BOOK REVIEW:
Her Alpha Protector
So I completely
forgot that I’ve been sitting on a PNR novella stash… You see nearly 2 years
ago Harlequin had a short paranormal category line called Nocturne Bites and that line grew in word count to more of a
novella and less of a novelette and this was renamed Nocturne Cravings.
I have some of those
Bites and Cravings titles and I only remembered a few days ago. Naturally I started
reading one of those neglected stories and reminded myself why I should have
probably tried to submit to the lines before they both were closed.
The story I chose is
Gwen Knight’s Her Alpha Protector.
Knight’s debut was everything I loved about the short PNR stories: it was sweet
yet sexy, tension-filled with proper pacing, and a read-in-one-sitting type
story (even though I totally
stretched it out to three days—though in my defense I was reading it on the
commute).
ANYWAYS. I really
liked the story!
I also find it
interesting to read about weres, so that was fun.
Her Alpha Protector follows
heroine, Angelina/Angel while she’s on the run from her old pack and her
abusive “mate”. In order to hide she ends up in another pack’s territory and
this pack’s Alpha, Hunter, tracks her down as he would all non-pack/unregistered
wolves, you know for security reasons. Of course when Hunter learns it’s Angel
whom he’s hunting, he decides to finally do what he’d been afraid to do 10
years ago: take the she-wolf as his mate.
And drama ensues.
Angel was all right…
I mean, she had good character development. My heart/head ached for her loss of
innocence and her trouble adjusting to her life as a new wolf… And though an
immortal wolf for a decade, she’s still very much unsettled in terms of finding
a caring pack/family, uncomfortable in her own skin and body, and generally
loveless in viewing herself in the world.
She wasn’t a damsel-in-distress,
yet she also didn’t go around kicking down doors to get at her enemies. Angel
was scared, but she also sorta fought back when the going got tough.
What I really enjoyed was the topic of domestic abuse in this
novella. In the romance genre abuse is sort of tossed in there to add more drama and/or show how great the hero is.
And Her Alpha Protector falls prey to
this trap as well, especially when Hunter and his power of love cure Angel of all her
emotional insecurities. However the insecurity Angel details in her actions
make the story, particularly since her POV is more powerful than Hunter’s.
Hunter has no need to be afraid or emotionally charged outside Angel… The way I
see it she’s the more interesting of the two characters, and understandably so.
Hunter was cool, too. As the story was short, we didn’t get too see too much of his character outside his
connection and concern for Angel. The main antagonist was clearly also a foil
for Hunter’s personality and views in life and for his romantic ideal. In his
mind, Hunter doesn’t want to hold his alpha powers against Angel’s head the way
he might an enemy or the rest of his pack—he really sees her as an equal, at
least emotionally and that thought
pattern makes you like the guy anyways.
But his name was
annoying… I mean I wasn’t sure whether to be amused or not. Yet as I write this
I keep forgetting to capitalize the H in hunter. Ugh. Very annoying.
Also there’s a death.
Don’t you love romances when a gory death gets thrown in there?
My verdict:
✮✮✮✮
(4 stars)
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