Rescued

Alphabits #1

by Susi Hawke, Crista Crown, John Solo (Narrator)

Lost. Stolen. Forgotten… until the Alphabits step in.

A Team A.L.P.H.A. spinoff series.

Sam Remington, former leader of Team Beta, has a new dream: to lead a team whose sole purpose is to protect those most vulnerable—shifter pups.

His new mate, Dean, shares his passion. As a child counselor, Dean is all too familiar with the darker side of the world when it comes to pups. If Sam can rescue them, Dean will do his best to help fix them.

Sanctioned by Team Alpha’s bossman, the great Ray Perkins himself, Alphabits is Sam’s baby. This new hand-picked team consists of five highly-trained wolf alphas—and one bumbling bear who couldn’t take a hint. As always with a new team, personalities will clash. But at the end of the day, they all share a common goal help lost, missing, and hurting children—starting with the needy wolf pup who lives across the street from Sam and Dean.

The Alphabits aren’t vigilantes. These former soldiers and officers of the law have to do things by the book—even when it tears them apart to do so. But once all their ducks are in a row, the bad guys had better beware! You do not want this team of protective alphas on your tail.

Listening Length: 4 hours.

Genres: M M Romance, Romance, Shapeshifters, Paranormal, Omegaverse, Audiobook, Fantasy

4 pages, Audible Audio

First published February 7, 2019

About the author

I'm a total fan of M/PREG Paranormal Romances, first and foremost as a reader. I'm excited to share my own omegaverse(s) with you. What's not to love about adorable Omegas and the Alpha men who love them? If I'm not writing about men sporting baby bumps, I'm definitely reading about them!

I'm a native of Las Vegas, NV, so I'm pre-wired to love everything weird ~ although I don't find any kind of love to be weird. I'm a cis woman who's been happily married to the same lovable lug for 18 years. We have a 16yr old son, well, at least I think we do? Either that, or we have a ghost that eats all our food and uses up all wifi playing xbox while screaming into a headset.

As a new author, it's been amazing to find the amount of support that I've been given from readers and my fellow authors. Feel free to message me, I love to chat with fellow readers. Am I a reader? Heck yeah! In fact, I'm never certain that I can completely trust an author who isn't a fellow bibliophile.

I will try to update here when I'm doing promotional parties & chats. I usually do those on Facebook. If you haven't already signed up for my newsletter, you should totally do it! I only send out NL's to announce new releases or important announcements. I also like to note in my NL what I'm currently reading along with a cover shot and the link for anyone who is interested.

I look forward to interacting with everyone here!

Reviews

[Trio · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn’t realize when I started Rescued that it was a spinoff of another series. Believe me, I had no trouble following along, but it sure made me hungry to read the A.L.P.H.A. series by Susi Hawke and Crista Crown… or in my case, listen to the series.

Rescued is narrated by John Solo, and his skill set is perfect for this one. The variety of voices he uses for these characters blows me away. Everything from a host of gruff Alphas, to a female vulture shifter, and even small children. Mr. Solo adds personality and depth to each of them, and brings the whole thing to life.

There’s a fascinating story here and I can’t wait to get into the remaining two books in the series. A team of male shifters who are dedicating their lives to finding and rescuing shifter pups in need? I love it. I doubt Ms. Hawke and Ms. Crown will ever run out of stories for this one (at least I hope they don’t).

an audiobook copy of Rescued (Alphabits #1) was provided to me for the purpose of my honest review

[Barbara➰ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sweet story about already established mates who rescue a sweet pup. I need to go back and read their story though, how they met.

[Hemmel M. · Rating 1 out of 5]

I did not even last an hour. I thought the writing overly emotional, cheasy and clichéd. John Solo as the narrator made it insufferable, with his lack of subtlety and fondness to let his voice tremble and whine.
I have no idea if the story itself was good.

[Viz · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's one of the better works of Susi Hawke. She usually has a good story line (but executing them has been bare minimum). I loved Crista's Outcast series. So both working together is turning out good!

I hope rest of the series remains as good as this. I loved the way the story starts with Pov of the Kid. I just had to know how he is rescued and his journey to recovery with Mcs Sam & Dean.

[Kaity · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 stars

cute solid start to a series, you don't need to read ALPHA series to get in to this one.

overall very low angst, the couple was already established, i think that the next couple books could be higher rating for me since i love seeing a couple getting together.

can't wait to continue with this crazy group of Alphas.

[jackie Davis · Rating 2 out of 5]

Rescuers needed

When your hear a blood curdling scream from a house where a child you suspect is being abused, after you returned him from having being missed from said home for maybe 2 days , and he's dirty, hungry and wearing rags, and doesn't want to go back, you GO CHECK ON HIM! PEEK IN THE WINDOW ! SOMETHING! When you here a gun shot at the same house, AND THE PARENT says kid fired a "loaded gun he had where child could get it, for the sake of the child, RESCUE HIM NOW!!!!!! But you didn't. Beginning of story pissed me off. Thankfully, after child rescue, things got better. For shifters, you have to do better about the rescu.

[⚣Michaelle⚣ · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 Stars

I think I need to re-listen to this one once I complete the previous series since there are a lot of characters and backstory that would probably enhance my appreciation of the book. That said, it does seem to be a standalone tale. Really, really liked John's narration and his subtly distinct voices for each character kept me entertained.

[~nikki the recovering book addict · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 surprising stars

I say surprising because Susi Hawke books are generally a miss for me. So I’m definitely pleasantly surprised that this was a definite hit!

I’m intrigued that it isn’t a romance story at all. But one of an established couple, and it’s not even really centered around their romance but their new team and new pup. I like it!

This is definitely a prequel kind of book, setting up this new Alphabits team. But I genuinely enjoyed it even without the romance story portion. Oh sure, there’s sex but it’s not boy meets boy and fell in love and courting kind of story.

I’m hoping my good fortune with this book will extend to the rest of this series because I like the people in here!

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

A team is being set up to rescue and find shifter children in trouble.
This first book was a cute story about 'John' a young wolf shifter trapped in an abusive home.
I think this book set the rest of the series up really good and I can not wait to continue on with it.

[Alexis Hart · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was pleasantly surprised by this book and I liked how it worked to build the couples relationship and then Little John too. Also I would do anything for John. He’s an angel and I wish him nothing but happiness.

UPDATE: after reading this whole series I can honestly stay it wasn’t as good as the original series. The team dynamics were too similar and I found myself calling them by the Team ALPHA names instead of their names.

[Anna · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was pretty confusing; I think you have to have read the other series to know what was going on in it for the first part. There were too many characters who didn't have anything to do and weren't really introduced well. Also, i am pretty sure it's actually Supernatural fanfic.

[JB · Rating 1 out of 5]

Why on earth did I pick this up? I do tend to avoid Susi Hawke like the plague for a reason...

[Laura Parkhill · Rating 1 out of 5]

Wasnt worth spending the money for.

Not worth the money. It was a disappointing read. I’ll not buy anything from this author ever again. Wasted money.

[Kat · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was fine. Super short, easy to read, and there were sweet parts that I really liked. I sometimes feel bad reading books that are similar to this one and then giving them only okay ratings but also sometimes I will read a book that has a similar plot line that I think has done something special and that I do like a bit more.

As I mentioned in my last review I typically like it when children are in romance and I liked it here. Because this book was so short I did have some issues with the plotting. Because I read so fast, it's sometimes frankly hard for me to tell whether the pacing is off or if I'm just moving through it really fast. In this book, I do think it could have been improved by being a bit longer and having a few more quiet moments in between the action. However, I know some authors just prefer writing shorter books and that's fine too.

The romance in this was also fine. I wish we could have had a few more one on one interactions between our main couple just because there weren't a lot of moments away from the team or the kids. I did like that they were already in an established relationship because that's not something I see in a lot of romance.

I'm intrigued enough and I liked this book enough that I'll probably continue with the series. I have the box set from kindle unlimited so I have access to all the books already. I like that I know basically what I'm getting when I read these books and I can't say they're not entertaining. These books are really good at times like this where school is really picking up and I need something to take my mind of that and into a fun, easy read.

[K.R. Phoenix · Rating 5 out of 5]

🌟🌟🌟🌟 4.5 stars
🔥🔥🔥 Heat Level: 3
🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧 Narration: 4.5

Great narration and a fantastic start to the spinoff series!

Another winner from Susi and Crista! Loving their stories and all these awesome characters!! They always manage the perfect balance of thrill, emotions, steam, and humor, although this story has an already mated couple with a baby on the way as the focus so not as much knotting fun as their other stories.

I loved Dean! He’s so caring and wonderful. He had such a big heart. I enjoyed the interactions he has with his mate Sam as well as the rest of the Alphabits Team.

Honorable mention needs to go to Cyrus. A loveable, somewhat socially clueless bear shifter that you can’t help but love!! I look forward to more stories with him in it and I really hope he’ll find his mate too! He’s a large lovable teddy bear LOL!

The narration on this was great! John had different dialects for each character and while these were subtle differences it was so easy to tell them apart. His voices were really well done and not overdone or annoying in the voice tones. I loved this narration and will differently be looking for more audiobooks narrated by John.

Thanks for reading! For great stories, reviews and more please visit https://bookstattoosandtea.wordpress.com 📚

[Chellabration]

Why did I think I would like this?
On the bright side I know that mpreg and alpha/omega genre probably isn't for me. It's my first book of the kind..

The prologue sucked me in.... then Dean (I think that's the omega?) and Sam spat me back out.
Also why in the world Is that poor pup sent back to that family?? WTF

[P-san~ · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved watching Jhon getting more and more open with the others, as Dean and Sam helped him getting better. I liked that there were members of team A.L.P.H.A. too, even if as secondary characters.
As for the team A.L.P.H.A. series, even in this case, it's more focused on the couple and the children - not that I'm complaining - and I can't wait to see the stories of all of these team members.

[Cyndi Marie ☆★Audiobook Addict★☆ · Rating 3 out of 5]

🎧 Audio Review 🎧

So I have to admit, I thought this book sounded so good when I read the Synopsis. I was in the mood for MM and Shifters so this was right up my alley... or not. Here's the thing, there is nothing to indicate that this book is Mpreg. I would never rate a book because it was a sub-genre I didn't prefer but that's because I avoid them and you can't really avoid it when you have no idea. I still enjoyed the base story line, I was just really thrown off by the male pregnancy. I'm only saying that I feel like that should have been indicated in the synopsis so I would have know when making the decision to buy this audiobook. I know so many people who love Mpreg and that is great but it's just not for me. This was my second one and just like the first, it just sits weird with me, I don't know why but I just can't wrap my head around it. For everyone who enjoy's Mpreg this was a very SWEET & Fluffy love story, men who want to help kids... that alone tells you it will probably steal your heart.

The narration was great, John Solo is the reason I even found this book. I was looking for his work and this popped up.

[Missha · Rating 2 out of 5]

This couldve given so much and it didn't do anything

[Jane (PS) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute story - nothing traumatic, easy to follow and a great way to spend a relaxing day. The little boy is super-cute.

Narration by John Solo - 4 stars.

Reread: 3 November 2022
This hit the spot. I wanted light and easy but there's enough humour, drama and mystery to keep the story flowing and my attention engaged. Loved reading how the team together again.

MCs Sam and Dean are our central characters as they deal with the imminent arrival of their baby whilst taking on a foster shifter child in desperate need of love and understanding. It was a lovely blending of family as Sam also sets up his protector team.

New team members are introduced to us, with my favourites (so far) being Cyrus who is an absolutely sweetheart, and Pierce ~ immediately engaging. I'm really looking forward to rereading their stories.

Narrated by John Solo - so well suited to this style of story :)

[Reading Addict · Rating 2 out of 5]

Why do they keep saying "we've done everything we can to help this kid" when they didn't record the parents, didn't photograph the state of the kid, didn't report it to anyone? I also just found a lot of stuff was slow and over explained.

[J · Rating 2 out of 5]

Look, I like the writers, I like the kids in these books and the stories but it needed expansion, for me. Also I'm rethinking my rating system and I am about to re-evaluate previous rated books.

[James · Rating 1 out of 5]

I’m going to still give the rest of the series a chance, but this was an extremely rough start. The book could have been much shorter had the main characters not been so incredibly incompetent. They are a specialized team put together to save children from abusive situations and yet they do nothing to save the child living right across the street from them?

A man high on drugs comes to their house and says his toddler is missing in the dead of winter with several feet of snow on the ground. The man doesn’t know if “the brat” has been missing for 24 hours or 48 hours and is refusing to call the police. That alone is cause to remove the child from the home and do an investigation, but the team leader (MC) says “There is nothing we can do.”

Later they hear a gun go off and rush across the street to find the malnourished child with matted hair and stained teeth cowering in the nasty living room with drugs all over house. The man is high again. And again the leader (MC) says “there is nothing we can do”. And again they don’t even try to report this situation to the police.

They FINALLY rescue the kid and the MC that is supposed to be an expert in child care lets the malnourished toddler scarf down WAY too many pancakes for a child to the point he throws up.

They consider sending the toddler away because the grown adult tried to restrain the toddler having a nightmare and falls in the process somehow making the toddler a danger to the grown man.

Then they find out the child was related to one of their kidnapping cold cases, mock the name the family gave him and refuse to call him that, and hope they never find his real family because they want to keep him.

This book does a TERRIBLE job of endearing this team to me. They have no business around ANY children let alone being responsible for the wellbeing of abused and traumatized children.

Also it introduced way too many new characters without giving much time to them individually. Yet it included these characters in almost every scene. It would have been a lot easier to understand if they excluded the majority of the team from the book and only focused on the MCs. Having a bunch of background characters that didn’t really serve a purpose made the scenes very confusing.

This is a spin of series, but none of these characters were in the previous series except for the two MCs that were introduced at the tail end in a short story.

[78sunny · Rating 3 out of 5]

Grundsätzlich mochte ich die Geschichte sehr, aber der Schreibstil ist recht einfach und es gibt keine Charakterentwicklung. Alles wird eher runter erzählt.
Das Thema gefällt mir aber so sehr, dass ich es trotzdem sehr genieße. Ein Team aus Alphas (verschiedene Gestaltwandler) versuchen vermisste Gestaltwandler-Kinder zu finden. Hauptsächlich verfolgt man in diesem Teil aber Sam, den Anführer dieses Teams, und seinen Gefährten Dean. Ich denke, dass man diese Charaktere schon kennt, wenn man andere Bücher der Autorin gelesen hat, da dies eine Spin-Off Reihe zu ihrer Alpha Reihe ist. Dean ist bereits zu Beginn des Buches schwanger und sie ziehen in eine Haus, was erst auch die Basis ihres Teams ist. Der erste 'Fall' ist dann auch gleich vor ihrer Haustür und sie müssen sich um einen Nachbarsjungen kümmern. So süß das alles ist, so frustriert war ich aber auch an vielen Stellen. Wie oft da noch weggeschaut wurde und gewartet wurde, bis dann mal eingegriffen wurde, war schrecklich. Da merkt man natürlich die unterschiedlichen sozialen Systeme bzw. Hilfssysteme unserer Länder, aber ich kann mich da dann einfach nicht in das amerikanische System hineinversetzen und hätte vor allem Sam oft schütteln können.
Die Nebencharaktere waren alle interessant und witzig. Ich freue mich mehr von ihnen zu erfahren. Wie gesagt ist der Schreibstil wirklich nur Mittelmaß und eher Fanfiction-mäßig aber ich habe mir die komplette Reihe als Hörbuch gekauft und werde daher weiter hören.
Die Hörbuchfassung kann ich auch sehr empfehlen, da der Sprecher, John Solo, die Stimme sehr gut verstellt ohne das es gekünstelt wirkt. Es macht wirklich Spaß zuzuhören und das Englisch ist sehr verständlich


Story/Idee 3,6/5
Erotik 3,0/5
Charaktere 3,4/5
Schreibstil 3,0/5
Gesamt 3,4/5

[Lacrymosa Quiñones · Rating 5 out of 5]

Heart wrenching and sweet!

Be forewarned: this book will cause you to either cry or tug at your heart strings until they are raw. Do read with caution and some tissues nearby.

Dear God this book chew me up and spit me out so badly. These two authors have always managed to make me laugh and cried between each chapter but this book hit a raw emotion in me. One that basically confirmed what I always wanted to do for a while now.

Character breakdown;

Dean: I felt for him being so emotional and knowing the hardship that abused children go through. Cannot be easy to face every with his career, especially while pregnant? But I loved his sense of protectiveness, and how easily he loved John.

Sam: I like him as alpha and leader of this team, he made a great father and seemed like a pretty good character. I especially love how he handled his team and his sons.

Gizmo, Patton, Ozzy, Cyrus & P: I am looking forward to seeing how it will go for these men. I am especially intrigued in Cyrus. A bear shifter? Yay!!! Lol

It is hard to read about child abuse, even more so when you heard said child enforced behaviour. I can already tell this series is going to be hard to read as it progresses. The original one was just as bad but this one is about kids so it'll hit harder. The good thing is I can always expect humor and a happy ending from these authors.

[Terri · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is my review of the audiobook:

This is a spin-off of a series I haven't yet experienced, but it worked fine as a standalone. I never felt lost due to not reading or listening to the prior series - though I'm planning on doing that soon. All of the Alphabits team members are great men. This book focused on Sam and Dean, who were already mated and pregnant at the beginning of this book. When a young traumatized shifter came into their lives, they couldn't get him out of his dangerous situation fast enough for me. Sweet little "John Smith" was adorable and afraid, and he just broke my heart. I loved that boy, and I was so glad that he had Dean and Sam, as well as the rest of their team, on his side. There was a lot of humor here, as well, which these authors did a great job with. There were only a couple of times I felt like the laughs were happening when I was still upset about the drama that had just occurred. Overall, I felt like the tears and laughs were well balanced.
The narrator did a really good job, and I give his credit for being able to give individual voices to the many different characters.
I was very impressed with this book, and I will definitely listen to the existing Team A.L.P.H.A. audiobooks. I will also watch for the next release in this series. I love these guys, and I can't wait for them to save more children.

[Diane Dannenfeldt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Child abuse is always hard for me to read and I'm thankful that even though we know that it was being done, we don't see actual beatings or anything like that on page. It was still hard knowing what this poor baby went through. The MC's are Dean & Sam & they happen to move in across the street from this poor little one who only knows his name as boy. Alphabits has been formed to find & rescue shifter children. So, they eventually are able to rescue "John" from the horrible vulture shifters. The only thing I didn't find out is how they came to have John. Did his parents sell him? Did they kidnap him? I would have liked that wrapped up. While they are trying to get John to come out of his shell, Dean is also pregnant & they are awaiting the birth of their little one. I enjoyed watching this little family work out the issues with John and get him to find out that he is loved and that he is safe. I can't wait to read more books in this series. John Solo did a great job narrating this one & I really enjoy listening to him.

Audio ARC provided by LesCourt Services in exchange for an honest review.

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

**********Contains Spoilers**********

What a great start to a new series in the Team A.L.P.H.A universe. We first met Sam and Dean in Decked where they spent Christmas with Ray, Papa P and the Team A.L.P.H.A guys and their families. I liked that we got a more in-depth story about them as they move into their new house, setup and start their new division called Alphabits and have their baby. Man, it was heartbreaking about wee John and everything that he’d gone through in his short life but he found his loving home with Sam and Dean and having some uncles made up of the guys from Alphabits. I think that each team member is going to bring their own unique qualities to the team and I’m really hoping that the twins eventually end up getting closer and not making everything a competition between them because as Dean said 95% of the time they don’t get along but 5% of the time when they do it’s golden. I’m looking forward to reading Pierce’s story next while him and Cyrus try and solve the cold case they’re working on. I’d definitely recommend this book, series and both authors to everyone.

[Mari Cardenas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rescued is book 1 in the Alphabits series by Susi Hawke and Crista Crown and it was fast-paced, sweet, emotional and action-packed.

Sam and Dean were a fantastic couple, I loved seeing their relationship blossom and grow stronger as time passed and how they accepted little John into their family. John was so adorbs and his story just broke my heart, I was so happy that he found both Sam and Dean and their team to be his new family.

I loved the guys on the team, especially Cyrus, LOL, he was just amazing! Seeing him so take charge when Dean went into labor and how sweet he was with John, just made me love him even more. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing them learning to work together as a team and I'm looking forward to learning more about all of them in the next installments.

The narration was pretty good. John Solo has a great range of voices, which came in handy with so many characters as this book has.

This was a great start to the series and I'm already eager for more! Super recommendable!

[Donna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Let me just start by saying that I read this whole series in one go-around! I haven't been feeling well for a few days, so I took advantage of this time to just read!

Overall, this was such a sweet and entertaining series! Was it slightly "cookie cutter" in nature? Sure, but each story was individual enough to keep me interested in how things were going to play out! And, of course, the final book gives me no choice but to jump right into the spin-off of this series...
Ms. Hawke and her cohorts are REALLY good at hooking us and pulling us in... *snort* LOL!!!

So, since I am still not ready to take on the world just yet, I suppose I have NO other choice than to begin Don't STAHP Believing... yes, I am that easy!!! 🤦‍♀️😭🤣