Review: 2.5 frustrated stars
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 06 11, 2014
from pagetrotter.blogspot.comAnother book falls prey to the second book curse. The two main things I look for in a second book in a series are whether or not it can continue the momentum of the first installment and if it forwards the plot-line/character's development. Unfortunately, Avoiding Alpha does neither. What we have here is more of a 1.5 novella: both in length of the novel (although it feels a lot longer than its 147 pgs) and in storyline. Not to say this is a bad thing because there are aspects of this installment I enjoyed. We got to see how important friendship is to Tessa, we learned a teensy bit more about the witches and why Tessa is important to them and....I think that's it.To be honest, Tessa even felt different. Her voice wasn't as strong and I missed that spunk she had in the first book. She's still struggling to come to terms with changing into a werewolf, although she's accepted every other aspect of her new life. In fact, I'm not too sure why she's so hesitant. It's never really explained, but I could take some guesses. That being said, when she finally does change it's not even on her terms. This moment, which should have been a triumphant moment for Tessa and would have been the climax of the story, fell completely flat because it wasn't her choice. Tessa's reaction after changing? Meh. One would think if you've put up such a fight for so long and then were forced to change against your will, you'd have a bigger reaction. Maybe that's just me. Also, her and Dastien's relationship seems to be on the fast track. I really enjoyed the push and pull in the first book. I loved that she fought the insta-attraction and at the end of the first book it was like they were dating. Somehow in book 2, we've entered insta-love. I feel as though something happened in between these installments.I'm honestly just so frustrated because all the characters seem completely different and I'm left wondering what I was supposed to garner from this book? So if I feel this way, how'd it manage to score 2.5 stars? For one thing, I do happen to enjoy Erin's writing style. I find her dialogue enjoyable and her world building strong (although it was somewhat absent in book 2). I also enjoyed seeing more of the secondary character's. They all have a strong influence on Tessa it would seem so it was interesting to see more of that. As annoyed I am with how Tessa and Dastien's relationship went into hyper-speed, I did enjoy that French werewolf being all sweet. Honestly, the score is probably riding the wave of goodwill from book 1.