Avoiding Alpha

Written by Aileen Erin

Narrated by Elizabeth Evans

From USA Today Bestselling Author Aileen Erin

Seventeen-year-old Tessa McCaide has come a long way since her abrupt entrance into the world of werewolves, but she still has just as far to go before she’s comfortable with turning full wolf. In the meantime, she’s avoiding the topic of shifting to four legs any way she can. Thankfully her mate, Dastien Laurent, is quite the distraction.

When she finds her best friend, Meredith, getting sick in the bathroom, Tessa knows something’s majorly wrong. Meredith was cursed years ago, and the dark magic kept her wolf dormant—only now the wolf is awake, and that same spell is killing her.

Tessa has no intention of sitting around while Meredith wastes away. Even if it means playing with magic she doesn’t understand, she’ll do anything to save Meredith’s life. Including bargaining with the local coven of witches and its crazed leader, whose only goal is getting Tessa to join the witchy ranks.

Can Tessa save her friend without losing herself?

***A 52K Word Novella***

"There is no word to describe how much I love everything about this book.” — Feli, The Four Eyed Cat

“Wow! This book had the perfect balance of YA romance, sizzling chemistry, action, mystery, and heart. I devoured this book in one sitting!” - Carrie, Goodreads


It's time to catch up with the Alpha Girls series, which has sold more than 500,000 copies!

About the Author: USA Today bestselling author Aileen Erin is half-Irish, half-Mexican, and 100% nerd—from Star Wars (prequels don’t count) to Star Trek (TNG FTW).

Her fans call her stories "jaw dropping," "electrifying,"and "a magnet that just keeps pulling until you feel as if you are falling down, down, down right into its world" (Tempest of Books). You can find her at www.aileenerin.com or on Instagram @aileenerin.

About the Narrator: Elizabeth Evans is an award-winning narrator whose voice can be heard in over 150 audiobooks. She specializes in young adult fantasy and has given voice to the internationally bestselling series Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas and Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo. Her curiosity and passion for storytelling has led her all over the world.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ink Monster, LLC
• Release date: Nov 19, 2019
• ISBN: 9781943858897

Aileen Erin

USA Today Bestselling Author Aileen Erin is half-Irish, half-Mexican, and 100% nerd—from Star Wars (prequels don’t count) to Star Trek (TNG FTW). She geeks out on Tolkien's linguistics, and has a severe fascination with the supernatural. Aileen has a BS in Radio-TV-Film from the University of Texas at Austin, and an MFA in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University. She lives with her husband and daughter in the Texas Hill Country, and spends her days doing her favorite things: reading books, creating worlds, and kicking ass. Aileen is the author of the Aunare Chronicles, futuristic fantasy romance series, and the wildly loved YA paranormal Alpha Girls series. She's excited to announce her upcoming YA paranormal series the Days of Iron and Clay. This new series follows Samantha Lopez, the resident demonologist from the Alpha Girls books. Samantha's first appearance can be found in Being Alpha, Book Seven of the Alpha Girls series. Aileen's fans call her stories "jaw dropping," "electrifying," "amazing," and "bloody brilliant." Bloggers say "Erin's world-building is excellent and her characters are big and bold"(Escape Into Worlds) and every book is "a magnet that just keeps pulling until you feel as if you are falling down, down, down right into its world" (Tempest of Books). Aileen Erin is the founder and CEO of Ink Monster, building worlds filled with girl power and happily ever afters. You can find her at www.aileenerin.com or on Instagram @aileenerin.

Reviews for Avoiding Alpha

[Jakub Kolar · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Good story, but felt weaker than first book . I'm looking forward to the next part.

[Christine Littmann · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Love it! What a great continuation, I'm starting the next book immediately!!

[Amanda Heard · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The series itself is good. Not a I cant put it down kind of series for me but still a good series.

[Brittany Berryman · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I'm in love with this series and couldn't get enough of it, I love the balance and how it's not all about romance but about strong friendships and bonds

[rylan nygard · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I enjoyed the second book in the series, it was short and sweet. The characters are well thought out, the narrator did a very good job

[ngan tran · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is one of the best werewolf series that I have ever read. Thanks to the author.

[anthea lincoln · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A brief read for the second book in the series, but enjoyable none the less.
I’m enjoying the series and the characters are growing on me.

[tldegray-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

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.

[dearheart_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

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.

[stacyatufi · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

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.

[rabidreads · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Reviewed by: Rabid ReadsThis 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.