Reviewed by Donna
TITLE: The Alpha’s Revenge
AUTHOR: Shane Keleher
PUBLISHER: Loose Id
LENGTH: 181 Pages
RELEASE DATE: September 8, 2016
BLURB:
Justin Crane thinks he’s met the man of his dreams in Parker. Not only is the man smolderingly sexy and mysterious, but he’s also gentle and caring, the full package. Little does Justin know that Parker has a secret. He comes from a family of werewolf hunters and their new relationship has attracted the ire of one particularly vengeful alpha werewolf who’s vowed retaliation against those who’ve hunted his kind for generations.
Then one night it happens–the alpha strikes. And it gets its revenge by attacking Justin and turning him into what Parker’s family hates most–a werewolf. Now Justin is caught in the middle of an ages-old battle between hunters and werewolves. Each side has sworn the destruction of the other, and if Justin makes the wrong move, it could spell disaster, not only for himself, but for countless others.
Can Justin make the correct decision and align himself with the right faction? And of greater importance to the men, can their growing love survive the ferocious clash between hunter and werewolf?
REVIEW:
I’m always a sucker for werewolf stories; they’re my go-to read when I feel the need for something comfortable and easy. Obviously some werewolf stories don’t fit that mold, though to be honest, I was rather happy with the different slant this story took.
There were no fluffy, cuddly wolves to be found between these pages. Instead we got old school were-creatures who go bump in the night. Of course, our main character, Justin, battles against those murderous urges, but for the most part the werewolves here are of a more homicidal bent. And so are the “good guys”. Which may just be my favourite part of this story. Aside from our two intrepid MCs, the good guys are arguably as bad as the bad guys, and are unapologetic about it. Then comes our MCs moral dilemma – whose side are they on? All through the story I kept waiting for the hunter brothers to redeem themselves, but I was actually very glad that they never did.
Unfortunately I was thrown off right from the beginning with this story. The wording of the blurb led me to believe that the two main characters were going to develop a relationship before the werewolf attacked Justin and that Parker himself was a werewolf hunter. Neither of those things are quite true. Parker already does all that he can to avoid his hunter brothers, so it isn’t really a case of crossing his family to choose his lover – his lover for all of a few hours. The blurb says, “then one night it happens” – but it happens right at the beginning of the story, on the night that Parker and Justin first meet. There’s no suspenseful build up to when Justin is going to be attacked and throw their relationship into chaos, as the blurb suggests. Maybe it’s not fair of me to let such an issue with the blurb affect my review of the story, I don’t know how much input authors get in writing their blurb, but I always get irrationally frustrated when I feel the blurb misrepresents the story.
My major issue with this book was that the main characters don’t seem to fit in with the rest of the story. We have the badass werewolves and the badass hunters on the brink of beginning a badass war – and then we have Parker and Justin, who would be more at home in one of those fluffy insta-love wolf stories I mentioned at the start. And no, to be fair, they don’t instantly declare their undying love for each other, but after their first meeting they act like they simply can’t be separated. Don’t get me wrong, I actually liked both of the MCs but for me at least, they felt out of place in what should have been their story.
If you think the premise sounds interesting, you should check this story out. Just because it didn’t quite fit my reading preferences, doesn’t mean it won’t be just the book you’re looking for.
RATING: 
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