Unbinding The Alpha

by Penelope Rivers

Pack alpha Dmitri wants to kill Adrian Marks, leader of a neighboring group of werewolves. Adrian is sexy, gorgeous, and a major player. Unfortunately, he is also Dmitri's mate, something that Dmitri will do anything to reverse.



When Dmitri's pack member, Tomas, goes missing, Adrian offers to help. Dmitri is between a rock and a hard place. Should he allow Adrian to help, despite his burning anger about the hand that fate dealt him? Tomas is alone and has the common sense of a pup. Begrudgingly, he agrees to let Adrian help him. What he doesn't know is that Adrian wants more than to find Tomas. He wants to find Dmitri's heart as well.

Genres: Paranormal, M M Romance, Shapeshifters, M M Shapeshifters, Werewolves, M M Paranormal

63 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 8, 2012

About the author

Penelope Rivers is a good girl from Utah with a naughty side!

Penelope Rivers is a bestselling erotic novelist of M/M romance novels and short stories. A hopeless dreamer, she spends her day thinking about all things fantasy, romantic and not. It is her view that when you start choking on the occasionally dry bread of life, you need something sinfully delicious to chase it down with. Currently, she lives in Utah with an abnormal amount of pets.

The first four erotic M/M short stories, Eyes on You, Lollipop Lick, The Naughtiest Student, and Dr. Perfect in Penelope's new series, Lust at First Sight, are now available from New Line Press.

Reviews

[Whitney · Rating 1 out of 5]

Dmitri’s character was an ass and wasn’t all-around consistant. First of all, his age of 42 doesn’t really jive with his background story nor his actions throughout the novel. He seems more like hot-head in his late 20s. I highly doubt a 42 year-old man would break into to someone’s house to try and beat them up because they essentially got rejected. Now, Adrian I can believe is 42; he seemed more of the adult out of the two. Dmitri was childish, mean and annoying.

Dmitri’s abuse toward Tomas was unnecessary. How exactly was he a moron/idiot/stupid? Rivers was repetitive with calling him those ableist names, but failed to show us how he was those things. What I saw was a little brother tagging along with his older brother’s half-baked scheme to break into someone’s house and then trying to make his older brother happy by trying to find someone who could magically release him from his agony. In the end, it was everyone else who seemed like “idiots” because Tomas wasn’t where they thought he was in the first place.

There was a question that was not answered: When the wolves shifted, where did their clothes go? You read about them shifter between wolf and human form all willy nilly, but did their clothes morph with them? I’d have to assume so since they didn’t undress or redress. It just reminds of The Hulk and how he can grow to be this enormous size, yet still keep his pants on. Doesn’t make sense. Also, were Tomas and Dmitri brothers or not? It’s mentioned briefly that Dmitri and Tomas were abandoned by their parents, and then Dmitri talks about how Tomas was problem since the first time they met. And how old is Tomas if his brother is 42?

I wanted to read this because the premise made it sound good and the blurb I read made me want to read more. Very disappointing.

[blub · Rating 3 out of 5]

Compared to other stories I've read from this author recently. This one wasn't too bad and I liked it considerably. There were aspects in the story I didn't like (treatment of Dmitri's brother by Dmitri, the disorder of the packs, Tomas coming off as a simpleton, etc.). I did like that this wasn't exactly an insta-love mate story. It was fun reading about Dmitri fighting the attraction to his mate. I was amused while reading about Dmitri's attempt of breaking into Adrian's home to kidnap him and failing. In that aspect it was different from the usual shifter tales and for that I liked it. I have to admit though that the attempt at humor in some parts of the story kind of fell flat for me. Instead of amusing me it just annoyed me.

[Jessie Potts · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you ignore the price tag this was a cute, light, quick read about destined mates and misunderstandings. It's only about 60 pages so there isn't that much of a plot line.

There is one steamy scene at the end and a small bit of world building. If this is the beginnings of a series, I'd be interested in reading it, though would love to know more about the characters, and maybe have a central theme to run through.

[Gabbi · Rating 1 out of 5]

There wasn't any emotional connection between the two heroes and in my opinion, the chemistry between them was lacking in many ways.

What made the book a one star for me was: I HATED the way the hero treated his brother, Tomas. Between constantly belittling him and the verbal abuse that constantly flowed from his mouth, I found that totally unacceptable. Ironically, Tomas was the only character I liked.

[Melanie Broyles · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book could have had promise but there just wasn't enough character development and plot development. It's a shifter story about Adrian, a playboy or wolf in this instance, and Demitri, who is hurt by Adrian's refusal to mate with him. They team up in order to save Demitri's idiot of a brother and then decide they want to be mates.

[Michi Rosa · Rating 2 out of 5]

This could be at leats a 4 stars, but it has many parts missing a long the story.

[Maya · Rating 2 out of 5]

1.5 Stars

No emotional connection. Two unlikable MC's. Plot holes. Dull sex.

[Gigi]

Poor reviews

[Shawnie Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not sure how I feel about this book. Dimitri was a bit too much for me and his feelings. But I did love Adrian and Tomas despite how everyone treated him..

[Avril · Rating 2 out of 5]

Jesus. Everything about this was just...man. I liked the title. Oh, and the cover.