This year is flying by, and that means it’s already time to start talking about the sixth annual Alpha Showdown. We’ve been doing this for years and years, and it just gets bigger, better, and more fun each time.
What can we say? We like playing favorites.
For those uninitiated—hi, new subscribers!—every may VBC hosts a little battle royale with your favorite alpha characters with tons of giveaways and lots of fun. It’s the VBC version of March Madness, and happens in May each year.
Here’s how it works: VBC readers nominate their favorite characters who exemplify alpha status—leaders, warriors, general badasses—and we place the top 16 vote-getters into an NCAA-style bracket. We’ll have book bloggers champion the nominated characters and matches will be posted on this site where readers will vote on which character advances.
Previous Alpha Showdown champions include J.R. Ward’s Wrath, Darynda Jones’ Reyes, Karen Marie Moning’s Ryodan, Ilona Andrews’ Curran and Moning’s Jericho Z. Barrons. This year’s alphas will need to be fierce to stand alongside our previous champs.
You may nominate any character from any book, regardless of publication date, to the Showdown provided he or she is a central character in a novel with paranormal or supernatural elements (a.k.a paranormal romance and urban fantasy, mostly).
Also, we will have giveaways alongside every step of the Alpha Showdown. We aren’t changing that! (Authors/publishers, ping us if you’re interested in offering prizes.) We utilize Rafflecopter widgets to handle nominations (below!) and the actual voting when the Showdown happens.
To kick off the giveaway action, we’ll pick three people who nominate characters for the Alpha Showdown 2016 to receive their choice of any book VBC has listed in a new release post (all linked here for your prize perusal). Not too shabby, right? (And, yes, it’s open internationally provided the Book Depository can ship to your location.)
THE DETAILS
Jane Yellowrock all the way!!
Brishen, from Grace Draven’s Radiance.
Aiden, from Nalini Singh’s Shards of Hope
Ariq from Meljean Brook’s The Kraken King
Brishen, from Grace Draven’s Radiance best Alpha male.
I nominate Roland from Kate Daniels series!!!! /duck
I nominate Kane Malloy from Blood Shadows by Lindsay J. Pryor
I nominate Caleb Dehain from Blood Roses and Kane Malloy from Blood Shadows – both books by Lindsay J. Pryor. Both are utterly dark, dangerous….and delicious. 😉
Mad Rogan From the Hidden Legacy series by Ilona Andrews. I look forward to see who else was nominated.
It’s hard to find that perfect Alpha these days… But I am sending some love for Mick the Dragon from Allyson James’ Stormwalker series!!
Jane Yellowrock!!!!!!!
I nominate Brishen from Grace Draven’s Radisnce. Best alpha male!
Jeaniene Frost’s Vlad!
I have to say Jane Yellowrock is the best — and not just because it’s my favorite series. There are a great mix of characters and character types. Jane navigates through a world with vampires, witches, humans, and at least two “others.”
Besides, you have to be a kick ass kind of gal to work with your inner beast. And for her, it’s a literal beast, a mountain lion.
Barron’s, Cat, and Bones
how are the nominations tallied? are they personally read and noted or does a machine process them?
We export them out of Rafflecopter, sort and manually review. (So we catch typos, etc.) The top 16 vote-getters will make the official bracket.
Is it possible for next year to put in 3 fields for each nomination? Or a warning on the post not to hit Enter til you enter all three names. I know last year I accidently hit enter after my first nomination. I know several people posted that they hit enter after the first nomination this year.
well this is cool, my first alpha showdown
Jane Yellowrock, Faith Hunter
JoAnne Walker, CE Murphy
Rachel Morgan, Kim Harrison
Simon from Anne Bishop
Adam from Patricia Briggs
Curran from Ilona Andrews
I wish I could add more alpha women….but only 3 is the limit
All from my fav series …. JZB,Mac,and Ryodan from the Fever series!
Adam from Patricia Briggs
Raphael from Nalini Singh (Guild Hunter series)
Dimitri Belikov from Richelle Mead (Vampire Academy series)
It’s really hard to just pick three!!
Frustrating- I tried to separate my 2nd nomination with a line break and it interpreted it as finished and won’t let me edit. Anyone else want to nominate Mercy from Patricia Briggs Mercyverse or Meg from Anne Bishop’s Others series?
Jane Yellowrock, by the amazing Faith Hunter!
With Jane’s Beast within, nothing can stop her!
So hard to pick only 3 … and I made the same mistake as others… I clicked “enter” too quickly with only one choice.
It will be fun as always to read the comments and see the incentives offered by the authors.
Everyone who goofed and only entered one item: Sorry! Next year I’ll see if we can find way to make it three lines.
I’m looking forward to seeing the final 16! I nominated Barrons (a standard favorite), and two newer alphas – William York, the Prince of Florence from Sylvain Reynard’s series and Naasir from Archangel’s Enigma. Good luck to all, and let the battles begin!
Just choosing three is hard!
Rule Turner (World of the Lupi)
Kate Daniels
Curran
Does anyone know when the nominees will be announced?
I nominate Kane Malloy from Blood Shadows by Lindsay J. Pryor
Kane from Blood Shadows and Caleb from Blood Roses by Lindsay J Pryor.
I nominate Kane Malloy by Lindsay J Pryor