The Apha's Mate by Jacqueline Rhoades

By: Anonymous on Friday, January 04, 2013

Title:  The Alpha's Mate

Author:  Jacqueline Rhoades

Series:  The Wolvers #1

Published: July 30th 2012
Page Count: 288
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Shelf: Review Copy
Rating:  ★★★★★

Synopsis from Goodreads:

Welcome to Rabbit Creek....

City girl Elizabeth Reynolds hopes to find peace and contentment in the small Appalachian town of Rabbit Creek. Okay, so the bucolic cottage she’s rented turns out to be a dilapidated cabin without phone service, but the people she meets are wonderful. Friendly and down to earth, they welcome her with open arms. It’s just like moving to Mayberry… if Andy and Aunt Bea were wolves.

Only an outsider would call them werewolves. They’re wolvers, a community of man/beasts that have lived in these hills since their ancestors emigrated from Scotland three hundred years ago. And that gorgeous Chief of Police, Marshall Goodman, the guy she met while covered in mud and wearing granny underpants? The one who sends her heart spinning? He’s their Alpha and his pack is under attack from outside forces. Elizabeth, being a sane and reasonable woman, wants no part of any of this, but if she refuses to risk her life and her heart, the people she’s grown to care about will lose everything and she’ll lose the one man she was born to love.

Adult-content rating: This book contains content considered unsuitable for young readers 17 and under, and which may be offensive to some readers of all ages.


My Review:

Holy descriptionville!!! By the end of the first chapter I was so immersed in this story, based on the vivid and filling descriptions that Rhoades uses that I was standing in the middle of the woods with the characters. Even when I had to put the book down to go to work, I never left this world behind. You live this story, you do not read it. The situations are so real that you cannot help but laugh at the ridiculousness or hold your breath in nervousness, hoping that everyone will be alright.

This book is jam packed with action, romance, and true friendships. Not a moment is left dull and no event is ever skimmed over. Everything is clearly portrayed. The novel is also very well written. Rhoades has a way with words that makes you forget that you are reading, and not living, the events in question.  

I fell in love with many of the characters the first time that they appeared. They were so vividly portrayed that you cannot help but know them as if they were a real life friend (and believe me, by the end, they may as well be). There were others that I hated with an intensity that should not be possible.

This novel is, by definition, a paranormal romance novel. What I especially appreciated about it was that it was different. Yes, boy falls for girl and they get together. That’s a given. However, the relationship between the pack Alpha and his mate is completely different from anything that I’ve ever read. The Alpha, Mate, pack relationship is also different. Every difference and similarity to the genre helps to pull the story forward and to pull you into the story.

This book is amazing as a standalone novel. Everything begins and ends within its pages. You can see the world outside of the novel, but don’t need to read it to thoroughly enjoy yourself while reading it. That said, am I ever glad that this is the first book in the series. I will definitely be following it as it is written. 

Buy your copy online here today!