Alphas Challenge by Lauren Dane

Have you ever been really excited to read a series so you start your book right away, get halfway through, then realize it's not the first book to the series? I have! Actually, I do it all the damn time and this series is no exception. But I have to say I'm not all that broken up about it because this particular series is like a bunch of stand-alone books that kind of fit into eachother but have their own story-lines. I'm finding that I really like it! I've read books like this before but not out of order like this so I didn't realize how much easier it makes it to kind of read these stories at your own pace instead of one after the other. Kudos to Lauren Dane for choosing this approach for this series. It certainly made it easy for me to jump right in with Alphas Challenge.
As I first started reading Alphas Challenge I had an idea of what to expect but in all reality it's not what I got so I must say this is a pleasant surprise for me because I was expecting just your run of the mill, slightly interesting but sort of sloppy C rate paranormal romance. Which, in all honesty I get a hankering to read sometimes. I would not however, rate this book a C by any means. There were parts of this book that caught my interest for sure.One, the Tri-Bond ritual. Now...basically what the essence of the Tri-Bond is summed up to is that when a wolf finds their life-mate they have to create a Tri-Bond with another male wolf so that if something happens to the life-bonded male his female counterpart can draw on the strength of the Tri-Bonded male to survive. Show of hands, how many think this is sexiest??? That's a shame. I think it's just plain sexy. Not having just one, but two strong sexy hunks to draw strength from? Sign me up please! Two? The strength of the life-bond is just...wow. Like you meet a guy and ten minutes later you have to do the do?I'm unsure of how I felt about this. But hey it made for interesting reading material. Three? The actual storyline of this book was so good. Evil brother, evil drug, lots of evil that had to be taken care of. I fully enjoyed it.
There were some downsides to the book. It was too short, and I looked at some of the other books in the series...they just get shorter. This is disappointing to me because I feel like these books can be better developed and easier to fully understand if they were longer. Not only that but the charaters were hard to relate to. And I was hoping to see more of the male charater that Cade and Grace Tri-Bonded with.
I will however be reading more of the Cascadia Wolves series.
Rate: 3.5 Stars

Her Web Master by Normandie Alleman

So. Ummm...yeah. I think we all know why I first expressed interest in this book. Would you just look at that cover??? Hard body with pecks like that? Mhmmmm. What woman with a pulse and a fully functional libido says no to that??? To say the least it's a sexy as hell cover and well...sex sells. This book was raw, somewhat strange at times, and also kind of scary. You know how a train wreck happens and it's horrible but you can't look away? That sums this book up pretty well.
Not that the book was horrible. It just wasn't for me.
It was filthy.
It was erotic for sure.
It was interesting. In a morbid kind of way.
To say the least it had my attention. I should state that before I even received this book I read the warning. Oh, yeah. The warning. "Warning: If you’re not a fan of dirty talk or dominant alpha males, “Her Web Master” may not be for you, but if you're looking for a filthy online boyfriend who will make your toes curl, meet Sophie’s mysterious Dom. ***If name-calling is not your thing or if you dislike graphic language, please do not review this book.***" The book comes with a friggin warning guys. So I did read the warning and I still picked up the book. Because honestly a book with a warning is bound to be more interesting right? Also because 1. I am a fan of dirty talk 2. I happen to like dominant alpha males and 3. I have never been bothered by name calling. None of these things normally bother me. I will say the name calling was more excessive than I expected. Normally, I'm a rather open minded person and someone calling a woman his filthy little slut or something like that whilst they bump ugliest is...whatever. Not a total turn on for me but not a turn OFF either. In this case though it bothered me some because it was SO excessive and not well done. It did seem more degrading than most books I have read, but if degradation is your thing you might like it. Go for it! I don't judge. Just the amount of it bothered me. It wasn't a simple name here or there. It was like a whole lot all at once and seemed poorly done. It was almost tacky the way it was executed. Quentin, the male lead seemed kind of like an ass but I seem to be really attracted to those so that never bothers me and he really did have some sweet moments so that softens me towards him a bit. The lead female character Sophie was not a character I liked. There is a fine line between submissive and doormat. Don't be a doormat. Her husband Spencer cheated on her for two years of their marriage and she just took it??? You either get the hell out or you get even, unless circumstances don't allow. That's just one persons opinion but I've always been more a fan of strong female leads that don't take shit from no man. If you give your life to a man just to have him throw it away so he can have sex with random chicks....I don't see why you should stay and if there is some reason you have to, I don't see why you should be faithful (unless the circumstances could be dangerous for you, which is not the case here). Then he tells you he wants a divorce over text and you let him get away with that? Hell no. Ignore the text then bake him a cake. With enough viagra in it for fifty men. The treatment for an erection lasting longer than four hours isn't pleasant for a man.
But her and Quentin seem good for eachother in a fucked up kind of way.
Be warned though that when I said this book is raw I meant it. This book is not for the faint of heart and it even put me off a bit and I can read Den of Vipers and Maya Banks books and not blink. This book is more than a little spanking so don't pick it up if you're not looking for any more than that or if you think it's like Fifty Shades. Probably would have seemed less meh had it been well written.
My overall rating is 2 Stars, because even though most of it was weird and confusing it was still funny, and kept me on my toes. I would only recommend this book to people really into BDSM. Also, remember the warning.
An advanced readers copy was provided to me by the publishers in exchange for a honest review. This has in no was effected my rating on this book or the overall review.

Isbella by Patricia M. Jackson

When I first started this book I thought for sure I was going to hate it. Not because of what you might think. The first peak at the story intrigues you and pulls you into the book. But because about 20 pages in there was one scene that really disturbed me. And in this scene Chad did not call the cops. When someone is about to do what these men were going to do to this young lady...you call the friggen cops. I understand that in this particular part of the story Chad is just 16 years old. Guess what? 16 is old enough to call the cops when you see something you know is wrong. Even if they didn't go through with it or whatever the case may be...one report to the cops can change everything. Not only that but even if charges aren't brought on these persons of interest...having them dragged away in handcuffs or even taken in for questioning in a case like that creates an awareness for women even if these men were to not have been convicted. Moral of that speal? He should have called the cops.
The other problem that I had with the book was how hard it was to keep track of how much time had passed throughout the story. I think it would have had more impact with me if I had known the time frame along with the other details of the story. And sometimes it was hard for me to distinguish what characters view I was reading through because it wasn't labeled like most other duel POV titles I have read in the past.
Aside from those small things the story itself was really enjoyable. Chad was actually a very humourous, feeling, and charming character. I love that he had red hair. All the romance books these days have the females with red hair, but never a man. He really stood out to me among the other characters. Izzy was a compassionate, loyal,and giving character herself and she was awesome in understanding Chads disability. Dyslexia is a horrible thing for people to have to go through and because reading is such a big part of my life when I heard about or read about someone that can't read it makes me want to cry. And sometimes I do. Even if it is just a book character. Because even though it's a book character...somebody somewhere is going through that. Somebody somewhere is struggling to get by because they can't read what things are in the grocery store or they can't read well enough to graduate college...or even high school. Look me in the eye (or screen I guess) and tell me that isn't heartbreaking. The point I'm making is that this book made me feel. This book might not have been something I would necessarily read again or something I was completely taken with but the way the book made me feel made up for it. I think I'm going to go back and read the first book in the series because from the flashes of that book that I got in Isabella I think I may enjoy it.

4 Stars