Reivew: The Loneliest Alpha (The MacKellan Alphas #1)
by T.A. Grey
Category: Adult Paranormal Romance
Keywords: werewolves, romance, mystery, Happy Ever After
Format: eBook
Source: Purchased
One look will change their lives forever.
Lingerie designer Alicia Clarkson just had to open her stupid mouth. Now thanks to trying to defend a fellow pack mate, Alicia’s been blindfolded, tied up, and carted off to the new alpha of the Oregon pack—Gavin MacKellen.
However, the blindfold doesn’t come off so soon as Gavin reveals he’s searching for a mate. But Alicia’s curiosity gets fired up when Gavin refuses to reveal his face to her. Just what happened to him? He talks to her from shadowy corners and behind closed doors. The man is as allusive as a squirrely fox. But Alicia doesn’t play games and the quiet spoken, hoarse voiced alpha doesn’t stand a chance against her. They settle on an agreement, thirty days for them to get to know each other because that’s the only way this cowboy alpha will have it.
Gavin MacKellen needs a mate. But he knows no good woman would ever want to look at his face after the incident he suffered. After one look at Alicia Clarkson all his plans fly out the window. The woman’s beauty has stunned him damn near speechless. She torments his thoughts and Gavin finds himself yearning to know everything about her. He admires her creativity and intelligence, the cool way she handles herself in stressful situations. Most of all, he aches deep in his chest to taste her lips. Those beautiful sweet lips, but in order to kiss her without showing her what a monster he was, he has to get creative.
A relationship forms and as love threatens to grow between them Gavin struggles to cope with his physical appearance in the face of the beautiful Alicia. Will she be the one to stand in the face of a monster and accept or will she turn her back on him as everyone else has?
Review:
The Loneliest Alpha is the first book in the MacKellan Alphas series, which is a spin-off of T. A. Grey’s Kategan Alphas series. Since this was my first T. A. Grey book, I am not certain whether I missed anything by not having read her previous series. For the most part, Grey provides enough information about the world where her books take place. She has some of your usual characters found in paranormal books, but there are a few twists. Werewolves have some special abilities such as being able to heal faster than a human and having better senses, but there doesn’t appear to be any shifting or transforming, even partially. There are also Vampires, and Humans, but I don’t think the humans know about the other two (this may have been explained in the previous series), and I also don’t know if Vampires are different from “traditional” vampires.
Overall, I really liked The Loneliest Alpha. It was definitely a book that I wanted to keep reading. As for characters, I liked Gavin (the MacKellan Alpha), his family, and Alicia. The chemistry between Gavin and Alicia was good, but there is definitely some insta-love that goes on with the story. Given that Alicia is “abducted” (sort of) by her pack and brought to the MacKellan’s as a possible mate for Gavin and the majority of the book takes place in a couple of weeks, the assumption of insta-love is going to be made, and it isn’t due to the typical mate imprinting that happens in other werewolf stories.
Another aspect of the story that I really liked is that both main characters have some very real flaws and relationship issues that they need to work through before things can be resolved. Some of Alicia’s flaws make some of her decisions at times seem annoying, but she was a strong female character. Her interactions with Gavin’s sisters were really funny too.
I also appreciated Grey’s effort to create a story line that included an actual mystery to be solved rather than just the whole paranormal romance thing. But don’t worry, the sexy scenes definitely had some heat. One of the other concerns I had was that some of the scenes or parts of the book might have taken a little too long and could have been edited to keep the pace moving. Regardless of the things that might have detracted from the story for me, I would definitely read another book by Grey and would recommend the series for those who want an interesting werewolf story.
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