Alpha by Jasinda Wilder

Alpha
(Alpha, #1)
by Jasinda Wilder
Released |April 29th 2014|
Edition |Ebook|
Add to Goodreads

The first time it happened, it seemed like an impossible miracle. Bills were piling up, adding up to more money than I could ever make. Mom's hospital bills. My baby brother's tuition. My tuition. Rent. Electricity. All of it on my shoulders. And I had just lost my job. There was no hope, no money in my account, no work to be found. And then, just when I thought all hope was lost, I found an envelope in the mail. No return address. My name on the front, my address. Inside was a check, made out to me, in the amount of ten thousand dollars. Enough to pay the bills and leave me some left over to live on until I found a job. Enough to let me focus on classes. There was no name on the check, just "VRI Inc.," and a post office box address for somewhere in the city. No hint of identity or reason for the check or anything. No mention of repayment, interest, nothing…except a single word, on the notes line: "You." Just those three letters.
If you receive a mysterious check, for enough money to erase all your worries, would you cash it?
I did.
The next month, I received another check, again from VRI Incorporated. It too contained a single word: "belong."
A third check, the next month. This time, two words. Four letters. "To me."
The checks kept coming. The notes stopped. Ten thousand dollars, every month. A girl gets used to that, real quick. It let me pay the bills without going into debt. Let me keep my baby brother in school and Mom's hospice care paid for. How do you turn down what seems like free money, when you're desperate? You don't. I didn't.
And then, after a year, there was a knock on my door. A sleek black limousine sat on the curb in front of my house. A driver stood in front of me, and he spoke six words: "It's time to pay your debt."
Would you have gotten in?
I did.
It turns out $120,000 doesn't come free.

I've never read anything by this author before, but the synopsis had me so intrigued that I decided to give it a try. I use to read books in genres like this all the time, but over the last few years I just kind of stopped. I decided to pick Alpha up because I needed a change from the typical books that I was reading. I enjoyed the story, but I did have an issue with it. I think I was hoping for a bit more in some areas, but overall I did enjoy the story.


Kyrie was a very interesting character. She's not had an easy life and has been paying her brother's college tuition along with her own, her sick mother's bills, and her own bills. Recently fired from her job she starts to panic and breakdown and then all of a sudden a mystery check appears in the mail. The question is, does she cash it or does she not? I liked Kyrie because of her strong personality. Even though she was going through some tough times she never really gave up and that was something to admire. She knew that if she cashed the checks that kept coming to her that eventually she'd have to repay her debt. Insert mister mysterious and things get interesting.

The first half of the book was great. I liked the slow build up and the mystery of the man who was sending the checks. It kept the book intriguing. I liked that they slowly got to know each other first. But as soon as you get about halfway through the book it was nothing but sex. I have no problems with sex in story, but for about 30% of the story it was just sex and that's it. Then we get this awesome twist and things pick back up again.

But my problem was that 30% of nothing. If we had a little bit in between I wouldn't have had a problem with it, but it was just that. The book had a lot of great elements to it, but because of that I had to drop the rating a bit. I'd still recommend the book if you like the genre because it was still pretty good.