3.5/5 stars. This book's story was much smaller in scope than the first book, but it was also more intimate and in many ways more important. Meredith's curse is fighting her body and she could die, will die, if her friends can't save her. Desperate, Tessa goes to her witch relatives hoping to get them to remove the curse.

I really enjoyed this book. Even though the tribunal was always lurking in the background, it was Tessa and her friends and family who were most important to this story. Them, their relationships, and what they'd all do for each other. My kind of book.
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It’s been about seven weeks since Tessa became a werewolf and while she’s come to terms with some of it, she’s still afraid to let her wolf out. She’ll have to change before the upcoming Tribunal and Mating Ceremony in just a few days.

But her total focus shifts when her best friend, Meredith, cursed by the local coven to not be able to shift, is suddenly fighting for her life. Her wolf is now fighting to get out and it’s killing her. Tessa is determined to save her life and needs to use her bruja skills—which she’s not been trained for—to either put the wolf back to sleep or break the curse.

In this story we learn a little more about the situation with the coven and why Meredith was cursed. We also see Tessa becoming more comfortable with being Dastian’s mate.

I’ve read these first two stories back-to-back and can say that I’m enjoying the series. If the third book was already out I’d be reading it next. There are some editing issues, but I like the way the story flows and the things that Tessa works through. The author pulled me in and I was feeling Tessa’s emotions. You might want to have some tissues handy.

The story was a little bit shorter than I’m used to for a full-length novel. But the price was good for the length. ( )

After how amazingly fantastic the first book was, I was really hoping that Avoiding Alpha would live up to it.

But it didn’t.

It seems like a lot of the things that I particularly liked about the first book, were left out. I loved the school, but that wasn’t really in it, I loved the writing style, but it just seemed different in this one, there was less of those witty one liners and although I like the cover, really not as much as the one of Becoming Alpha.

But thankfully, Dastien stayed the same. Seriously, next time I read a werewolf book, I will wish Dastien was in it. A French werewolf. J’adore.

I wasn’t really a fan of the story, but that may just be personal preference. I am really sick of witch books because almost every one I pick up is very similar. I just wish that Avoiding Alpha had just concentrated more on the werewolf side of things, not the freeing Meredith’s wolf through witches side of things.

That’s another thing I liked: Meredith. I won’t tell you how I felt about her story because that’s pretty much going to give away whether they free her wolf or not. I’m only going to say that I was “happy” with it because happy can be quite a generic word.

What annoyed me the most, was Tessa. I mean come on, sometimes it’s ok when she gets aggressive because it’s part of her character, she’s the alpha after all. But she gets so aggressive all the time. Seriously. *internal groan*

2.5/5 comets
Just scraped past. Nearly there.

This will be short and sweet because the book was short and sweet and I just don't have a lot to say about it. There wasn't AS much going on in AVOIDING ALPHA as there was in book 1 but it was still enjoyable. It definitely felt like more of a filler book with its novella length and little advancement of the overall world and story.

The main story does feature Tessa and Dastien but most of the story revolves around Tessa figuring out how to fix Meredith who is very close to dying, due dark magic holding her wolf prisoner. We did get some insight into the witch half of Tessa's family as well as witnessing Tessa fight through her aversion to shifting.

The overall flow of the story was nice and the plot was interesting I was just expecting more from book 2 after the dynamite debut that book 1 brought us. I look forward to seeing what book 3 will bring to the series.

* This book was provided free of charge from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. ( )

Reviewed by: Rabid Reads

This is a cute story about what lengths Tessa is willing to go to in order to save Meredith, her BFF, but calling it book 2 in the ALPHA GIRL series is a bit of stretch in my opinion. This installment doesn’t even have half of the pages that BECOMING ALPHA did (145 vs. 406) which was a bit misleading, and many of the elements that I enjoyed the first time around were practically non-existent in AVOIDING ALPHA. The blurb suggests that McCaide’s bruja half was going to be at the forefront of this story, and I was looking forward to learning more about Aileen Erin’s witchy mythology, but unfortunately the lore fell flat. And, that’s not the only area in which this novella failed to deliver; the werewolves are barely a blip on the radar, and there’s not much going on in the romance department either.

After such a strong debut, I had high hopes for this installment that were slowly snuffed out with every new chapter I read. The world-building was one of the main strengths of book 1, so I was surprised by how sparse it was in this story. I’ve been dying to learn more about Erin’s werewolves, and the magical elements that make up her universe, but sadly this tale had very little in the way of details. It was strictly business: save Meredith. Period. The character growth was practically nil, and this novel did very little if anything to advance this series’ overall plot arc. The whole thing just kinda left me scratching my head wondering what the point of it all was.

Tessa and Dastien’s relationship got off to a rocky start, and I expected there to be some growing pains in AVOIDING ALPHA, but again there was nothing of the sort. They are supposed to “mate” during the upcoming Full Moon Ceremony, and yet they both seem totally ok with this which is weird because 1) McCaide’s only seventeen and 2) they’ve known each other for a mere two months. Their whole romance just rubbed me the wrong way; it was insta-love to the nth degree, and even though I’ve come to expect as much from werewolf books, I just wasn’t feeling their bond. It was missing something.

The secondary characters fell short as well. Axle barely makes an appearance, we learn nothing new about Tessa’s witch cousins, and Meredith is unconscious for the bulk of this tale. Heck, McCaide doesn’t even really grow in this installment either. She’s still scared of her wolf and refuses to change. I couldn’t help but wonder where the meat of this story was because I found it to be very “bare bones”. This novella could have easily been a full length book, and would have been a decent read too had some (or all) of the elements I mentioned been incorporated, but instead it felt like bonus material. It’s as though the author used only her outline to write this installment, and forgot to include all of the little details that turn an idea into a fully fleshed-out story.

I call ‘em like I see ‘em, and AVOIDING ALPHA is a novella, and a disappointing one at that. I can’t help but be concerned that Aileen Erin’s ALPHA GIRL tank is already running on empty. ( )