If you've lurked around here long enough, you probably already know that I love romances. If it has a love story intertwined somewhere in it that makes my heart all weepy and happy at the same time, I'm probably into it.
That being said, I have a confession to make:
I have an Alpha Male addiction.
BUT.....
after the last few books I've read for review, Alpha Males and I may be breaking up.
Well, maybe "breaking up" isn't the right thing. A break? Yeah, I think I need a break.
What happened, you ask? Well, my darlings, I'm beginning to think that maybe I'm not as into the whole "Alpha" thing as I originally thought. Which, when you think about it, really sucks since I've loaded my Kindle with a crap-ton of "Alpha Male" books to review. That's actually what prompted this post. (If you aren't sure what an Alpha Male is, check out this post from Parajunkee The Anatomy of the Alpha Male. It is on point. The Alpha Male by Kilts and Swords is a good read, too.)
The book that inspired this post is Jax (Breaking the Declan Brothers #1) by Kelly Gendron. You can read my review of that book here. It's sad to say that I didn't even finish reading this book. The prologue starts out with a weird rape-y scene that made me uncomfortable right from the get-go. That should have been clue #1 that my adventure with this book was going to end badly. In the first chapter we meet our heroine who has hang-ups (about what I'm still not sure) but knows that she is a beautiful pageant princess and knows she has a hot body that she's just got to flaunt because...well, why not? Clue #2. Then we just coincidentally happen up our sex-on-a-stick Alpha who is hot as sin and has a bulge bigger than a genetically modified eggplant. And I'm ready for him. I am so ready for this story to get started so I can get all lusty about this man who the heroine described more or less as being a gentle giant with a heart of gold.
So, we've already started off with the correct formula, right? She's hot and has lusted after him since she was knobby-kneed little girl. He's so hot he's starting bush fires (yes, I did just go there) and the scene has been set. I'm ready to learn more about this gentle giant. But instead of meeting a gentle giant, the second time we get to have a conversation with him, he immediately becomes a creeper. He's an MMA fighter, of course, and after his fight our lady follows him down a hallway where he proceeds to turn around and tell her to get on her knees and suck his cock.
Exsqueeze me?
Please don't get me wrong. I am no prude. I love me some sexy scenes. But only after a well-crafted story has been wrapped around those scenes, damnit! I won't go on anymore about that particular book. It's not the only one I've had this problem with. I recently reviewed
Make You Burn by Megan Crane. I did not review this book on Goodreads. I'm still trying to find nice words to use for a decent review. Other than "Are you kidding me?" The Alpha in that story is sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo alpha that he basically verbally abuses women and sexually assaults them just because he feels like it.
There's a fine line between telling a woman you're getting down with that she's a dirty slut and telling a woman that just happens to be standing in your space that she's a worthless slut. There's also a difference between a strong, sexy, self-aware man who knows what he wants and how he likes it and just a big freaking asshole whose self-esteem is so damaged that he has to mistreat women.
Exhibit A:
Exhibit B:
See the difference?
And that's why Alpha Males and I need a break.
For every ONE good book that I read with a hot Alpha, I read about 5 more that are basically a jerkface man verbally and physically abusing a woman that he's brainwashed into thinking she can't live without him. It's a huge turn-off.
HUGE TURN-OFF.
And it makes me really sad. I know there's a way to write an Alpha that is sexy and desirable and not someone that you would slap a restraining order on if he were a real person.
Laid Out by Sidney Halston is a great example of a well-done Alpha Male. (If you're not a NetGalley reviewer you'll have to wait until September to read this one!)
Seriously, Cain is just the right amounts of sexy/sweet with just a dash of over-protectiveness that made the whole story really work.
Maybe I'm just being too sensitive and ranty because I'm burned out on Alpha books because I keep ending up with books whose main characters have me saying "Yep, you've got a body in your basement." I keep waiting for the secret reveal part of the story where the lucky leading lady discovers the bodies of the other women who wouldn't do as Hulk said every waking moment.
Does anyone else feel like this? Am I all alone on this? Does anyone have any recommendations for good Alpha books?
