While frolicking in the forest near his cabin in Gladwin, Michigan, Simon Gold is in bear form when the roar of a vehicle disturbs his revelry. A human, not good. Bear-Simon sees a woman stepping to his front door, and all his growling won't scare her into leaving; she shoots him five times. Simon shifts back into human form, but he needs her help to extract the last bullet. The woman, Alyssa Nelson, agrees on one condition; that he helps her brother Vic, who happens to be Simon's good friend. Nearby, the Detroit Flu has been raging; tales of horrific deaths abound, and Vic seems to have turned into a shifter since he took ill. Alyssa already knows that Simon is a shifter, but what she doesn't know is that Simon remained in bear form for ten months and it has deeply affected him.

What makes a great shifter romance? When the paranormal is inseparable from the overall story, and this is precisely what Kathy Lyons gives us in the astonishingly good ALPHA UNLEASHED. I had loved the previous book so much, I was nearly frantic with anticipation, and I could not be more pleased with the end results; in fact, ALPHA UNLEASHED is one of the best shifter romances I have ever read. The worldbuilding is phenomenal; it is action-packed, the plot is as solid as concrete and so intricate that the suspense, the romance, and the paranormal elements are woven so tightly, none would exist satisfactorily without the other.

Kathy Lyons is seriously impressive: equally at ease with easy banter, ferocious battles, steamy sex scenes, meaningful dialogues, gritty, raw and tender, and all this done seamlessly. I adored Alyssa from the start: she's courageous, determined, charismatic; she's an African-American Amazon and as alpha as Simon. Simon is a great guy, but his grizzly is still too much on the surface while Simon tries to stumble his way back to civilization. I love that the romance didn't come out of thin air: Alyssa and Simon knew each other, but had never acted on their mutual attraction, and not for the reason you might be thinking.

Ms. Lyons paints a breathtaking picture of the shifter world. When in bear form, I could envision the world through a bear's eyes, and experience his primitive thought process, anchored in instincts. I suspect the author did quite a bit of research because those werebears that were fighting were not anthropomorphized in the least. And there was one specific plot twist that I don't recall ever seeing in a romance before. The Grizzlies Gone Wild series is getting better with each book and Kathy Lyons never ceases to amaze me! I expected a lot from ALPHA UNLEASHED, and I cannot wait for the next one, regardless of who are the protagonists, because this series is dazzlingly brilliant!

Book Summary

Some men aren't meant to be tamed. Especially if they're Grizzlies Gone Wild.

YOU CAN'T KEEP A GOOD BEAR DOWN

Alyssa Nelson doesn't actually believe that Simon Gold is a shape-shifting grizzly bear---until she sees it firsthand. Aaaaand the award for Totally Surprising Changes goes to Simon Gold. But Alyssa doesn't have time to deal with the fact that her ruggedly hot, long-time secret crush is a shifter . . . not when her brother has turned into one, too.

After ten months in bear form, Simon is struggling. He's not ready to deal with anyone, let alone the bold and gorgeous Alyssa. Mine, whispers his bear. But all hell has broken loose in the Detroit shifter community, and it's spreading to humans. Now Simon must face the darkest place of all: where bear and man become one. And the only way he can make it back to his humanity is by finding---and claiming---his mate.

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