Book Rating: 4.5 stars out of 5
One year ago police officer Lex Tompkins was stabbed while on the job. The severity of the wounds and the long recovery time meant disability and retirement for Lex as he could no longer physically do his job. Bitter, Lex withdraws from everyone he knows, buying seven acres in the middle of nowhere to hide in and retreat from society. But almost from the beginning his plans go awry. Lex has a neighbor when his real estate agent promised him none. And that neighbor, Spencer Robinson, always seems to have a ton of people at his house and a party going on. Plus the guy isn’t even Lex’s type.
When a toddler shows up alone in Lex’s front yard, he knows that there is only one place he could have come from. Lex picks the kid up and starts to head across the street when the toddler bites the heck out of his neck. Lex passes out and the next moment wakes up in Spencer’s house as the new Alpha werewolf of a small and dysfunctional pack of werewolves.
Faced with new responsibilities that he doesn’t want, Lex also finds himself attracted to Spencer, someone he never looked twice at before. What’s a bitter excop to do when Fate rearranges his life in ways he never imagined?
Poppy Dennison became a go to author of mine when I started reading her Triad series (now at book four). So when I saw that she had a new shifter story out, I knew I had to have it. Accidental Alpha, the first in the Pack Partners series, starts with a hysterical premise, what happens when a toddler accidentally turns a person into a werewolf? I love it when an author gives me a new twist on a popular genre and that’s exactly what Dennison has delivered here.
Dennison has created a unique pack structure for her werewolf story which includes the toddler’s position within it and the reason why he bit Lex in the first place. This is a small and somewhat dysfunctional pack with a few shifters hanging at the outskirts of the core group that is not getting along without leadership. Into this interesting group dynamics, Dennison thrusts her disabled alpha cop, Lex Tompkins. I really liked his character, he comes across as a hard core cop who loved his job. And the type of personality that it takes to be a cop is exactly the type of leadership needed in an Alpha. I liked the manner in which Dennison connects those dots not only for the reader but for Lex as well. Lex is a man in need of a job that requires him to police and take care of people and that is exactly what he gets again.
This pack is made up of some very damaged, sad, and angry shifters. Each comes with their own set of challenges that Lex must first decipher and then deal with. That includes his very strong attraction to Spencer which is clearly a werewolf thing Lex needs to get figure out immediately before his own behavior gets out of control. I liked the pack that the author has created for this story. There’s the toddler, Aiden, who is quite adorable. His mother Mia, two special special favorites of mine Ruby and Nathan, Justin and more. And then there is Spencer, the neighbor and perhaps potential mate. I connected with the character of Spencer as well. Quiet and unassuming, he has a reserve to him that works when the rest of the pack is spiraling out of control. Its a nice yin and yang sort of relationship that will evolve with the story and the series. It’s also a lovely change from the wham bam mate thing that overwhelms characterization and plot that I so often read in shifter stories. Poppy Dennsion sets out a structure for not only the pack but for acquiring mates as well.
The ending of Accidental Alpha sees Lex, Spencer and the rest slowly adjusting to each other and the change in pack dynamics. It’s a new start for them all and an appropriate place to end the first book in the series. Poppy Dennison had laid her ground work while still leaving room to flesh out the personalities and back history of the individual pack members. I also expect to learn more about Lex as well. Accidental Alpha leaves me wanting more of the Pack Partners series and that’s exactly what it should do. Great job, Poppy Dennison. I can’t wait to see what will happen next. Please don’t make us wait too long.
Cover Art © 2013 Wilde City Press Photo by Kent Taylor, courtesy http://www.ragingstallion.com What a perfect cover! That’s Lex exactly.
Book Details:
Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words 
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