Review: Beta

Beta by Jasinda Wilder

My Rating: 4 of 5 stars
Sultry Scale: 3 of 5 flames

Warning:  This review may contain spoilers!

Roth and I are on an open-ended tour of the world. Roth being Roth, this means missionary in Morocco, reverse cowgirl in Calcutta, bent over the bow of a houseboat in Hanoi, slow and sleepy on St. John. Anywhere and everywhere, in every conceivable position, and some I didn't know were possible.

Life was pretty incredible.

Until I woke up in his chateau in France, alone. On the bed next to me was a note. There were only four words:

He belongs to me.

If you read my Last Review, you know that I wasn't overly crazy about the first book in this series, Alpha. The overly long intimate scenes hindered the plot development, which prevented me from connecting with the characters. I wasn't gung ho to continue reading the series, until I peeked at the blurb for Beta. And man, what a blurb! I tried to go on to another book - but I kept thinking about the Beta blurb. It sucked me in and I ended up starting the book this morning. I am SOOOOO glad I did. This book is leaps and bounds better than the first one. Everything I did not like about Alpha, was resolved in Beta, then some. Beta is a solid 4 star read, and I will discuss later why I couldn't give it that extra star.

First, for the characters. This book is told in an alternating POV, going back and forth from Kyrie and Valentine and at one part, Vitaly. I really enjoyed the story being told this way, because it allowed us to get to know Valentine more, which is what I was missing from the first book.

Kyrie: I felt like Kyrie regressed a little here. She doubted herself alot, even though she ended up kicking a$$ when it counted. I just didn't like the initial cowering from Gina. However, once she lost her hair, the only person I could see her as is Amber Rose. Think of looks only, and not Amber Rose's attitude. Kyrie is blonde with boobs, butt and curves, and looks good bald. So this is what stuck in my head. Don't judge me.


Valentine: Yay, we finally get to know him in this story, and learn all about his back story and dark dealings as he was trying to make his way in life. I totally fell in lust with Valentine in Beta, and my heart bled for everything that he went through at the hands of the evil witch, Gina. It was an interesting dynamic to see violation from a male point of view, though I didn't think him becoming somewhat catatonic jived with his character. When I first started Alpha, I envisioned Roth as Jason Lewis. He was compared to Alexander Skarsgard later in the book, so I tried to alter my perception, but I just couldn't. He went back to being Jason Lewis for me.


Gina: Holy shitballs batman - Gina is an evil bitch from hell. She took sadistic psychopath to a whole new level. I mean, waterboarding, really?


So I mentioned how the blurb is so fantastic - it pretty much summarizes the first chapter again. And then we are right off into the action. I'm not spoiling anything by telling you that Kyrie and Roth are going to be separated for a time, you can tell that from the blurb. I liked this as it allowed the characters to develop separately, and we got to see a lot more of Harris. The book was chock full of suspense and kept me turning the page. And again, the author got me with some unfamiliar terms that I embarrassingly had to google again. Obviously, I am not quite as enlightened as Ms. Wilder (though pegging and fetching wouldn't float my boat anyway, so I don't mind that I didn't know what the heck they were).

Overall, I highly recommend this book. Why didn't I give it 5 stars? Once our characters are reunited, the sex scenes started to get a little long again. I would have preferred if the author would have ended them sooner, or at the end of a chapter, rather than keeping them going. I found myself skimming to the end to get back to the story faster. So that took off a half a star for me. What happened to the other half star? The story is left unfinished, and I simply could not believe it. We see a chapter from Vitaly's POV and learn that he is planning vengeance. But then the book ends, and the author says she doesn't know if she is going to write another one in the series. WHAT?!?!?!? Don't leave me hanging like that - PLEASE! Lucky for us, it looks like Ms. Wilder is going to write that next book, we just don't know when. Omega







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