dirtymartini 's review for:

The Alpha's Regret by Reece Barden

1.0

medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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If an author creates a character in a romance novel, who is a playboy, I expect to see some follow through on it. Here we have a hero who has had sex with a lot of the women in his pack, including his personal secretary and yet there's only a couple lines where the heroine vaguely wonders about it. Not worries... wonders. There's absolutely no comeuppance for having sex with his employee.

And (unlike the title of the story), there's no regret. None whatsoever.

I don't want him slut shamed, but there are real consequences to behavior. If your new boyfriend had a track record like that, wouldn't you wonder? 

The book instead focuses on the heroines inability to intuitively know he is her true mate. She (unlike him) has very clear reasons for her self denial. Her character is a bit more fleshed out that his, but still not much. 
The characters were all pretty flat and uninteresting. 

Spoilers below:

The story devolves into an evil villain out to get the heroine. Does anyone wonder if it could be a disgruntled ex-hookup of the hero's (the logical place to look). No of course not. That would give away the already transparent plot.

safety spoiler.

The story introduces the hero while he's hooking up with another woman. It tells us how his wolf is tired of hookups and he's not as interested anymore either.... so Yeah. Not only do we get to NOT read about how his shallow view of intimacy affects his true mate, we get to assume he's ready to SETTLE for his true mate, because he's tired of sowing his wild oats anyways. That is the inference I walked away with. On the bright side, the heroine is not a virgin.