Submissive wolf shifter Emma Martin never expected to disobey her abusive alpha, but that’s just what she does when the lives of her brother and a stranger are at stake. Fleeing with her brother Jason and the unconscious mage that he’s sure is his mate match, Emma’s at a loss as to how to keep all of them safe from a vengeful alpha wolf and his goons posing as pack protectors.
The weak and possibly dying mage, Avery, gives them a lifeline in the form of another mage. But making contact with the elusive mage Kade Allard proves to be harder than expected. When he shows up, she finds out he doesn’t help others out of the goodness of his heart.
He’s willing to save them but demands a high price. He wants Emma.
Without hesitation Emma agrees to be anything Kade wants. He binds her to him just like an alpha wolf would bind his pack members. Soon she finds herself embroiled in Kade’s world of powerful creatures and heavy magic. Even more worrisome is that she might even develop feelings for the arrogant mage. Could this man, who claims mages can’t love, break with traditions and maybe even learn to love?
Or will powerful entities end up ripping them apart?
Alpha Mage has plenty of magic and a heroine everyone keeps underestimating. This is an adult book meant for mature audiences of eighteen-plus readers only. Please use Amazon's "Look Inside" option to view trigger warnings. This is a new cover as of 2023-5-6, no new content has been added)
I’m beginning to really like this author. I’m almost over her writing in present tense. It was a hard adjustment. She normally doesn’t write so dark, and it shows. She’s not clear on what trauma that our h has suffered. I’m not sure that our h has the appropriate scars to the supposed trauma. Given what happens at the intro, I would have thought h went through that too.
I rarely enjoy dark reads, but when I do, let’s say I can see this dabble took the author out of her comfort zone. I almost would have preferred for h to not have been tortured because it doesn’t feel right. The V spares her too much. She’s his new toy. You would think he would do worse, based on what he did to the others. He’s pretty dark guy. Also, the V shows up at the end as a plot device and not the arch nemesis he should have been. I feel that was wasted. Up to that point it was a love story between two people figuring out how to make a relationship between a distant closed off partner and an emotionally needy one work. We could have carried that to the end without sacrificing the story.
Overall, I recommend this book. Don’t let the intro fool you. Most of it is rather sweet.
Alpha Mage was heavier going than the other books I've read by RK Munin. It starts with se*ual as*ault on a femal mage (off page) and has a section with a very sadistic, evil male mage, so be warned if that's triggering for you.
Onto the good bits: Emma. A submissive wolf shifter who can heal a bit and dream a bit, but who turns out to be so much more than *I* saw coming. Kade. A mage (not the evil one) with deep psychological and emotional wounds. They end up together almost by accident, and become a Pack of two. The love story throughout is nicely done, with submissive Emma being the more open and confident one.
There's also bear shifters, a Grendel (had to look that one up), a djinn, a lovely bit with a dying mum (trust me), and happy endings all round.
All in all, I've given 4.5 stars. The half off is because I found the abuse stuff (while well written) quite hard to read.
I’ll just say another great book by RK Munin. I don’t want to chance any spoilers. It starts out a little dark and there was just something that felt to me like a beginner writer if that makes sense. It doesn’t take long for me to get in to it though and that feeling disappears. I could be wrong but I’m going to say this is a female writer, the writing just feels like it to me. I really enjoyed this and will be reading the second books soon. I’m shocked she doesn’t get as many reviews or ratings. Her Human Pet series is one of my favorites, I’ve read them at least a couple times each.
Better written than most shifter/ fantasy offerings these days. But I will throw my hat in the air in celebration if I ever find one whose author knows when to use the objective "me" rather than "I". Not to mention the proper use of verbs in complex sentences! (I hear you all going," Huh?")
Truly an AWESOME story that thoroughly enjoyed reading 😃. Never-ending excitement, ongoing action, intense emotions, nasty scary bad guys and Fabulous characters make reading this, pure enjoyment 😊. Thanks so much RK, I'm really looking forward to reading more written by you 🤓.
Its been a while since I posted a book review but I had to leave one for this gem! Why has this been sitting on my TBR list? It was sooo good! Great story line, spiciness, and darkness. I loved the development of the main characters and how the ending came together. Looking forward to book 2!
Just excellent writing. The story grips you from the beginning and doesn’t let you go feeling you disappointed that it’s over but totally satisfied at the brilliance of the journey.
Not your average shifter read. The difference was unique and thought provoking. Addiction, childhood trauma, love and forgiveness with a slice of Justice thrown in. Loved it.
The last third took a turn I could have done without. I will read more by this author, but I don't think I'll read the next in this series, it's a bit too dark.
I have never read mage stories before. Turns out I don't like mages but the rest of the story was super cute and exciting. There was so much more than the mages (don't tell them that). I read a lot of paranormal but nothing like this series. Wonderful job.