The Alpha's Son

De: Penny Jessup

Narrado por: Michael Mola

Max Remus couldn't care less about finding his mate—unlike the rest of his fate-obsessed pack. He totally prefers hanging with his bestie, eating his dad's steak sandwiches, and drawing in his trusty sketchbook. But all that is about to change at the Blue Moon Festival—a summer camp where Elite Pack wolves go to find their mates. The festival is a rite of passage for every teen werewolf, and this year's festival will be one to howl home about. The alpha's son, Jasper Apollo, is attending for the first time. When Max finds himself inexplicably linked with the exceptionally handsome but totally jerk-faced heir, he's forced to grapple with the unexpected feelings clawing at his soul.

If Max rejects his destiny, will fate's bite be worse than its bark?

Netflix's Young Royals meets Teen Wolf—the first instalment in a thrilling new series, The Alpha's Son is a heart-wrenching young adult, wolf shifter romance, full of yearning, comedy, and adventure.

Start listening now! And may the Moon Gods light the path between souls.

©2022 Penny Jessup (P)2022 Tiny Ghost Press

Resolution

The overall plot and storyline execution was absolutely wonderful. However the resolution leaves much to be desired and leaves the reader with questions that could have been better foreshadowed. As a slow burn this novel is on par with most novels in the genre, but I feel like there were missed moments that could have really engaged us readers.

lol to the negative reviews ;)

Ok. So some context:

I’m gay, a millennial, and my spouse is trans. I read shit tons of Ao3 content and work in writing professionally

I can get why people will be frustrated with this book

Ok real talk:
- The story is interesting.
- Wolf-based books always have much more extreme interplays of emotion/hormones/fate vs expectations. While not a 1/1, try reading any Alpha/Beta/Omega fanfic (smutty or not) and you’ll get what I’m referring to. It’s intense primal instincts up against human reasoning and human trauma (read: holy shit how are we even functional as a species)
- It’s refreshing to have a semi-underdog main character who doesn’t necessarily have the whole “oh shit I’m gay” crisis (I mean, a little yeah but not from an internalized homophobia standpoint), but more the clash of statuses and questioning self worth
- It reinforces that strength doesn’t necessarily come solely from brute force and ignorance of reality

Yes the ending is annoying and even while the main conflict is approved of by the person who wouldn’t normally approve (vague, I know, not trying to add spoilers), but it also balances the extreme misinterpreted pressures of leadership combined with personal trauma and self hatred.

Yeah so it’s complex. Anyways, the plot is decent on its own.

Last notes. So the production quality on this particular book is a bit lacking. Points below:
- Love the narrator. His male voices and tone/prosody is great. Really lands the overall effect of the writing
- Sorry to say - the narrator’s female voices are really just not captured well in this recording. They all have an extremely nasal quality that mimics the cartoonish female voices of bob’s burgers and similar adult comedy content. Not blaming on the narrator - recording setups and post production editing can really fuck with tone and nasality if not done properly
- You can hear quite frequently when audio was stitched together. Again - not the narrators fault at all. It’s an editing issue.

All that being said, if you’re into slow burn, wolf/nature/hormones/hierarchy type setups with underdog protagonists and surprisingly refreshing twists (again, not promising the most satisfying ending), this is a great book. As a gay man from the south, I really enjoyed it. Despite the perceived disappointments with plot and ending, it still tickled my fancy and was a satisfying listen.

A Quick Solid Read with just a bit of Disappointment

I decided to rate the book at 4 stars because this is a small publishing company that will be producing the types of books that I want to read. While parts of this book were cringy and the pop culture references will not hold up in a couple years, I do think this is a solid book. I loved the premise and while Jasper does come off as cruel and uncaring I can see why he would. I wish there were more sweet scenes instead of it being so dramatic from start to finish. Max gave Jasper one too many chances in my opinion especially towards the end of the book. The narrator also did not have consistent voices for some of the side characters, particularly the female characters. My biggest issue with the book is the unsatisfying ending, which sets up a sequel that at this point I am not sure I will read. The antagonist reveal was surprising to me and I thought was handled pretty well. Overall, dispute the issues I have pointed out I really enjoyed the book and had it been a single installment I may have loved it but the ending really left a bad taste in my mouth.

???

The story was a bit exciting and cute at times but the ending was complete nonsense!!! In my opinion the author was leading to this happy ending and we even with a big approval and it still crashes and burns. Honestly it’s not really worth a credit. The narrator did an amazing job caps off to him. If there is sequel then maybe it will be better. But the ending is horrible and very sad.

couldn't put it down. all in a day.

loved this. It what put me back into books. didn't stop from beginning to end.