The King & Alpha Series book 1
Author: A.E. Via
Narrator: Nathaniel Black
Length: 6 hours 50 minutes
Reviewed by Morningstar
Synopsis
Justice Volkov is the youngest Alpha Zenith to ever lead the wolf shifters. Following in his father's large paw prints was a responsibility he met head on. Now at age 33, he is alpha of the alphas. As a direct descendant of the original Siberian pack, his wolf is bigger and stronger than Justice himself is sometimes able to control. His wolf howled long and hard, but Justice kept it inside. It felt like a bass drum beating against his rib cage. The harsh breaths, angry snarls, and the determined pacing inside him were overtaking him. Justice takes his role of leadership and his legacy very seriously. He has little time for romance, not to mention a true mate. His packs are his priority. With a human government trying to regulate them, an uprising of rogue shifters, and a violent team of scientists trying to experiment on them, Justice has his hands way too full.
Chadwick "Wick" Bentley is not enthusiastic when the captain of his escort tells him he has to leave his comfortable London home and go back to the States. As the Vampire King, he has no choice but to get his species back in line before they cause anymore chaos. At over 100 years old, Wick is no one to trifle with, but his smooth, charismatic manner makes him quite unique, despite the negative reputation vampires have. Wick has had nothing but time up to this point. He doesn't feel the need to make issues pressing. Nothing is urgent in his life. Until he meets Justice. His beloved.
"Natural enemies can't be mates." Or so Justice thought. He knows his skepticism and rejection is hurting his mate, so while he fights their connection, Wick gets help from a source very close to Justice to help him win his beloved's heart. Wick is a force all on his own, but when he's blessed with a special gift from the Mother herself, not even Justice's powerful wolf can prevent the prophesy from being fulfilled.
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Review
I easily fell in love with the characters before they even
fell in love with each other. Their storyline was well paced and fleshed out
and not once did I want to skim or get bored because everything from the action
to the internal thoughts were important and drove the story forward.
I do wish there was a bit more world building because what
we do know we find out only through internal thoughts about the tenuous truce
between humans and paranormals but not much else and as great as her characters
are (not over the top alpha stuff but true emotions of two men who are true
mates of a warring species) there needs to be more build up to the lore of the
authors world to give the reader a true understanding of everything. An example
was with the “mother” that visits Justice. I was a little confused here and
there as to whether she was “mother” as in their god or really just his mother
because the language used seemed to switch from one to the other.
Justice and Wick were both great, truly. I think Wick needed
a bit more fleshing out, he fell flat at times, but really, they were both
flawed characters that were easy to like and love. I love Wick’s secret and how
that played out. Although I do wish there was more cohesive binding of their
strengths that would make sense to them needing to be together to beat the
enemy. And I think one thing that totally missed the mark for me was the
anti-climatic moment of beating this enemy. She made them underwhelming
criminals that truly weren’t a fight even for Justice and the rest of the
“fight” was off page. I wanted that action, the build up to that moment when
the vampires and wolves finally work together to take down their enemy.
The secondary characters were awesome and full of such
different personalities that I wanted them to have more “screen” time! The love
grew fast for Wick and Justice, once they accepted each other, and I’m great
with that since it’s what’s expected of true mates and I love it myself. I
loved heir little moments together and how Wick, even being a King in his own
right, stood by Justice, not as his lesser, but certainly in a supporting
position in terms of ruling. He wasn’t arrogant or snotty but really just a funny
good guy.
The audiobook version was good and having it played out in
his narrator’s voice certainly made the story come a bit more to life than when
I had just read the book. There was one spot that a line was repeated but since
I got it through a new app I’m not sure if it was that or the recording of the
book.
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