Angels & Alphas

Angelbound Origins #1: Angelbound

by Christina Bauer, Aileen Erin

Becoming Alpha

Tessa doesn’t realize that kissing the wrong guy in her new Texas town could land her in far more trouble than she ever imagined. Like being forced to attend St. Ailbe’s Academy, a secret boarding school for werewolves. Even if the wrong guy did accidentally turn her into one of “them,” Tessa can’t help her growing attraction to the mysterious Dastien Laurent. But when vampires attack St. Alibe’s and her visions pinpoint an enemy in their midst, Tessa realizes that boy drama and her newfound canine tendencies might just be the least of her problems.


Angelbound

Eighteen-year-old Myla Lewis is a girl who loves two kicking ass and kicking ass. She’s not your every day quasi-demon, half-demon and half-human, girl. For the past five years, Myla has lived for the days she gets to fight full-blooded demons in Purgatory’s Arena. But when the demons start to act weird, even for demons, and the King of Hell, Armageddon, shows up at Myla’s school, Myla knows trouble is coming with a capital T. Things heat up when Myla meets Lincoln, a super-sexy half-human and half-angel demon hunter. But what’s a quasi girl to do when she falls for a demon hunter? With a love worth fighting for, Myla may just shake up Purgatory.

Bonus Cipher

In the not-too-distant future, the color of your helix tattoo shows your DNA’s quality…and Cipher’s red helix is a death sentence that’s kept her on the run for twelve years. Now, Cipher wants her life back. Hacking into the Citadel mainframe is a huge risk, and the only person in the Arizona Voids that can help her is her oldest friend, Knight. She hasn’t seen him in person since she started running, and Knight 2.0 is fully upgraded with a six-pack and knee-melting smile. For a girl like Cipher, trust doesn’t come easily, but Knight makes her yearn for a life she knows she can’t have, especially when every secret she reveals endangers them both.

Genres: Fantasy, Paranormal, Angels, Young Adult

654 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 2, 2014

About the author

Christina 'CEE BEE' Bauer thinks that fantasy books are like bacon: they just make life better. All of which is why she writes young adult romance novels that feature demons, dragons, wizards, witches, elves, elementals, and a bunch of random stuff that she brainstorms while riding the Boston T. Oh, and she includes lots of humor and kick-ass chicks, too. Christina lives in Newton, MA with her husband, son, and semi-insane golden retriever, Ruby. She loves to connect with her fans at ChristinaBauerAuthor.com.

ANGELBOUND ORIGINS
About a quasi (part demon and part human) girl who loves kicking butt in Purgatory's Arena
1. Angel bound
2. Scala
3. Acca
4. Thrax
5. The Dark Lands
6. The Brutal Time
7. Armageddon
8. Quasi Redux
9. Clockwork Igni
10. Lady Reaper
11. Reaper Games
12. Angry Gods

ANGELBOUND OFFSPRING
The next generation takes on Heaven, Hell, and everything in between
1. Maxon
2. Portia
3. Zinnia
4. Rhodes
5. Kaps
6. Mack
7. Huntress
8. Gage
*This is a finished series

ANGELBOUND LINCOLN
Events of Angelbound from Lincoln's POV
1. Duty Bound
2. Lincoln
3. Trickster
4. Baculum
5. Angelfire

ANGELBOUND XAVIER TRILOGY
The story of the Archangel Xavier
1. Archenemy
2. Archnemesis
3. Archangel

FAIRY TALES OF THE MAGICORUM
Modern fairy tales with sass, action, and romance
1. Wolves And Roses

2. Moonlight And Midtown

3. Slippers And Thieves

4. Shifters And Glyphs

5. Bandits And Ball Gowns

6. Fire And Cinder

7. Fairies And Frosting

8. Towers And Tithes
9. Mirrors And Mysteries
10. Rapunzels And Powers

DIMENSION DRIFT
Dystopian adventures with science, snark, and hot aliens
1. Scythe
2. Umbra
3. Alien Minds
4. ECHO Academy
*This is a completed series

PIXIELAND DIARIES
The story of sassy pixie, Calla, and her elf crush, Dare
1. Pixieland Diaries
2. Calla
3. Dare
*This is a completed series

BEHOLDER
Where a medieval farm girl discovers necromancy and true love
1. Cursed
2. Concealed
3. Cherished
4. Crowned
5. Cradled
*This is a completed series

VAMPIRES OF THE DAEMONVERSE
Adult fantasy written under my pen name, CEE BEE
1. Violins and Vampires
2. Veils and Vampires
3. Vixens and Vampires
4. Valor and Vampires

Reviews

[Sharon L · Rating 4 out of 5]

Angelbound review:

This review is going to me a tough one to write. Why? Because it is so rare for me to have so much to say yet not enough words.

Most times I'm either speechless or you can't shut me up. Right now I'm both. Yes, I'm very well aware of the paradox.
But I don't give a damn.

Anyway, let's start this.

Lately I've given many 5 starts, more than I'm used to, and I consider myself lucky for that. But a 5 stars rating can mean so many different things- it can mean I loved the book, it can mean the book is really well written, and it can be a 4.5 stars rounded up, and it can be my gut telling me that even if I have tons to complain about it is a 5 stars book.

In Angelbound's case it is because the book is well written and the ARC had only 8 typos (in a book that is more than 300 pages, that's little, almost nothing). But more importantly, it's because this book is perfect for me.

There aren't so many books that I loved and managed to hold my interest from start to end. If you need an example I'd say- anything written by Ilona Andrews, The Fever series by Karen Marie Moning, Binding the Shadows by Jenn Bennett, Through the Smoke by Brenda Novak.
That's it.
Now I can add to the list Christina Bauer.

Yes, there are many books I loved, but I'm an impatient reader. It's a gurantee somewhere along the ride I'd lose interest. Not here.

As I've already said this book is perfect for me- it has EVERY damned thing I want in a book- interesting world, great world building, realistic and great sidekicks- most characters have some hidden depth and we get to glimpse it, Myla is an amazing character, the love interest is totally swoon worthy, the relationship is mature with no love triangle, the love is building slowly and believably. You know what else? Myla has a true best friend that is a girl- not some stupid "Best" friend.

Most of the women here are strong willed and reliable just as the men.

No slut-shaming or stupidity.

With all this, I think this book is a breath of fresh air. But then I wonder fresh air to what? The answer: to almost every genre you'd like to put it in. New Adult or Young Adult, Fantasy or Urban Fantasy.

This book avoids my most hated tropes in all of them.

Now, I'll talk on every aspect the best I can:

The World Building:
Christina Bauer has created a really intriguing world in Angelbound beside the human world there are five realms-
1. Heaven (with angels, obviously)
2. Hell (with demons, because we can't avoid it)
3. The Dark Land (with Ghouls. Most of them are semi hated by me)
4. Autrum (with Thrax- half human half angels. Because they are cool) 5.Purgatory(with Quasi-Demons because damn are they hot?!)

The roles of the angels and the demons are no mystery, the ghouls keeps order and rules (they also portal people between the realms). While the thrax are hunting demons in the human world the Quasis are in charge of the souls- which go to heaven and which to hell.

This is where Myla comes in, but I'll get to it in a bit.

Sometimes, the residents of those realms mingle- an angel will mate with a ghoul or some other pairings.

Our story takes place in Purgatory- where the Quasis live. Purgatory is run by the ghouls and the Quasis are their servants, I'm not going to explain it because you need to read the book for that!

As I've already mentioned Quasis are the off springs of humans and demons- or at least they were at first, since there are plenty of them in Purgatory the Quasis breeds among themselves (mostly).
Each Quasi has a tail of some sort of animal- dragon tail (Myla) pig tail, dog tail, really the options are infinite. Also, each and every Quasi has an affinity to one of the seven deadly sins-
Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Envy, Wrath and Pride.
With each one comes certain skills- Envy can feel when someone's envy them, Lust are seductive and irresistible, Wrath are natural born warriors.

When a human dies, there's need to decide where his soul would go, thus can be decided by trial or combat. When choosing combat the soul can choose it's opponent from three options- ghoul, demon or Quasi. If the opponent is defeated the soul goes to heaven, if not then hell. Myla(our SUPER KICKASS heroine) is one of the arena's warriors. Fighting evil souls and beat them so they'll never get to heaven is her job, and she does it fantastically.

the fighting and action scenes in this book are enough to keep anyone happy- quantity and quality wise. The one responsible for transferring the soul to heaven or hell is the Scala- the one creature with human, demon and angel blood. Usually there are two of those- the Scala and the Scala heir.

I'll stop now, because I see I'm getting carried away.

The thing is, Christina Bauer has created a well-rounded world with definite rules and what I told you is just the tip of the ice-berg.

Also, the world building is done gradually without over tiring info-dumps. Each information comes exactly when it needed to come- not only in order to move the plot forward but also to allow the reader to understand things while the happen. There are no contradictions in the world building and no dropping of weird terms that will be discovered later once the author needs a way out .

The world and the book are so well built it is obvious the author paid great attention and thought to them both.

Before I continue to other aspects of the book, let me just say, even though I don't complain much about world building in other books- for me this aspect is the difference between 4 and 5 stars. So rarely do I really enjoy the world building in a book as much as I enjoyed it here

The characters:
beside the really not important characters, those I doubt would appear on the second book, Each and every of the characters is rounded with depth and contradictions. And even as we learn of those, all their actions stay true to their nature

I'll talk about some of the characters right now.

Cissy- Myla's best friend. Hell, I can't explain how fucking annoying she was at times. I was really tempted to reach into the book, grab her by the shoulders and yell at her "Pay attention to your best friend!!!" she made mistakes, she ignored Myla's feelings at times, she was far from a perfect best friend and yet, she was there for Myla when she needed her most. She understood Myla most times, and she apologized when she fucked up. And that what made her a true friend. In most UF books the heroine does not have a best friend that is that much present in her friend's adventures and life. In NA books the best friend is rarely a real friend and in YA books with paranormal elements most of the times the best friend is just there to show how amazing and extraordinary the MC is. Well, Myla is extraordinary, but so is her friend. Cissy is this gentle girl that saves lost things, she is this girl who had an obsessive crush on someone for years, she's the girl who stands on her own when she wants something and will not be pushed and stomped on. And it's wonderful to see that the author paid attention to her character while writing this book. It's wonderful to know that Myla has such a good best friend, even if annoying at times.

Zeke- Myla's friend and Cissy's huge crush. Honestly, he's a player and he can't shut his mouth. But he also shows other sides of him later, he takes risks to help Myla, he cares about Cissy. And his playboy acts are just a façade as much as they are real.
Walker- I wouldn't go so far as to say he is made of contradictions. But he is there for Myla, he's a true friend and he knows more than he lets on.

Armageddon- The king of hell and the big bad guy. Really, you can't be the king of hell and not being the big bad guy. At least not in this book. But damn, he was terrifying, of the pure evil kind. He's a power hungry sadist, and he's so good at what he does. His level of scheming can compete Verus's.

Verus- The representative of the angels. Sweet heavens, I simply adore the little minx- while everyone on the board play backgammon she plays chess. You can never take her words of what they are, because even if she can't lie, there are plenty of other things she can do.
Myla's mom- I think she is one of the most complex characters in this book. an overbearing mother, she's a scardy cat, she worries about her daughter constantly, she has depressions and every so often you catch a glimpse of something else- of fire and steel. I can’t talk about her in details as her contradictions are very important to the plot.

Lincoln's Mother- the Thrax queen. I won't say much about her, but she is a warrior and a fighter in society that is dominated by men. Where women are mainly there to be protected.

Myla- I've talked about other characters so much, it's time to cut the bullshit. Myla is amazing by every standard possible, in my opinion. She looks good (and she knows it), she fights (damn well), she stands on her own, she's a warrior and she takes shit from no one. Myla is a Quasi furor demon, which means that beside being a natural born warrior she has an affinity to both wrath and lust and she has a dragon tail. When she wants to know something she'd push all the buttons and go to anywhere she needs in order to get the information she sought. Even when she meets Lincoln and is instantly attracted to him physically she acknowledge that he's a jerk, and she doesn't caught him some slack just because he looks good. She demands his respect, and she doesn't respect him until he proves worthy of it. She's also very kind. In my humble opinion Myla balances well between being a total Kickass and being gentle. She cares, she is not a tomboy and she does not mock girls- only irrational and foolish behavior. She cries, she gets injured and hurt, she's not perfect. She's afraid at times, she doesn't always think things through, but she learns from her mistakes. And she stays true to herself and her nature throughout the book.

It is no secret I'm a fan of Kate Daniels (Seriously, how can you not love that girl?), well, I love Myla just as much. She's just as kickass as kate, just as sharped tongued, almost just as funny, but unlike Kate, Myla is not emotionally detached (yes, Kate is a little detached and she's closed), she doesn't push people away, she's mature and childish in a balanced way. She is fun. If Kate is a bad guy that chose to be good, then Myla is a good humble guy that stays good.

Lincoln- The Thrax prince, the love interest and a royal pain in the ass…at first. It is not hard to make me swoon over a swoon worthy guy, and it is not hard to make me hate/dislike a jackass. But you know what? I hardly can do both. I know, I know that many women around the world love Mr. Darcy, I'm not one of them. He was a stupid, prideful jackass in the beginning and even as his intentions became clear, even as he was redeemed, even as he apologized, I couldn't help but hold a grudge. He hadn't changed, not entirely. And what made me not like him from start remained there by the end. On the other hand I like Jericho Barrons (even though he doesn't turn my oven on) and I liked Curran even though he was annoying at first, because I understood why both men acted like they did from start. And here we have Lincoln- he starts out like a prejudiced jackass, calling Quasis 'demons', refusing to understand the difference while acting so high and mighty. That pissed me off. I black listed him right away . I really found it impossible to think that I'll like him in the end. That he would end up worthy of Myla . but he did, he so did. And not by doing a sudden change of 180 degrees. No. By slowly unraveling and showing his true nature and good points. Little by little he showed respect for Myla when she proved worthy of it. He showed his gentle side. He showed his fair side- the side that would care for a demon because this demon could not protect itself. He thanks Myla for saving one of his own and stands up for her even when the idiot she saved fails to understand that he is an idiot. And when Myla gets injured he takes care of her. He also apologize once he realizes his mistakes. And the way he supports and loves Myla is so swoon worthy that I call dibs on Lincoln as my book boyfriend and main squeeze

Other interesting aspects to talk about in this book

I won't say who, what or when, but let's just say Christina Bauer know how to create totally swoon worthy guys- the kind that is dependable, supportive, cute, nice, manly and totally loved you.
Also, the relationship between Myla and Lincoln is one of the best I've ever seen. While the attraction between them might be instant, their relationship and love are not. It takes time for the feelings to appear and grow, but once they do- well let's just say it's the mature kind and not the stupidlit obsessive kind. They are synchronized- even when they fight something together. They understand each other perfectly. They support each other. When Myla decides to do something dangerous Lincoln tells her he is not happy with that and that he is worried but he doesn't try to change her mind. He understand her choices and supports her. Myla does the same for him. Considering how many stakes are against them, it's lovely to see that they work as one unit and don't add wood to the fire. They care so much about each other that whenever one of them is insecure the other chases those insecurities away. If Lincoln thinks some guy is interested in Myla and that she may be somewhat interested too, Myla quickly tells him it's not like that, and vice versa. They trust each other. If Lincoln has some bad news and Myla is already aware of them, she lets him know that she's aware of the situation because she doesn't want him to hurt while saying that. He tells her he has a plan and she tells him she trust him. their bond is that deep .

Myla's tail- that thing can only be described as BEST SIDEKCIK IN THE HISTORY OF TIME. Witched would give up their familiars for such a tail if they knew it existed. Really, that tail is another character and a wonderful one at that. Funny too. I absolutely freaking love it!

The end of the book is somewhat bittersweet, both Lincoln and Myla make some tough choices, both understand and respect those choices. Still, somehow, I know they will be OK.
So, the next book comes out on May 2014, and It is one of my top five most anticipated books of 2014. I would attach myself a tail and take a picture with it if it would help me get an early copy of the book.
If so far, I haven't been clear as to how much I loved this book I would give you more indication- This is one of the books I REALLY want in print. If it was available in paperback or even hardcover I'd totally buy it! [yep, I loved it that much to the moon and back and round earth 20 M times].

A copy was kindly provided to me by Ink Monster through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I'm grateful for the opportunity to read it.


For this Review and more visit my blog The Accidental Reader

[Heather]

Becoming Alpha
Tessa doesn’t realize that kissing the wrong guy in her new Texas town could land her in far more trouble than she ever imagined. Like being forced to attend St. Ailbe’s Academy, a secret boarding school for werewolves. Even if the wrong guy did accidentally turn her into one of “them,” Tessa can’t help her growing attraction to the mysterious Dastien Laurent. But when vampires attack St. Alibe’s and her visions pinpoint an enemy in their midst, Tessa realizes that boy drama and her newfound canine tendencies might just be the least of her problems.
Angelbound
Eighteen-year-old Myla Lewis is a girl who loves two kicking ass and kicking ass. She’s not your every day quasi-demon, half-demon and half-human, girl. For the past five years, Myla has lived for the days she gets to fight full-blooded demons in Purgatory’s Arena. But when the demons start to act weird, even for demons, and the King of Hell, Armageddon, shows up at Myla’s school, Myla knows trouble is coming with a capital T. Things heat up when Myla meets Lincoln, a super-sexy half-human and half-angel demon hunter. But what’s a quasi girl to do when she falls for a demon hunter? With a love worth fighting for, Myla may just shake up Purgatory.

Heather's Notes
Of the two, I think I preferred Becoming Alpha, although Tessa did get on my nerves a little by being in such denial. However, it was a good book. Angelbound was not bad either, I liked Myla for the must part. Both are "special" so that is sometimes a little over the top, but overall good books. I will probably continue both series, but not in a hurry to read the next of either.

[Trmeemat · Rating 5 out of 5]

The story is absolutely amazing. I like it.

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have to admit that I was a bit nervous about have two separate books from two separate series by two separate authors in the same book deal just because some in the past have not turned out so well. However, this pairing was spot on in my opinion. From the strong female leads who were not afraid to tell you what was on their minds, to the attractive male counterpart who is sketchy at first, but easily warmed up to, to the overprotective older brother figure, not to mention the awesome action scenes that keep our fingers turning the pages at an alarming rate. Both Aileen Erin and Christina Bauer should be very proud of their work on the beginnings of these series and I can’t wait to get my hands on the sequels. This combination received all 5 beans from me.

Becoming Alpha

Aileen Erin’s version of werewolf lore is such a refreshing taste of what paranormal fantasy could be. In her attempt to fit in at her new school in Texas, Tessa’s world suddenly becomes a mix of struggling to fit in with the beings who don’t fit in, romance, magic, and a few blood sucking creepy vampires who watch you at night. Her resilience and constant desire to do what she wanted to do (call it being stubborn if you want) made her a fun character, and one who we would love to continue to get to know. I couldn’t help but take interest in how Erin explains the ways in which the werewolves fit into our world without us even knowing, from the ‘normal’ kids being unwilling to talk to her all the way up to the wolves who hunt down supernatural monsters who mean to harm others. She has created a world inside of our own that we can all identify with to a certain point. A great read for anyone who enjoys YA paranormal stories, I leave this book with 5 beans.

Angelbound

Myla Lewis is a kick ass main character. Both literally and figuratively. She can kick ass like no one’s business ( I loved the end and the reason behind her ability btw…spoilers) and she’s probably one of the strongest YA paranormal characters I have come across yet. Myla isn’t afraid to get her hands dirty as long as she believes in what she is doing and will put 100% of her effort into what she loves, which for the most part includes fighting and causing trouble for the nobility. When she meets the handsome Lincoln, it’s a match made in….Purgatory….close enough. He seems to be the only one able to keep up with her snarky and violent personality, and the two become partners-in-crime. I love the development of their relationship throughout the book and how it changed in a similar style as to the rest of the book: whenever I thought I had the next part figured out, Christina Bauer would snap her fingers and…poof…I was wrong. I loved it. As a bonus, both Myla and Lincoln were really good at kicking ass, and I could see it all in my head as clear as day, I could see them cutting the demons to shreds when need be and slaying whatever beast needed to be slain. This is a great read for any paranormal lovers, it’s a bit more violent than Becoming Alpha, but it deserves all 5 beans I give it.

[Latisha Bramlett · Rating 3 out of 5]

*3.5 Stars

I received a copy of this book free of charge from Netgalley in excange for an honest review.


BECOMING ALPHA - 3.5 Stars

Becoming Alpha is about 17 year old Tessa. Tessa gets visions whenever she touches any object or person. She cannot control these visions and wears gloves at all times in order to avoid accidentally touching someone or something. She is labeled a freak by anyone who knows her, except her family. Tessa & her family move to a new house that is next door to a mysterious school. The family is told to never talk to the students of this school, but they are not told why. Tessa kisses one of these students. He accidentally bites her and turns her into a werewolf.

It takes Tess awhile to accept what she has become. She still has not accepted it enough to fully let her wolf out yet, but she is working on it. The boy who changes her is, Dastien, the Alpha. I thought the wolf mate thing was a little more for a teen book. Dastien wolf chooses her as his mate and Dastien loses control and bites her. She is mad at him for turning her without her permission, but she lusts after him. The insta love thing was a bit much for me. She doesn't even really get a chance to take everything in before everyone is telling her she is mated to Dastien. To his credit, he does try to give her space to work things out. The thing that bugged me the most is that no one wanted to tell Tessa much of anything. I wished they had been more forthcoming with her.

I loved Tess and her brother. They had this amazing relationship. I hope to see more of him She gets a kick ass of a roommate who becomes her best friend.


ANGELBOUND - 3 stars

Myla is an 18 year old quasi demon living in Purgatory. She is a senior in high school who lives for when she is allowed to fight in the arena. She is Purgatory's best fighter. If the souls who fight her lose, they go to Hell. If they win, they go to Heaven. She never loses.

The world building was interesting. But something felt a bit off to me. All the drama felt a bit high school to me. I could've done with less drama. And, I get that Myla is a bad ass. It's one of the things I love about her. But, she wins every fight. And, she wins them quickly. I would have liked to see her struggle with the fights more. Not necessarily lose, but not win within 5 minutes either. She goes up against some of the biggest, baddest, most vile souls in existence. She should have to struggle to beat them.

The secondary characters were very hit or miss for me. I didn't really like Zeke. He came off as a player. Although, he did seem to grow a little by the end of the book. Xavier and Walker, I loved. I wished we could've gotten more with them. Myla's mother, on the other hand, I'm on the fence about. I get that she had to hide Myla for her safety. But, it came to a point where Myla needed to be told who she was. And, her mother wimped out. Other people had to explain it to Myla.

[Jacqueline · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received an ebook copy of this book from Netgalley

Becoming Alpha
*3 stars*
Starting out reading this, it immediately caught my interest. A girl who has visions when she touches people? Awesome! Then when they got to Texas.. Things got a little strange. You have random guys telling you to stay away from the St. Ailbe's kids and how they are dangerous. Then there's this "hot" guy in your front yard and she just can't stop thinking about him.. Skip forward to the party.. Girl, He just bit you, gave you a severe injury and ran away. And you still can't stop thinking about him. (Can you tell that I don't really like Dastian? Who runs away from their problems? Cowards.) It bothered me that she was just willing to forgive him for everything.

I loved her family. They were so protective over her and it was awesome to see a family who cared about her and wished they could do more for her.
I also liked the whole concept of a boarding school for werewolves. It kinda reminded me of Vampire Academy. I feel it had potential, and could be really good if some things were changed.

Angelbound
*4 Stars*
I honestly don't even know where to start with this. When I first started this book, I wasn't sure what to expect. I was slightly still processing Becoming Alpha and I wasn't completely ready to jump into an entirely different world.

After a chapter into this book, I wanted to know what this world would be like. I found the battles that the Quasi's (and other demons) fight interesting. It was different and pretty bad ass to read about. Also, having a badass main character doesn't hurt.

Another thing that I liked was the scenes that would make me laugh or smile. (They mostly all included Lincoln) It was nice that with all the chaos looming (and knowing that something bad was gonna happen) that there was those little scenes to make you smile and forget about the bad. Even if it was just for a second.

There wasn't many things that bothered me when I was reading this book. Actually I think there was only one. Sometimes throughout the story I would find my self bored with what was happening at that moment and not wanting to keep reading. I felt like somethings were dragged out or not really needed. At times I just put down my kindle and got on Tumblr, because I would get bored with it.

Cipher
So I'm not going to rate this one because it was only the first three chapters of the book. I'm really liking it so far. I want to read it as soon as I can.

[April Symes · Rating 3 out of 5]

**I received this book from Netgalley for my honest review***
This is a hard review for me to write. The blurb for this book caught my eye on NetGalley so I wanted to read this book but when I had the chance to try the book, I found the hype outlived the book.

Becoming Alpha
Starting out reading this, it immediately caught my interest. A girl who has visions when she touches people? Sounds great .. But when they go to Texas, things got a bit strange. You have random people, especially guys coming up to you telling you to stay away from the St. Ailbe's kids and how they are dangerous. Things just kept getting stranger. I just had to continue to force myself to continue to read. She keeps seeing some cute, hot guy in her front yard and she is dreaming about him every night.
Her family was super protective which was great; I did feel like this was a retread of the Vampires Academy all over again but with different names and slightly different situations to protect from a lawsuit

Angelbound
I found the battles that the Quasi's (and other demons) fight intriguing. It was different and pretty kick ass to read about. BUT to jump into a new book after I am still thinking about book 1 was hard.
In this book, scenes were dragged out or just not needed. Not sure why but maybe to use as a filler because the book was going to be short for where the author felt they needed to be. What I can determine is book two is the close relationship that Myla and Lincoln build from hate is a wonderful balance of respect and for the most part, common interests and goals.

Other than that, I am not sure what else to say about these two books. So the rating goes to what I feel is the waste of space. They could have made a smarller book and would have been ok but instead a huge book and waste of space. There was spots of brilliance but overall, muddled writing by the author.
My rating: 3 stars *****

[Lauren · Rating 5 out of 5]

Becoming Alpha:

This book immediately grabbed my attention! Tessa’s ability to have visions by touch is pretty awesome, right? Well, it was until Tessa goes to Texas. There she finds random people warning her to stay away from St. Ailbe’s kids. That’s a little weird for a stranger to warn you about a dangerous set of kids, right? But, it gets even weirder from there. Dreaming about a cute guy and then seeing in her front yard is just some weird twist of fate. Tessa’s story is intriguing with the twist that the strange boys are actually living and breathing werewolves.

AngelBound

This book has literally been sitting on my TBR pile for awhile now. This book has a lot of drama and humor rolled up into one tightly written novel. The battles fought by the Quasi’s to be very action packed and managed to hold my interest. The humor itself really made this book for me. (THANK YOU LINCOLN!!) Because it showcases that even in the midst of chaos and turmoil you can find some kind of humor in it. These scenes were well placed to give the reader a break from the darkness lurking in the next chapter.

All in all, I’ll admit while YA in genre, I did enjoy both of these books. AngelBound was my clear cut favorite of the bundle, but I didn’t hate Becoming Alpha either. I think these would be perfect for Teens and young adults looking to get their feet wet in PNR and the supernatural book world.

[onceuponatimeareview · Rating 4 out of 5]

I want to say thank you for this book I got this book from Ink Monster LLC and for Netagalley. I didn't like this book. I don't know how to explain really because at first I really liked it and it got good then after that it seemed to get boring. I think that pace of the book really got me. And for a reader the pace is everything you have to have a steady pace and keep it even throughout the book or things get to jumble and not really good. I loved the story line its so amazing and so good. I love it. Its creative to. I never really heard of this kind of story before and I think this is why I liked so much. Most books are the same have the same feel to it but this didn't and I'm happy about that. Its really good. I think if it didn't have such a slow pace towards the end for me then it would be five stars. I love this creative world that she has going on and it dragged me. I also liked how they didn't try making this book into love triangle. Those are way over done. Cissy kind of remind me of Vee for Hush Hush in a good way she was annoying at times but most of the times characters can be very annoying. I was worried that Myla would fit that but no she doesn't take crap from no. I'm love it and I can't wait to get my hands on the next one.

[Casey · Rating 5 out of 5]

A copy was provided by Netgalley for an honest review.

I am hooked! I am giving this duo a 5 star rating for being so addictive. I am not usually a big sci-fi/ paranormal fan, but I am a fan now (at least of these two authors).

Becoming Alpha blew away all of the existing werewolf info I have gathered over the years and made it fresh, new and exciting. Tessa’s ability to read minds by touching items was incredibly intriguing add in the mysterious boys who turn out to be werewolves, witches and nasty vamps and you have an awesome YA read.

Angels are probably the one paranormal subject I read with any frequency. I am fascinated by the different ideas about what afterlife is like. I love that all of the standard angel, demon, ghost and so on were completely redone in a very complex way that was able to bring old elements together with new and awesome ideas to make these 5 levels of after realms. The close relationship that Myla and Lincoln build from hate is a wonderful balance of respect and common interests and goals. I am excited to continue reading about this couple.

[Bec · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't realise this was YA when I downloaded it and I'm generally not a big fan but I was very impressed with this start to the Alpha Girl series. Yay for strong women!

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

You can find more reviews Mademoisellesnow Blog

[Hazel Schueler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book!

[Lynette · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great YA book. I will be be reading more in this series! Love the world it is set in!