Jess Carter found a home in Banks, Idaho with her Dad and brother, Monster. It’s there she met her mate, Dom, and realized there was more to the world than she ever imagined.
But all good things must come to an end.
At least that’s been Jess’ experience.
Her mother’s arrival brings to light shocking secrets that once again put Jess’ life in danger. With the Hanley Pack eager for any sign of weakness and a pile of secrets dividing loyalties, Jess and Dom have to find a way to keep the Packs unified as they fight to finally end the Hanley threat once and for all.
Kristin is an an indie writer from Louisiana who believes happily ever after is a must. A fan of everything romance including paranormal and the occasional mystery, she only writes what she loves. When she isn't writing she's hanging out with her crazy collection of dogs and cats and daydreaming about the next dozen stories she wants to write. You can reach her on her website for updates on her latest writing projects and promotions @ www.kristincoley.com
This was an okay series...until the end. What a disappointment.
First, the good stuff: There are about half the amount of grammatical errors, but enough to be frustrating. But less is definitely better!
Dylan: love that boy!
Oh shoot, that is almost all for the good stuff. Oh! And the cover comes closer to contents of the book.
Next, the frustrating parts: Recycled story lines: How many times can Jess get kidnapped? She was kidnapped twice by the same guy and twice was drugged then kidnapped. Geez. Jess said, “I’m really sick of getting kidnapped.” Trust me, Jess, so are we.
The atonement of Vivian, aka Lucy, aka Awful Mother of the Year award recipient: This is the mother that manipulated and blamed her daughter. Sent her on a bus to Hanley territory without a phone, no money, not many clothes, no forewarning to her father she was coming, who told her daughter she wished she’d gotten an abortion. Into Hanley territory. And NOW she’s concerned and wants to protect her? By checking out Dom at first sight (his scent should be all over the place) drugging and kidnapping her? And we should buy her concern now, why? Mother coming in to save the day was unbelievable, a really far stretch, at least, the plot too easy. And then her and Hank? Gag.
The final scene before the billion epilogues: Confusing who got shot first. I thought the guy shot Caleb. Nope. He shot Jess to distract Caleb. So confusing until it got back to Jess’ POV. Then, shot, she gets the gun away from the shooter. No. That wouldn’t happen. Nope. Then she’s joking around and chillin’ at the end as she’s slowly bleeding out for, like, an hr watchin’ Trent and Anna make the moves on each other, etc, admiring the mom for being one heck of a woman, etc. Just pass out from blood loss and adrenaline drop already!
Lost storylines: Leah who? She seemed like she would take a greater role, but no she drops out completely until the epilogues. Forget she existed.
Pack unity: so everyone accepts Anna immediately as alpha? The traditional pack. Caleb was too young, but Anna is just right? They’re the same age, same level of experience! No, wait, Anna has less. I’m all for giving Anna the reigns at some point, but the transition was way too smooth.
Character growth: this flatlines. No growth whatsoever. Jess is exactly the same, though she says she’s matured because she holds back a retort from her mother. No, Jess, that one act does not make you and adult now.
Epilogues: epilogue, after epilogue, after epilogue. I understand having one. But this was ridiculous!
All-in-all a bad ending to a series. 3 books later and no hea, just a hfn (unless you take into account the many epilogues). After reading the ending I couldn’t recommend this series.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
The more I thought about it the less I liked this last book which is disappointing since I loved the first 2 so much! I ended up with more questions than answers, issues in the first 2 books were just dropped, too much happened and it wrapped up too quickly without enough detail I don’t feel like Dom and Jess got a real HEA since their future is so uncertain because they want to give their pack to monster? Will that make Dom a lone wolf??? Idk this was just a disappointing ending for me too rushed and messy and some things just didn’t add up like wasn’t it said Anna’s mom could shift in the first one but in this one was only on the council because Anna shifts not her?
Started out ok. Was interested in the world building even though they had the coitus interruptus going on between the main characters to keep the readers interest – one of the cheap attempts if you ask me. I mean you got a naked dude on the cover and you gonna make the book YA and give the reader a few sex scenes that are interrupted at just the right moment in an effort to keep with the sexy atmosphere that is promised but also not to make your h an easy girl, guuurl come on. How transparent and insulting to your readers can you get.
But I was more interested in the world created and how the plot was going to develop so decided to ignore that and whether or not these two are gonna get it on eventually became a secondary plot. As it always is for YA books. The shift thought the lights and with a painful body metamorphisms was I guess also expected for YA, so I guess when you set your standards low it is hard to disappoint just to piss off. In essence this book had a good action packet attention holding story thought out. The speshul h and why she was speshul was cringy tho. Which is mostly why the next books fizzled out for me. When the supporting characters start to matter more than the main ones and turns out they end up having a career and an actual future in the end and the h is just there to narrate the turns in their lives then something went wrong there.
In the end was ok, but YA and their transparent attention grabbing ploys are too obvious and ultimate let downs for the expectation of more.
I so here's the deal, this book Made me burst a vain or two.🙄
Don't get me wrong, it was a great series but I have to say, I couple of things irritated the sh** out of me, like:
Wazzup with the whole damsel in distress thing? In the first book, I understood that, you know, it was necessary, in the second book, I tolerated it but third book? Seriously?😐😬
Dom offered to teach her how to defend herself way back in book two so how come he never did?😑
Now let's get on to the whole alpha thing, Dom was meant to be the alpha of the Navarre pack by birth, which is why when Anna got the pack, the sh** that got irritated out of me, started spinning around my head, why the hell? And she stayed on the Navarre Lands? Which I say again, are Dim's by birth right, he might have been all kind and whatever but things like that... 😒
And don't get me started on the Hanley, they were just there, like a slug, you know eventually it will get where its going but slowly, the Mating bond didn't seem any different after they completed it, I mean, wtf,😕
KIDNAPPED FOUR TIMES? I don't even understand how the other two times happened, how did the mom get into the motel unnoticed, just doesn't add up no matter how much security there was🤔. My point is that the ending could have been a million times better.
I greedily took in the whole series within a couple days. When I finished one, I had to quickly start the next. I had to know what would happen with The Pack and Jess. There was always something going on...some kidnapping or near kidnapping...some twist or love connection. It was just a great, quick read.
If you are looking for a great, NA shifter series, I highly recommend each of these books. 5 Stars for the entire series.
Definitely one of my new favourite shifter series. A twist that I definitely didn’t see coming in this book and i enjoyed the story immensely. Highly recommended read for everyone.
I enjoyed this one. A whole lot happens in this story, both this installment and as a whole, and while I did get into to the over all arching story and enjoyed all the characters, I really wanted more of just Jess and Dom. Them as a couple and them as mates. We get the one scene in this one where they become fully mates and then that is it. The rest of the story is what is happening for the pack as a whole. I did like that Jess was able to join in the pack bond.
I really like Liam and Leah together, but I would like to have a bit more from their POV as well as Anna and Trent. I REALLY like that pairing as well and would love to have a story with their POV. Anna was a frustrating character from this side of things b/c she was so secretive and ran off and did her own thing. I'd like to see her own POV to know what all she was going through and see the moment she switched feeling away from Caleb and to Trent, as well as what Caleb does for her at the end of this one.
This has a decent epilogue 5 years into the future and I almost don't really feel the need to read the last one with Caleb, I liked the way this ends and while I would want more from these packs I'm not sure it would be the same
I loved this series. Sad to see it end. It’s one of the best werewolf books I’ve ever read. No disappointing everything fell into place. I even got teary eyed towards the end. I fell inlove with all the characters. Jess and Dom have such a loving relationship and they’re funny. Jess constantly getting kidnapped dealing with the Hanley pack, becoming a new alpha and dealing with her mother everything just fell into place and didn’t leave you hanging and wondering what happened like all other books. Truly a great series you have to check it out!!
I need the epilogue to be a whole book. It was so sweet.
I keep saying it, but the trauma of what these women went through still baffles me, especially her mom storyline. This book could have been way longer because of so many details being told.
Anyway, I still love it.I enjoyed it, and I wish I could read it all over again.
Maybe not the most fair rating as I just picked a random one and it happened to be third one while I was driving. It’s not the worst but it wasn’t really what I was looking for.
Though nicknaming your brother Monster and him preferring that name was my fav part.
I didn’t really get the romance which I imagine should be sizzling if this is book 3. And she was a high schooler?!
Jess’s mother’s admission of her past should have been in the first book because it didn’t flow well in this book. Why wouldn’t she have fought harder to keep her daughter with her instead of basically throwing up her hands and sending her son via courier to live with them too. It felt like the author needed to add something to make it intriguing. It made things interesting, but it just didn’t fit into book 3.
I was over Jess’s stupidity. The basic disregard for her safety and Dom’s constant worry over her while also trying to be there for his pack was a selfish move on her part. Why go somewhere when the Hanleys are clearly still after you.
I found Liam to be weak. Maybe his character needs more time to develop. Trent’s mind was elsewhere, but I’m glad things ended well for him. Caleb is definitely where he needs to be, and I had a feeling Anna would be in the position she found herself in.
I noticed a typo in chapter 15. It was a Dom chapter, but as he was talking, he referred to himself in the third person rather than the first. I had to reread the paragraph to make sure I was understanding correctly. And in chapter 16 where the word “talking” was used instead of “taking”. And in another chapter were the word “though” was used instead of “through”. Typos tend to throw things off, so I’m hoping the author will look into correcting them.
All in all, I’m pleased with the ending, yet wished for a little more.
Not sure if I'll review or not. LOVED the first book and these that follow just aren't the same. The writing style is so different. And pieces of the story have changed. Anna makes a comment about being the only female shifter that she knows, but in the first book it's mentioned her mom was one too and that was why she was on the council. Why is that different here?
I'm just not sure I'll be able to keep going. We will see. Instead of the focus being on the characters themselves and their interactions with each other, it's more on pack(s) politics and relationships, but not us seeing the slow building of it or the natural way these come about. More just telling us as it happens.
This series just keeps getting better and better. Beth Roeg and Paul Brion did an excellent job narrating The Alpha.
The thing about this series is that things never go how I expect them to. Heck, even the titles trick me into thinking one thing but turns out to be something else. The first book the Pack, I thought it would have traditional pack dynamics but it doesn't. With the second book, The Challenge, I thought I knew what would happen and who would be involved but I was wrong. Heck, the title even applied to things happening outside that event. And now with the Alpha, Kristin has shaken me up again. You think you know but you have no idea.
Holy crap! The revelations! In a plot twist I didn't see coming I now understand a lot more about Jess's past and her family. Talk about shocking and I hate to say it but my feelings towards a certain someone put a lot into perspective.
I'm swooning over the relationship between Dom and Jess, they are perfect together. Monster is still my favorite character, I adore the little boy and I'm glad he and Jesse's dad still have prominent roles. It's easy to love all of these characters because they each have their own little story that is a part of Dom's and Jess's bigger one. This series is very drama-filled, something is always happening. Between pack politics, the feud with the Handleys, romance drama, and surprise twists my attention is rapt.
The Alpha was absolutely fantastic, the plot totally took me by surprise but I loved every single minute of it. This is the conclusion to Jess's story but there are still two more books in this amazing series for me to check out, the next one being things told from Dom's perspective and I can't wait.
So this book really rounded out the series for me. Answered all the questions, and left nothing hanging. All my concerns about how everything would work out after the last book were met.
Jess and Dom. Of course these two end up together. As if they would let a few measly kidnappings get in the way of true love. They’re relationship was fun to watch, and see grow. It was a little slow for my taste, but at the same time I’m glad they weren’t so all in from the start. Not 100% insta-lovey. Thank God for that.
Anna steps up in this book, faces her confusing love life and makes the decisions required. I expected her to take over the pack, and wasn’t really surprised when it happened. I think the way Coley went about bringing it to pass is the only way that makes perfect sense.
Trent, sad to see him go. But he’s not meant to be where he was. We all know who he’s meant for.
I’m also glad everything worked out with Dylan. As well as Thomas and Wren. It’s nice seeing Vivian find her place with “the” pack and her helping other women who have met her same circumstances.
Good riddance to the Hanley’s. If all the gross rapist ones hadn’t died I would’ve bought the book just to shred it.
HEA’s all around. Handing them out like lollipops.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Blessedly, I have reached the conclusion of the main storyline for this series. Much respect to the author but I genuinely was disappointed by this book. A good plotline can leave poor sexual tension or spice forgivable, the same for the inverse - I'd read a bad plot for some juicy smut. Unfortunately, this slow burn has neither. I can see the absolute struggle to give these Mary Sue women some autonomy but it balances on the laziest men rape women breed trope in an effort to excuse some really unbelievable (and this is a story about wolf shifters, so we are open-minded) scenarios. Jess gets kidnapped 3-4 times, there are a few murders, wayyyy too much talk about her virginity (from her dad and literally everyone) and honestly the best scene was Dylan the wolf shifter with down syndrome literally playing with some corpses after ripping the bad guys apart. Not entirely sure where that falls on inclusivity representation but 🙃.
The unsatisfying conclusion and lack of sexual tension make this as disappointing a series as Jess's final romp with Dom in which he literally came in her and was done, then repeated it the next morning. -🌶️🤢
I loved the conclusion to Dom and Jess's story. Even though I love that Anna and Trent ended up together I hate that he had to leave Dom's pack. I don't like who everyone ended up with and feel some people should have stayed single. i.e. Vivian. I understand most of what she did but I don't feel she redeemed herself enough to warrant becoming pack and still being allowed to parent Monster. She never showed a hint of being a mother to him. She abandoned him on so many occasions and she just get to have him back because she killed her brother and is no longer running from every. She sent him away via a delivery service, then never checked on him, then when she kidnapped Jess we find out she sacrificed him in so ill attempt to save Jess She didn't even kidnap him to leave with her and Jess, she didn't care that the people she thought were monsters where going to raise him. She never showed she even cared that she had a son. I like that Jess's dad found love and happy that Dlyan was treated well. Caleb's character development was outstanding, I loved the man he became.