Reviewed by Quirky Cat on
I’ve always found that while Christine Warren’s novels are a bit hit or miss, they’re always a relaxing read, more or less. Her latest paranormal romance series called Alphaville starts out here, in Baby, I’m Howling for You. And yes, I agree that the name is pretty corny. But I figured it was worth a shot, especially because the preliminary reviews made it look good, and I’ve enjoyed some of her work in the past.
Renny is a red wolf shifter on the run. From what, you ask? An obsessive stalker who also happens to be the alpha of a pack of coyotes. Now, one would think in a fight between wolves and coyotes the wolf should win, right? Well consider these little tidbits: Renny is a red wolf, IE a smaller species, and she’s also outnumbered. That’s why she’s running to Alphaville (again, horrible name, I know) where all forms of shifters are welcome. With any luck she can find a safe space to live while she deals with these monsters. Once there though, Renny ends up getting more than she bargained for.
Warnings first: As mentioned above, Renny is being stalked by a seriously deranged man. He doesn’t care about consent or stalking laws or any of that. He wants to have his way with Renny and then murder her, since she denied him (and his poor ego couldn’t handle that, apparently). Warren dances around actually saying what’s going on here, rarely coming out right and saying it, but it’s still pretty obvious what is going on here. The coyote pack hunt her pretty relentlessly, and don’t really seem to care if they kill her by mistake. This whole series of events may make some readers really uncomfortable, so please be aware of it.
As far as light and quick reads go, this one wasn’t too bad. For those readers that like to occasionally dip their does in the romance world (while sticking pretty heavily to the paranormal part), this isn’t a bad series. I do think that dedicated romance fans might feel let down with the romance plot, as there isn’t a lot of buildup or tension in that department (but I could be wrong – romance isn’t me preferred read here).
The main character, Renny, has a pretty interesting name and on the whole is a well-rounded person. She’s stubborn, a book lover (bonus points for that), and driven to finding her own way in life. There were some points countered others though. Renny kept telling us that she was more than capable of taking on a coyote, as long as it was one on one, but every time she was presented with that opportunity she ended up either losing the fight or running from it. It left me feeling like she really was a female that needed to be protected by her mate, since that’s essentially what happened during every major altercation in this book. Which is a bit disappointing, to be honest.
I wish we had more of a chance to see Alphaville – yes, many characters are introduced from that town (whom presumably may become a focus in later novels), but I still feel like there was a lot to explore in that area. For example, I would have loved to see more about how all the different shifters cooperate in the down, and how the hierarchy (if there even is one) works.
I can’t say for certain that I’d read the rest of the Alphaville series. I think I’d be tempted to try them, depending on the description and how they seemed. Hopefully they’d hold up a bit better than the first novel.
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Reading updates
- Started reading
- 3 January, 2018: Finished reading
- 3 January, 2018: Reviewed