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A review by asryne
Rogue Alpha by K.N. Banet
2.0
This series had promise in the beginning but I really need to stop reading it. I normally wouldn't write all this out but the reviews don't match the book I just read, which feels.. unbalanced. Maybe it's just that people who don't like the series already don't read this far, but I do have a hard time getting why no one else was bothered by the things I was bothered by.
The dialogue is super cheesy. Jacky is full of bravado that she can never live up to. When she does act, it's usually weak or poorly thought through. Here's an example. They go confront a house full of werewolves and witches. Jacky is all, "I AM SO TOUGH. I MUST WALK RIGHT IN, NO SNEAKY BUSINESS ALLOWED." Heath--for some reason--decides to climb through a window or whatever, and then when he gets there, he does all the business. Jacky was just there taunting the bad guy to distract him so Heath could get in. Then Heath is like, "Okay, so remember that insane werewolf with rage issues that tried to kill you? I've heard he's locked in the basement, and I have this random urge to free him. While I finish up here all by myself with these bad guys, can you just pop down to the basement and unlock him without letting him kill you? You are the most important thing to me and I can never risk you, but this makes perfect sense, okay thanks see you later, baby." Cue Heath getting kidnapped and Jacky eventually getting knocked out and dragged home by the suddenly nice insane werewolf.
What really gets me, though, is how the characters just.. blather on and say all this dramatic stuff that people would never actually say. Why is Landon suddenly spilling his heart to Jacky and pledging his loyalty to her? I mean, we know that's what's going on. There has been a build-up to them becoming friends, and now they are becoming family and that is great, but his words are so awkward and poorly timed. She is just heading out into battle and he's suddenly become a poet professing his devotion to his father and thus to her. This is not who this character has been. It doesn't WORK for Mr. Private to suddenly start saying stuff like that.
The most annoying parts are harder to explain. There are numerous problems in.. continuity? Character integrity? Logic? There are a ton of problems like this. Individually, you'd brush them aside, but if you start noticing them, they are everywhere. Okay. There's a birthday party for a human teenager. All the parents show up and sit around outside chatting while the "children" hang out and watch a movie. First of all, this does not really happen at teen birthday parties. If such parties exist, the parents generally don't stay. And if they do (and granted, most parties don't happen at a werewolf's house) then.. easily the most unrealistic thing I have ever read was when the birthday girl's dad suggested that yes! They could not only start watching a second movie, they could watch the entire trilogy if they wanted to! And all the parents just settled back to casually enjoy a nice long conversation with parents they'd never talked to before this day. No, "oh, no, little Johnny can't stay another FOUR TO SIX HOURS longer than we had planned on a weeknight because we have to go make dinner!" or "Oh, we really can't stay.. our other kids are with a sitter and we need to pick them up!" They were all just like, "okay, cool, this is normal." I promise you, this is less realistic to a parent than the entire premise of werecats and werewolves existing is.
So anyway, all these people who have been super secretive with humans previously, they are just randomly talking all about werewolves and werecats and how old Heath is. Heath jumps in and says something like, "HA, yeah, if you want to know anything about the American Revolution, I lived through it and I'm your guy!!" A brief conversation leads straight to the Civil War so we can talk about Landon's birth, and someone comments that they didn't know werewolves were involved and it's sad that they were also fighting for their freedom. Heath dramatically jumps in to point out that yes, KAREN, it's not very nice to talk about history with someone that lived it. I mean, WTF, dude, you JUST said you could tell them things about history. Way to kill the vibe.
Other instances of this were scattered throughout the book. They captured a werewolf, but Heath decides to wait to interrogate him until everyone else is present. Then they hang around a minute and suddenly start interrogating him without anyone else being there. This happens a lot--they say they're going to do one thing, but then randomly end up doing something else a few pages later. Jacky wants her father to treat her like an adult capable of making her own decisions about life, but she acts like a child, stomping her feet and refusing to speak to him. Hasan dramatically tells the witch council members that if they need to be killed, it won't be a werecat or a werewolf that does it--he'll call in Subira. ALSO A WERECAT. I mean--sure, she's other things as well, but, still a cat. I could go on but this review has already gotten out of hand.
Anyway, there is a note at the end that yes, the author does know what happens next. Well, of course she does. Don't we all freaking know what happens next? Heath becomes more dominant than Callahan and ultimately takes over his position on the council. (This will probably happen when Callahan uses the scentless witch magic to try to kill Heath.) Jacky, his mate, also is forced for reasons that will never actually make sense, to join the council, which allows her to take the second seat for werecats, since Subira was never allowed to due to also being a witch, and this makes it all nice and tidy to unite the werewolves and werecats and create a lasting peace amongst them, and increase the werecat standing in supernatural society. This will also allow Jacky's werecat family to accept and approve of her loving union with Heath. Oh, and Carey will probably eventually decide (or be "forced") to become a werecat. Heath and Jacky will fight about that for three and a half minutes and then get over it.
I mean. Maybe I'm right, maybe I'm wrong. We'll see. Or not, if I stick to my current resolve to stop reading this series.
The dialogue is super cheesy. Jacky is full of bravado that she can never live up to. When she does act, it's usually weak or poorly thought through. Here's an example. They go confront a house full of werewolves and witches. Jacky is all, "I AM SO TOUGH. I MUST WALK RIGHT IN, NO SNEAKY BUSINESS ALLOWED." Heath--for some reason--decides to climb through a window or whatever, and then when he gets there, he does all the business. Jacky was just there taunting the bad guy to distract him so Heath could get in. Then Heath is like, "Okay, so remember that insane werewolf with rage issues that tried to kill you? I've heard he's locked in the basement, and I have this random urge to free him. While I finish up here all by myself with these bad guys, can you just pop down to the basement and unlock him without letting him kill you? You are the most important thing to me and I can never risk you, but this makes perfect sense, okay thanks see you later, baby." Cue Heath getting kidnapped and Jacky eventually getting knocked out and dragged home by the suddenly nice insane werewolf.
What really gets me, though, is how the characters just.. blather on and say all this dramatic stuff that people would never actually say. Why is Landon suddenly spilling his heart to Jacky and pledging his loyalty to her? I mean, we know that's what's going on. There has been a build-up to them becoming friends, and now they are becoming family and that is great, but his words are so awkward and poorly timed. She is just heading out into battle and he's suddenly become a poet professing his devotion to his father and thus to her. This is not who this character has been. It doesn't WORK for Mr. Private to suddenly start saying stuff like that.
The most annoying parts are harder to explain. There are numerous problems in.. continuity? Character integrity? Logic? There are a ton of problems like this. Individually, you'd brush them aside, but if you start noticing them, they are everywhere. Okay. There's a birthday party for a human teenager. All the parents show up and sit around outside chatting while the "children" hang out and watch a movie. First of all, this does not really happen at teen birthday parties. If such parties exist, the parents generally don't stay. And if they do (and granted, most parties don't happen at a werewolf's house) then.. easily the most unrealistic thing I have ever read was when the birthday girl's dad suggested that yes! They could not only start watching a second movie, they could watch the entire trilogy if they wanted to! And all the parents just settled back to casually enjoy a nice long conversation with parents they'd never talked to before this day. No, "oh, no, little Johnny can't stay another FOUR TO SIX HOURS longer than we had planned on a weeknight because we have to go make dinner!" or "Oh, we really can't stay.. our other kids are with a sitter and we need to pick them up!" They were all just like, "okay, cool, this is normal." I promise you, this is less realistic to a parent than the entire premise of werecats and werewolves existing is.
So anyway, all these people who have been super secretive with humans previously, they are just randomly talking all about werewolves and werecats and how old Heath is. Heath jumps in and says something like, "HA, yeah, if you want to know anything about the American Revolution, I lived through it and I'm your guy!!" A brief conversation leads straight to the Civil War so we can talk about Landon's birth, and someone comments that they didn't know werewolves were involved and it's sad that they were also fighting for their freedom. Heath dramatically jumps in to point out that yes, KAREN, it's not very nice to talk about history with someone that lived it. I mean, WTF, dude, you JUST said you could tell them things about history. Way to kill the vibe.
Other instances of this were scattered throughout the book. They captured a werewolf, but Heath decides to wait to interrogate him until everyone else is present. Then they hang around a minute and suddenly start interrogating him without anyone else being there. This happens a lot--they say they're going to do one thing, but then randomly end up doing something else a few pages later. Jacky wants her father to treat her like an adult capable of making her own decisions about life, but she acts like a child, stomping her feet and refusing to speak to him. Hasan dramatically tells the witch council members that if they need to be killed, it won't be a werecat or a werewolf that does it--he'll call in Subira. ALSO A WERECAT. I mean--sure, she's other things as well, but, still a cat. I could go on but this review has already gotten out of hand.
Anyway, there is a note at the end that yes, the author does know what happens next. Well, of course she does. Don't we all freaking know what happens next? Heath becomes more dominant than Callahan and ultimately takes over his position on the council. (This will probably happen when Callahan uses the scentless witch magic to try to kill Heath.) Jacky, his mate, also is forced for reasons that will never actually make sense, to join the council, which allows her to take the second seat for werecats, since Subira was never allowed to due to also being a witch, and this makes it all nice and tidy to unite the werewolves and werecats and create a lasting peace amongst them, and increase the werecat standing in supernatural society. This will also allow Jacky's werecat family to accept and approve of her loving union with Heath. Oh, and Carey will probably eventually decide (or be "forced") to become a werecat. Heath and Jacky will fight about that for three and a half minutes and then get over it.
I mean. Maybe I'm right, maybe I'm wrong. We'll see. Or not, if I stick to my current resolve to stop reading this series.