reviews_and_ramblings | Entries tagged with theme: alpha males

I haven’t read all the books in this series, so that of Scott and Tristan was almost a new story to me, most of the supporting characters were known, but their dynamics not entirely clear and in a way, to me, this made for a better read, because nothing was “expected”. One trait of the author I found again in this novel is her satirical twist, a humor sense that says to the reader, come on, we are here to have fun, don’t take life too seriously. This series is made mostly of men (even if there are positive female characters here and there) and these guys want to have fun, they like to have sex, and to have a beer soon after, to watch sports while snuggling on the coach, to leave their dirty dishes on the kitchen sink until the morning after and maybe even later.

ETM Scott and lawyer Tristan are no different, considering also that, before being a lawyer, Tristan was a navy SEALS. Add to that both of them are werewolves, mates and both with an Alpha streak to the booth and you have the perfect recipe for a snarling before kissing romance. Scott and Tristan cannot bear each other but at the same time the mate bond is so strong they are driven to each other. They don’t want to mate, but they cannot have sex with other men, not only since, when one of them is trying, the other is ready to ruin everything.

Everyone around them is suggesting to let the fate have its course, but they are both stubborn and it will not easy to accept the unavoidable.

Due to the fact that I’m reading the books letting time pass between each of them, I’m not sure which is my favorite until now, but I quite liked the light core of this one, plus I found it sometime even cute and tender, without depriving the men of their 100% manliness.

Amazon: Pleading the fifth
Amazon Kindle: Pleading the fifth
Paperback: 272 pages
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (November 26, 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1480146919
ISBN-13: 978-1480146914

Series: Assassin/Shifter
1) A Marked Man: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/1866493.html
2) Alaska, with Love: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/1878006.html
3) By the Light of the Moon
4) Half Moon Rising
5) Best Laid Plans
6) For the Love of Caden
7) The General’s Lover
8) Russian Prey: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/1737908.html
9) An Ignited Passion: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/1777760.html
10) Reflash
11) The Red Zone
12) Irish Wishes
13) Pleading the Fifth

Reading List: http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bottom.php?tag=reading list&view=elisa.rolle

Crossposts: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/2130301.html

This is the first paranormal romance I read by this author, but it’s really not so different from the contemporary romance I was used to; Cardeno C. likes a lot the concept of together-forever, and often the characters are childhood friends who experiment together for the first time, from love to sex and everything else in between.

In this case Zev is a shapeshifter, living in a community just outside a small town and he recognize his mate, Jonah, a same age kid, when he is only 1 years old. In a way or the other, he first manages to become friend with the other kid as a wolf puppy, and then, at 7 years old, as schoolmate, and later as boyfriend. Zev knows that, once he will bond with Jonah, they will not be able to stay apart, and so Zev self-inflicts a torture, denying the need to have sex with Jonah until the time Jonah will be back from college… unfortunately Jonah decides to become a doctor and between college and residency, the target age is more around thirty than twenty.

As I said, this is a paranormal romance, but really, it’s pretty much a best friends/forever boyfriends story; not Zev or Jonah have any doubts each other is their soul mate, Jonah may question why Zev doesn’t want to have sex, and maybe he falters a little in his good proposal to stay faithful to his boyfriend even when living far apart, but it’s nothing major, nothing tragic or irreparable.

In the end the story was more cute and tender than “paranormal”, if to paranormal you give the usually connotation of adventure/thrilling plot with fast-paced rhythm.

http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=3155

Amazon: Wake Me Up Inside
Amazon Kindle: Wake Me Up Inside
Paperback: 250 pages
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press (August 15, 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1613727119
ISBN-13: 978-1613727119

Reading List: http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bottom.php?tag=reading list&view=elisa.rolle

Crossposts: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/2064320.html

This was one of the nicest, cutest and sexy novel I have read lately. It goes directly atop of my all time favorite.

Aside for the simple fact that I can easily identify with Sam, a romance novel reader who would like to find his Prince Charming in real life too, Too Stupid To Live was romantic, clever and well-paced. For once I didn’t mind at all that the two main characters shared a physical relationship almost from the beginning, it was right for them and it gave them the chance to understand that appearances don’t matter.

Sam maybe is not a twink, model-like gay boy; he is tall, dorky and thin (and no, I don’t mean lean, I mean thin, as it just a level up being underweighted). And of course when he finds the courage to ask for a date to Ian, he is kindly, but firmly turned down. Ian is a former firefighter, tall and muscular, handsome and very dominant; he has always considered his ideal partner to be like him, someone who can take his passion and give it back multiplied. Sam doesn’t seem the type… but he is wrong.

I loved the sweet romance mixed with hot passion; Sam and Ian manage to be tender and cute when outside the bedroom, and hot as hell when inside of it (or even in the parlor, dining room, kitchen…). Both of them are new to be really in love and of course they make big mistakes. Sam is trying to play according to the “romance rules”, but instead his body tells him to forget them and to let Ian conquers him; doesn’t matter if it’s only a no strings attached pursue, at least he will enjoy it. But of course, once Ian has a taste of Sam’s sweetness, he becomes addicted and in no way he will let the boy go.

There are a lot of supporting characters, all of them so nice and well developed that I’m sizzling with the anticipation of reading their stories, because I’m sure the author meant to use this novel to introduce them and this is not where they will end. (PS: Nik and Jurgen's stories, Whitetail Rock and The Fix, are free download from the author's website)

http://riptidepublishing.com/titles/too-stupid-live

Amazon: Too Stupid to Live (Romancelandia) (Volume 1)
Amazon Kindle: Too Stupid to Live (Romancelandia) (Volume 1)
Paperback: 278 pages
Publisher: Riptide Publishing; first edition (January 3, 2013)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1937551857
ISBN-13: 978-1937551858

Series: Romancelandia
prequel-1) Whitetail Rock
prequel-2) The Fix
1) Too Stupid To Live

Reading List: http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bottom.php?tag=reading list&view=elisa.rolle

Crossposts: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/2061979.html

When I open one of these paranormal romances, I’m well aware of what I have in my hands: an Alpha male/omega man story, one where the top man is “over the top” and the bottom boy is faking his submissive position well knowing that there, above the clouds, the brain is lightweighted, and the real mastermind of the relationship is the one below. It’s not easy to deal with such a story, you can well fall into parody, and making it totally “bleh”. I think Shannon West is good in pushing it almost to the edge, without tumbling beyond the abyss.

Evan, the young Hunter, is so totally not scaring, that you really wonder how they could think to enroll him in the Hunters’ army; he is young, petite, cute like a bunny, actually the right bait for a big bad wolf like Brett… only that, sincerely, neither Brett seems so scaring and bad. Brett is not an Alpha of his pack, he is a gamma wolf, an enforcer; he is strong, but he has not the coolness or cleverness to be a leader, he is a very good second hand, good to follow, ready to comply. Brett has no instinct to rebel, he doesn’t feel like he is constricted if he follows the command of his Alpha; everything is good if who is in charge is someone Brett perceives as a leader, as someone who is rightly atop of him in the hierarchy. But when it comes down to personal relationship, Brett is old fashioned, his mate has to be a pet, someone Brett can cherish but also order around.

At first Even fits the bill, he is a young, naïve man, driven more by his instinct than his brain; but as soon as he is “freed” by the constricting society he is living in, as soon as he meets other “submissive” pets (submissive is ironic, since these men are all other than submissive), he realizes he has a huge power in his hands, he is the one who can lead their relationship.

This is a specific, and popular, genre, I would even say a subgenre of the paranormal romance; it’s not really realistic, it’s about playing with the “top from the bottom” theme, as I said, pushing this them almost to the limit. You can totally love it, or you can hate it, but it has to be said, there is a market for it.

Amazon Kindle: Wolfsbane (Dark Hollow Wolf Pack 5)
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.

Series: Dark Hollow Wolf Pack
1) The Alpha's Pet: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/1628201.html
2) Cry Wolf
3) Logan's Choice
4) Gabe's Alpha
5) Wolfsbane

Reading List: http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bottom.php?tag=reading_list&view=elisa.rolle

Crossposts: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/1862662.html

Blacque/Blue is a fantasy paranormal urban novel. It basically imagines that in our current time there is a small town in US, Acarda, where paranormal creatures are living together in a sheltered environment. And humans as well. I actually hadn’t understood if humans are aware they are living among paranormal creatures, unless they are not in a relationship with them, mostly since paranormal creatures are not behaving any different from humans. That is the main point of this novel and what I found the most interesting as well.

Blacque is a 30 years old werewolf; he is also gay and in the closet and for that reason he is also a virgin, a 100% virgin since Blacque has never had any interest in women. Now try to imagine a big and strong auto mechanic, all tattooed and pierced and a virgin! He has a sweet core given by his innocence that is a perfect contraposition with his bad guy looks. Blacque is attracted by Blue, the vampire next door; while Blacque is an auto mechanic, Blue does custom upholstery, and if in their jobs they are a perfect match, usually werewolves and vampires don’t match, they have a “polite” cohabitation, but sexual relationship are not common.

Only that Blue is ill, affected by a chronic insomnia that is preventing him to sleep during the day and he is not even “eating” in a right way, meaning that he is not sucking enough blood to sustain him. Blacque is like a banquet to Blue, rich and wealthy werewolf blood in an hot and ripe to be picked body. When Blue finds out Blacque is as innocent as a newborn baby, his first instinct is to “hunt”, but then Blacque shows him his kind side, the one who wants to nurture and protect, and Blue is lost.

I like the play of contraposition between Blacque and Blue; Blacque is innocent where Blue is experienced, and so Blue leads in bed; Blacque is strong where Blue is weak (at least now), and so Blacque leads in life; Blacque is an Alpha for his pack, but he is a little submissive in bed with Blue; Blue is an ancient vampire, older than Blacque, but in any case Blacque feels as he has to protect Blue, to make him one of his own pack, to give him shelter in many way, with his home, his body, his love.

I really liked this story, it has almost an “ordinary” mood in a paranormal world; Blacque’s struggle to come out was very much similar to what a gay guy would face if he was born in the “wrong” side, in a place where being gay equal to being weak; Blue and Blacque’s relationship has nothing of extraordinary, even if one is a vampire and the other a werewolf, they are simply two guys in love when they are together.

http://www.loose-id.com/BlacqueBleu.aspx

Amazon: Blacque/Bleu
Amazon Kindle: Blacque/Bleu
Paperback: 258 pages
Publisher: Loose Id, LLC (August 29, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1611183626
ISBN-13: 978-1611183627