REVIEW: Alpha by Jasinda Wilder

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.

My thoughts…

I’m honestly torn on my thoughts for this book. The plot is unique, but the story itself has been told before. The heroine is not only naive, but she is very foolish. Who trusts a man they’ve never met or never even seen before? The hero demands she be blindfolded upon them first meeting face to face. He doesn’t give her his name. She doesn’t know what he looks like. She’s blindfolded yet kisses him and participates in other sexual acts with him. I don’t get that. It’s totally unrealistic to me and honestly quite laughable.

After reading approximately 55% of this book I started skimming. At that point I was only curious to see what the “secret” was that the hero told her he was keeping from her. After finding that I out I skimmed a little more then finally put the book aside.

I’m not saying this book is horrible. Because well, it’s not. It just wasn’t for me. I’m a big fan of books that are realistic. And while I can see why the hero handled things the way he did in the beginning, the whole being blind folded and made to trust someone that you don’t even know was a bit of a stretch for me.