Rating: 3 stars
Buy Link: Amazon | iBooks | Amazon UK
Length: Novel
Max and Jamie’s friendship began in the middle-school playground, shortly after Max and his mum had moved to the small town of Lyons. The two boys became inseparable and their feelings of close friendship developed into something deeper. When Jamie presents as an Alpha, just after turning sixteen, Max is convinced that he will shift as an Omega and the two will be mated. However, when the night of Max’s presentation hunt comes, he surprises everyone by becoming an Alpha too, ending their dreams of their friendship naturally evolving into more.
Reaching adulthood brings new challenges for Max and Jamie, intensified by the fact that they are sharing an apartment. Despite the fact that pack law dictates that two Alphas cannot mate, Max and Jamie continue to push their wolves. When they are caught together by a pack member, the consequences are far reaching and though Max and Jamie’s lives diverge, they both hold on to the hope that one day they will be together.
Alpha’s Law is co-written by Sara York and H.L. Holston and as seems to be the current trend in the genre, the story is told alternately by the two protagonists. The narration is third person, which I personally feel detaches the reader from the characters and events. I was never emotionally invested in Max and Jamie because of this detachment and though events in the story are dramatic, I did not feel that Max and Jamie are ever in danger.
Holston and York’s writing styles do blend together and this allows Max and Jamie to retain their individuality. Initially, it is Max who appears to be the weaker of the pair and this is not only because he is viewed as an inferior Alpha, qualified by his smaller stature and infertility. Max and Jamie seem to exist for one another and it is simply being together that drives their actions. Yet, it is Max who sacrifices the most and risks his own life more than once to save Jamie.
Jamie is not a particularly likable character. I think he is more selfish than Max and tempestuous, for example in the way he hot-headedly chooses to join the army. Despite this, the development of the plot in relation to Jamie’s identity is interesting because of the way that he has to change and accept himself.
Sadly though, I felt Alpha’s Law was missing depth. I was frustrated by the constant back and forth between Max and Jamie during the first half of the story and the fact that ultimately, Holston and York do not give Max and Jamie motives beyond being mates. I enjoy shifter stories, but in Alpha’s Law, we rarely see Max and Jamie as wolves and though Holston and York introduce some interest in the shape of the Amity Brethren and their scientific tests, this could have been explored further and the dramatic tension increased.
I felt that the end of Alpha’s Law came too quickly and conveniently. I just could not believe that the antagonists could be dispersed so easily.
Alpha’s Law did not live up to the promise of the blurb, for me, and though I did enjoy some elements, I will not be continuing with the Mountain Wolves series.
