pursued by a shapeshifting stalker and his slobbering pack of killer coyotes, she is forced to flee her job as a librarian to find sanctuary in the wooded hills of Alpha, Washington. A well-secluded safe space for troubled shifters, Alpha is Renny’s last hope. But the first person she meets there is a gorgeous alpha male with fiery eyes, fierce tattoos, and one ferocious appetite—for her…

Mick Fischer thought he left his past behind when he moved to Alpha. But fate has a way of biting him in the tail when a female wolf shows up on his property. Wounded, desperate—and disarmingly hot—Renny brings out the snarling, protective alpha beast in Mick like no other woman he’s known. Can these two haunted, hunted wolves manage to mate for life…even as the deadliest past demons howl at their heels?

Review:

Alphaville is set in the same world as Warren's Others series, which I haven't read. I might have a better idea what it means to be an alpha in this world if I had, but in general I don't feel like I'm missing any important details. I have read some of her Gargoyles series and like with Alphaville so far, I love the ideas behind it, but the execution is just okay.

Mick and Renny are a book nerd's dream couple, a graphic novelist and a librarian. Some of my favorite moments are when she talks about his work. But he also has a throw the woman over his shoulder and drag her back to his cave moment that I could do without. It's very similar to that same moment in the prequel novella and in general, I feel like there are too many similarities between the romances in the two stories.

I did like getting to meet more of Alpha's residents this time. I love the variety of shifter types, which includes badgers and wolverines in addition to the usual wolves, bears and cats, as well as the variety of personalities. I'm always a fan of small towns with big personalities. What I like most about this particular story are the police procedural elements, even though it's not actually told from a police POV. It is setting up Deputy Zeke for his own book so I have high hopes for the next one in the series.

    

3  stars