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The Book of Names
When Cassidy Ashwood is nearly killed by werewolves on a full moon, but mysteriously spared, her life takes a turn. Suddenly, Cameron Adolpha, the CEO of the company Cassidy works for, begins to show interest in both her and the crescent moon birthmark on her wrist. While she is drawn to Cameron, her involvement with him could jeopardize her career goals, and hinder her from a longing closeness with her late mother. Cameron has many titles, one being the alpha of a powerful werewolf pack. He is willing to do anything to put an end to a twisted tradition known as The Book of Names—a body count list that is forced upon all of the males in the werewolf bloodline. When Cameron learns that Cassidy unknowingly can help him do this, he'll go to any length in order to reach his goal. "The Book of Names" is a Dual POV experience filled with a yearning romance, healing from family trauma, and secrets that unfold and reveal truths for Cassidy and Cameron. Will they be able to navigate these shifts together while also fighting a greater enemy?
419 pages, Kindle Edition
Published January 6, 2025
28 people are currently reading
201 people want to read
About the author
Alex J. Hodson
1 book7 followersAlex J Hodson has always been a storyteller, but originally it was through script writing. She always joked and dreamed about writing a book someday. As an avid reader, she learned that she not only loved to read, but to write. Her favorite things to write are romance, magic, spice, pining, and meaningful themes that are displayed throughout her stories. She wants her readers to have fun when they read her books. The Book of Names, Alex's debut novel released January 6th, 2025.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 32 reviews
April 15, 2025
What Stray Kids song could’ve POSSIBLY inspired this
January 28, 2025
Such a good story! Fantasy is not my genre of choice, but the character development and plot were so interesting, I had to keep reading to find out what happened!! Great love story, interesting characters, overall I enjoyed it very much!!
January 7, 2025
I stumbled upon a preview for this bad boy on Tiktok, saying that it was inspired by Stray Kids. I was immediately intrigued.
But, if you are not interested in K-pop, you are still going to love it. Grumpy/sunshine, Werewolf, Hot CEO playboy turned LOML, literally all of my favorite things in one.
Cassidy is a great female lead. She has her wits about her, she’s not afraid to call out Cameron on his bullshit, but I wouldn’t say “she’s not like other girls.” She’s relatable and we love that.
Also, the EPILOGUE? I wanna see more.
But, if you are not interested in K-pop, you are still going to love it. Grumpy/sunshine, Werewolf, Hot CEO playboy turned LOML, literally all of my favorite things in one.
Cassidy is a great female lead. She has her wits about her, she’s not afraid to call out Cameron on his bullshit, but I wouldn’t say “she’s not like other girls.” She’s relatable and we love that.
Also, the EPILOGUE? I wanna see more.
January 6, 2025
This book surprised me! I had never read a werewolf book before but I gave this one a whirl and I loved it! It was sexy but not overdone which I appreciate! Cassidy is relatable and someone you root for while reading. Cameron is hot and powerful and I couldn’t get enough of him 😛😂 definitely recommend this book if you want an easy romantasy read with spice and grumpyxsunshine vibes! ☀️🌑
January 17, 2025
This book was such a fun read!! I genuinely loved it from beginning to end. I saw a video for this book on TikTok about how it took inspiration from a couple of Stray Kids songs. I also could see some parallels to some songs by other artists as well but maybe that was just me getting super into it and making connections that weren't there. If you're a fan of spice, morally grey MMC, the light finding you in the darkness type of storyline, or even just romantasy in general; then this book is for you!
If I could give it more than 5 stars I would. I truly hope they make this a series and get us the next book ASAP!
If I could give it more than 5 stars I would. I truly hope they make this a series and get us the next book ASAP!
January 14, 2025
this book was beautiful. i really hope a second one comes out soon. cameron adolpha is 🥵🥵🥵 i want to be cassie so bad 😂😂😂
January 8, 2025
Overall, I'm not into werewolf books, but this one surprised me a lot! I was secretly trying to figure out who was who based on personality and looks, and I think I got it, but there are still a lot of questions. I'm so happy to read more of these in the future. I can't wait for the next book! I hope we get at least three more books 🤣✨️🎉.
The plot was fast-paced and overall really enjoyable, and I loved the spice. Just the right amount to keep you wanting to read more! 👍🔥📖
Amazing!!!! I need to know more about Levi asap 😉
The plot was fast-paced and overall really enjoyable, and I loved the spice. Just the right amount to keep you wanting to read more! 👍🔥📖
Amazing!!!! I need to know more about Levi asap 😉
January 7, 2025
This book had me hooked from the beginning and it just kept getting better! You can definitely lose track of time while reading this gem and just wait until you meet Cameron! 🥵
Keeping my fingers crossed for a second book!
Keeping my fingers crossed for a second book!
January 6, 2025
LOVED reading The Book of Names! The story kept me eager to find out what was going to happen next.. the characters were well written .. the romance was steamy but not too much! I enjoyed every second of it!! Hopeful for another book by the author!! Highly recommend!
January 9, 2025
This book surprised me in all the very best ways! I didn’t want to put it down and have to adult. The characters and story had my attention all the way to the end. Such a fun magical read.
January 22, 2025
I am a chronic “I want to read more books” person and then never read any books. Well after I finally sat down to read this book, I have never read a book so fast. It really ignited a love for reading I never knew I had and allowed me to discover the magic of losing yourself in a good book. I mean I read 21 books after this one (I was an arc reader so I got this book early). That’s how much it inspired me to read! This book has werewolves, magic, tension, romance, amazing dialogue and great character development. I throughly enjoyed reading this book and I think you will too if you give it a chance!
January 6, 2025
I read this book so fast, I couldn’t put it down. It kept me intrigued the whole time and I enjoyed the overall theme and unique aspects of it which is what kept me reading it. Definitely one of my favorite books!
January 23, 2025
I’m not really a fan of spice and the book would have been good without it but overall, I did enjoy the storyline and I wanted to keep reading to see what happened.
February 5, 2025
I was emotionally invested in this one! I enjoyed the growth that Cameron and Cassie experienced through being with each other. I also enjoyed the spice a lot! 5 stars for me!
January 16, 2025
I’m really proud of being able to not only co-write this book but also design the cover, this was really fun experience and I’m excited to see reviews from either end of spectrum and really take this as a learning opportunity for the future!!!
I hope you guys enjoy as much as Alex and I did with creating the book!
I hope you guys enjoy as much as Alex and I did with creating the book!
January 30, 2025
Marketing a book as fan based either music or person is always going to be a risky gamble, especially when you use a large fandom. There will be a perception that the characters are in some way based on what you claim. This happens to be the case with The Book of Names, which was marketed as “based on Stray Kids songs”. I have since seen a review from the author claiming it is based on many different things including songs and movies which is fine, BUT it was being pushed primarily on all her social medias as based on Stray Kids.
I went into this book with higher expectations than I should have. I hope that this is recognised for what it is constructive criticism and not an attack on the authors.
The story is full of cliches which in and of itself isn’t a problem and can be well written, unfortunately that isn’t the case here.
The MMC is written very much like the worst of one member’s fan fictions write him, (even if he isn’t meant to be him), and as such he doesn’t come across as dangerous, but charming or whatever the vibe our two writers were going for. He simply comes across as crass, sleezy and lacking any type of depth. The same could be said for all the male characters who were basically the same blueprint in varying fonts. The only thing that made one more “interesting” to the FMC was how he looked. It’s also really hard to buy what he is trying to sell with the “I decided to protect her from myself”, when all of his thought processes are as simple as wanting to rip her clothes off. This would be one of those books where it would be better not knowing what the MMC is thinking. We don’t get the cute thoughts of how he is falling for her slowly, it is purely carnal. Again there is nothing wrong with that if that was the point of the story, but it isn’t, we are supposed to feel empathy for what I considered an unempathetic character.
Our FMC once again has the typical trope of being the girl who doesn’t think she is special but is in fact the beautiful secret chosen one. She is described as a plethora of contradicting things by other characters but is beige… and I use beige because it is also the colour most commonly used to describe her clothes along side grey. She is simply uninteresting, lacking chemistry with any of the male characters and yet everyone wants to sleep with her, primarily for her looks. In short all the characters were vapid, superficial and lacking substance. All only interested in how good looking someone was, and therefore how beddable they are. This is even the full scope of the conversations between FMC and her friends.
The dialogue is basic, and at times if it didn’t mention it I had to go back and re-read to even decipher who was actually the character speaking as there was no true differentiation present in the speech patterns. The constant repetition of events, items and descriptions made me feel like the authors was either trying to up the word count of the book. Or they simply didn’t think the reader would be smart enough to retain the information offered. The random trauma dumping to try and encourage empathy for the characters also felt very much out of place at time, which with a time line that skipped, and jump isn’t massively unsurprising. Leading on from that the trigger warnings also were not correct. “Violence” does not cover some of the scenes used. Cannibalism is a step beyond simple violence as an example and should have its own trigger warning.
The writing as a whole needed to be properly edited. There were large a number of misspellings, grammar challenges and even sentence structures that simply did not make sense. If this has been in the process of being written for 2 years, has had beta readers and been correctly edited, then these simple mistakes should have been caught and rectified. If you are going to put a book in the public domain and expect people to pay for it, the very least you can do it make sure it is suitably proof read.
In summary I wanted to support an indie author and enjoy this, but it wasn’t anywhere near as refined as it should have been to be published.
I went into this book with higher expectations than I should have. I hope that this is recognised for what it is constructive criticism and not an attack on the authors.
The story is full of cliches which in and of itself isn’t a problem and can be well written, unfortunately that isn’t the case here.
The MMC is written very much like the worst of one member’s fan fictions write him, (even if he isn’t meant to be him), and as such he doesn’t come across as dangerous, but charming or whatever the vibe our two writers were going for. He simply comes across as crass, sleezy and lacking any type of depth. The same could be said for all the male characters who were basically the same blueprint in varying fonts. The only thing that made one more “interesting” to the FMC was how he looked. It’s also really hard to buy what he is trying to sell with the “I decided to protect her from myself”, when all of his thought processes are as simple as wanting to rip her clothes off. This would be one of those books where it would be better not knowing what the MMC is thinking. We don’t get the cute thoughts of how he is falling for her slowly, it is purely carnal. Again there is nothing wrong with that if that was the point of the story, but it isn’t, we are supposed to feel empathy for what I considered an unempathetic character.
Our FMC once again has the typical trope of being the girl who doesn’t think she is special but is in fact the beautiful secret chosen one. She is described as a plethora of contradicting things by other characters but is beige… and I use beige because it is also the colour most commonly used to describe her clothes along side grey. She is simply uninteresting, lacking chemistry with any of the male characters and yet everyone wants to sleep with her, primarily for her looks. In short all the characters were vapid, superficial and lacking substance. All only interested in how good looking someone was, and therefore how beddable they are. This is even the full scope of the conversations between FMC and her friends.
The dialogue is basic, and at times if it didn’t mention it I had to go back and re-read to even decipher who was actually the character speaking as there was no true differentiation present in the speech patterns. The constant repetition of events, items and descriptions made me feel like the authors was either trying to up the word count of the book. Or they simply didn’t think the reader would be smart enough to retain the information offered. The random trauma dumping to try and encourage empathy for the characters also felt very much out of place at time, which with a time line that skipped, and jump isn’t massively unsurprising. Leading on from that the trigger warnings also were not correct. “Violence” does not cover some of the scenes used. Cannibalism is a step beyond simple violence as an example and should have its own trigger warning.
The writing as a whole needed to be properly edited. There were large a number of misspellings, grammar challenges and even sentence structures that simply did not make sense. If this has been in the process of being written for 2 years, has had beta readers and been correctly edited, then these simple mistakes should have been caught and rectified. If you are going to put a book in the public domain and expect people to pay for it, the very least you can do it make sure it is suitably proof read.
In summary I wanted to support an indie author and enjoy this, but it wasn’t anywhere near as refined as it should have been to be published.
January 16, 2025
My Stray Kids friends and I are reading it every night at discord. We are currently 50% in and it would be a Do Not Finish if it isn't this fun to pick it apart.
Please remember: The author heavily markets this book as Stray Kids inspired!
50% in we:
- don't have enough significant male characters to cover all 8 members of stray kids
- are unclear which male character is inspired by which member bcs the only clues we have are similar names. But I refuse to believe that John is Han (J.One). John's character is horrible and it is really an affront to link him to Han
- missing trigger warnings. I did not expect the cannibalism (even if it is 'just' a dream)
- really strange phrases used (but that could be me not being native english and i just don't get US-american phrases)
- eyes rolled out of the windows (followed by the head, which, if book-real would at least put us out of the misery of this book)
- an unholy repetition of 'book of names' in the first 25 % (don't make it a drinking game, you end up with alcohol poisoning)
- a really weak story, full of the typical werewolf tropes
- a fanfic, that reads like it was not beta-read and would be a average debut on ao3 but is not fit to be published (not even self-published)
-Unexplained time & place jumps, you have to figure out yourself where and when you are.
Do not buy that book, it's not worth the money, go to ao3, they have way better stories there.
I would give it 0 stars if I could.
Please remember: The author heavily markets this book as Stray Kids inspired!
50% in we:
- don't have enough significant male characters to cover all 8 members of stray kids
- are unclear which male character is inspired by which member bcs the only clues we have are similar names. But I refuse to believe that John is Han (J.One). John's character is horrible and it is really an affront to link him to Han
- missing trigger warnings. I did not expect the cannibalism (even if it is 'just' a dream)
- really strange phrases used (but that could be me not being native english and i just don't get US-american phrases)
- eyes rolled out of the windows (followed by the head, which, if book-real would at least put us out of the misery of this book)
- an unholy repetition of 'book of names' in the first 25 % (don't make it a drinking game, you end up with alcohol poisoning)
- a really weak story, full of the typical werewolf tropes
- a fanfic, that reads like it was not beta-read and would be a average debut on ao3 but is not fit to be published (not even self-published)
-Unexplained time & place jumps, you have to figure out yourself where and when you are.
Do not buy that book, it's not worth the money, go to ao3, they have way better stories there.
I would give it 0 stars if I could.
February 19, 2025
I am not a reader. So when I do read, I want the book to be easy to get me engaged, short chapters so that my busy life allows me to read in short bursts easily, and I don’t want any pretentious verbiage that has to be read repetitively in order for me to understand it.
This book was perfect for my particular standards. I started reading the book because I am a fan of Stray Kids (where the premise was taken from the songs “Charmer”, “Wolfgang” and “Cover Me”), but I’m also a fan of the teen wolf television series as well as vampire diaries and twilight, etc. When I heard that this book encompassed all of these thematic ideas but was written for adults, plus it had the short chapters, was easy to read and follow - I decided to give it a try.
Not only was I not disappointed, but I was very pleased and am eager for hopefully a second book to continue the lives of the other characters!
This book is easy to finish quickly, but also easy to spread out if your hectic lifestyle doesn’t allow the luxury of long reading time.
Cassidy was easy to love and Cameron was easy to fantasize! The plot was exciting and the setting was easy to visualize. I loved the lack of pretension the author demonstrates in the book, making these fantasy characters real and easy to connect with.
As a non-reader, I’m hopeful for a second book or better yet, a series of books based on all the characters!
This book was perfect for my particular standards. I started reading the book because I am a fan of Stray Kids (where the premise was taken from the songs “Charmer”, “Wolfgang” and “Cover Me”), but I’m also a fan of the teen wolf television series as well as vampire diaries and twilight, etc. When I heard that this book encompassed all of these thematic ideas but was written for adults, plus it had the short chapters, was easy to read and follow - I decided to give it a try.
Not only was I not disappointed, but I was very pleased and am eager for hopefully a second book to continue the lives of the other characters!
This book is easy to finish quickly, but also easy to spread out if your hectic lifestyle doesn’t allow the luxury of long reading time.
Cassidy was easy to love and Cameron was easy to fantasize! The plot was exciting and the setting was easy to visualize. I loved the lack of pretension the author demonstrates in the book, making these fantasy characters real and easy to connect with.
As a non-reader, I’m hopeful for a second book or better yet, a series of books based on all the characters!
February 16, 2025
Overall, a good book
I saw this posted on a social site where the husband of the author asked for people to give it a read. Overall, the book was very good. Good plot building. Ending left a possible hook for another book. Fun will they won't they banter.
It is an open door romance, and the spice was good. 2 for that.
Would I recommend this book? Yes, if you like witches and werewolves, a mystery plot, and grumpy/sunshine scenario. 4 stars means awesome but will only read once. 3 is a very good book for me, but I don't feel it rates a 3. Maybe 3.75? But because Amazon doesn't allow for that, I will round it up.
I saw this posted on a social site where the husband of the author asked for people to give it a read. Overall, the book was very good. Good plot building. Ending left a possible hook for another book. Fun will they won't they banter.
It is an open door romance, and the spice was good. 2 for that.
Would I recommend this book? Yes, if you like witches and werewolves, a mystery plot, and grumpy/sunshine scenario. 4 stars means awesome but will only read once. 3 is a very good book for me, but I don't feel it rates a 3. Maybe 3.75? But because Amazon doesn't allow for that, I will round it up.
January 20, 2025
I loved everything about this book and was sad when the story ended!! The author’s use of detailed imagery, witty dialogue, & character development made this such an addicting read. The switch of perspectives keeps each chapter fresh & exciting, leaving you emotionally invested as Cassidy & Cameron’s story unfolds. I was fully immersed in their world of mystery, magic, & forbidden love. The unique, original concept of “The Book of Names” is genius and I hope to see this turned into a movie one day!!!
February 15, 2025
Any 21st-century reader can relate to a thought-provoking read that makes you reflect on healing, breaking generational strongholds, redemption, love, and new beginnings. The use of flashbacks and foreshadowing draws you in as Alex's use of words paint a graphic image of the characters, their internal struggle, and the quest for freedom. I loved the kind reference of Stray Kids song selections placed throughout the storyline. A Good Read follows the plot diagram, presenting the setting/characters, conflict, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution. Alex, you nailed it!
February 25, 2025
So so so freaking good!! Addicting I couldn’t put it down I had to be pried away to be productive! Like Jacob from twilight meets the family drama from the Callen’s side? Like the supernatural and edge of your seat twists and turns? Beyond recommend this book! Will be reading again and will be recommending to everyone I know!!
February 7, 2025
Found this book from her husband’s video on TikTok.
I am really hoping for a second book. The ending…
Such a good cliffhanger.
This book had me up till 3 am. I needed to know the ending.
I need to purchase the physical copy now.
I am really hoping for a second book. The ending…
Such a good cliffhanger.
This book had me up till 3 am. I needed to know the ending.
I need to purchase the physical copy now.
April 20, 2025
Amazing all around! The romance factor was off the charts. Lots of healing and reflecting in the story made it very relatable. Loved the characters as a whole, as they are so very well written. Story storyline is very well laid out and easy to follow, making this book a must-read. Beautiful story!
May 6, 2025
I found this book through one of my close friends and I found it to be super awesome! I’m hoping the author continues to publish more books that everyone can continue to enjoy in the future! 100% will be recommending to my friends!
June 15, 2025
When I started this book I was like ok I don’t get what the hype was all about. I thought I was going to hate it and not finish it but damn was I wrong. It picked up and was so great. If you like witches werewolves and some spells to be broken definitely check this book out!
January 23, 2025
It’s not that it’s a bad story it’s good. I just wasn’t super into it. I had to make myself finish it when by the time I got to about 60ish percent I knew how the rest of the book would play out.
January 27, 2025
Great read! Fast-paced and just the right amount of heat 😉 I hated for it to end. Hoping for a series!
March 21, 2025
Cute little read. Wish it had more to it and went into more details about the characters.
I did like Cassie and Cam from what is given to us readers.
I did like Cassie and Cam from what is given to us readers.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 32 reviews