Home of the Alpha Showdown, and one-stop shop for urban fantasy, paranormal romance and fantasy news and reviews.
OK, I don’t expect you to fight. But we need to determine who’s making it into this year’s battle to be the ultimate alpha. Last year, Jericho Z. Barrons won. Rightfully. However, JBZ can’t be in the running this year. Leaving things open for other kickass characters to claim top honors.
This is where you come in, dear readers. We’re doing open nominations this year. (And bribing your participation with a giveaway.)
What is this Alpha Showdown?
If you weren’t a reader of VBC last May (welcome!), you missed out on two weeks of insane fun in our 2011 Alpha Showdown. We bust out a March Madness-style bracket of 16 alpha characters (both male and female). Book bloggers champion for their alpha — trying to convince you he or she should win it all — and each day we have a new poll. Readers vote. One alpha advances. Last year there were plenty of author bribes (excerpts and the like) and many chances to tell the world why you love a certain character.
Basically, it was a ton of fun. And we’re doing it again.
What are the rules?
To be in the 2012 Alpha Showdown the character must be from a book published between June 2011 and May 2012. This is why Barrons can’t win. Shadowfever came out in January 2011.
The character can be male or female. Darian from Shaedes of Grey, for example, is definitely a female alpha badass. In that same count, I highly suspect we’ll see Terrible and Lothaire make it to the bracket.
…but that’s up to you.
Nominations and a Giveaway
You can nominate up to three alpha characters for the Showdown. Simply fill out the form below — which will also enter you to win any book from our Recommendations section — and list your nominees. Feel free to bait your friends to nominate the same characters. Use the comments here to pitch. It’s all fair game.
The 16 characters with the most nominations will be put in the bracket for the 2012 Alpha Showdown, which will happen this May.
Want to help?
If you are a blogger and would like to champion for one of the alphas, reach out to me via email. Once we have the alphas selected, I’ll contact all those interested.
Also, we’re welcoming author involvement. If you want to know how to you can participate on the author end, just ask me.
This is so exciting! I can’t believe it’s been almost a year since the last Alpha Showdown. I enjoyed every minute of it last year and i knw this year won’t dissapoint! So my top 3 nominees are (and this was EXTREMELY hard to do): Bones, Vlad, Terrible. 4th would be Tohrment. 5th Cat. 6th:Chess
My nominates: Dorian from Dark Swan series, Ethan from Chicagoland Vampires, Charles Cornick from Alpha & Omega series.
I really wish that Kate Daniels and Curran could participate too, but their book wasn’t release in the needed period of time(((
IKR? I Kate and Curran immediately came to mind for me too…
Oh yeah! 1st off Lothaire of IAD, second William of Lords of the underworld and last Vishious of BDB. Argh there to many!
Barrons will always be the ultimate alpha, however, since he’s not eligible this year here are my nominees: Bones, Charles Cornick and Viscious.
I can only nominate THREE!?? Yikes! Okay, Bones, Terrible and Curran are my top Alphas. I wouldn’t hate to see Raphael on the list either. Looking forward to our own version of brackets!!!
Okay so definitely Thorment, any of the BDB would be great but since his book is coming out next week he’s at the top of my list. My next pick would be Trent Kalamack from the Hallows series. I wouldn’t have thought of him as Alpha before but he is really becoming kick ass with his wild elf magic and the way he protects Rachel. My last pick would have been Ryodan from the Fever series but since that came out in January I guess he’s not eligible, so I’ll go with Bones since he’s always a good choice.
**giddy with excitment** Dmitri- Archangel’s Blade, Thorment & an underdog that I want to champion for- Riley Poe- The Dark Ink Chronicles.
Oh I Love the Alpha Showdown! So excited!! June- Legend and definitely Thorment!!
I will go with Hawke from Kiss of Snow, Lothaire from LOTHAIRE and Bones 😀
I want to nominate Raphael, but since the last book of Guild Hunter is about Dmitri, I can’t do that 🙁
Love the Showdown!!! JZB is the ultimate but since he is not eligible I’m going with Atticus from the Iron Druid chronicles, Raphael from Vampires in America, & Bones b/c he is Bones.
Can’t wait for this year’s showdown. It was so hard to pick which Alpha’s were worthy! There are so many I would like to see make it. Bones & Cat, Rachel & Trent, Riley Poe & Eli Dupres, Charles Cornick, Risa Jones, Thorment, Sabina Kane…. so many to pick from this year. I also look forward to everyone else’s picks and finding new and interesting characters to follow.
Taigo (Harrison)/Luca (Wright)/and Wraith(Ione even though it wasn’t his book ;))
My choices would be Bones from Night Huntress series, Ethan from Chicagoland Vampires, and Hank from Charlie Madigan series. Love them all!!
I wanted to put Danni in from the Fever world but that book doesnt come out till what? October?
I nominate Atticus O’Sullivan, Eugenie Markham and Charley Davidson!!!
Can’t believe it’s time for Alpha Showdown again!
1st nomination goes to Hawke in Kiss of Snow from Psy-Changeling series
2nd nomination will definitely go to Chess for Downside Ghost
and 3rd sterling Chase aka Harvard from midnight breed
(I hate not to be able to nominate Curran just because his book was released 31st of May!)
There are so many to pick from! I hope other people will nominate some of the favorites I don’t have room for (and I can see that fortunately this is the case).
My nominees will be: Rhiannon (The Renfield Syndrome), Chrysabelle (House of Comarré) and Bones (Nighthuntress)
My favorites are Curran, Gin Blanco, and Charles Cornick!
I nominate Ethan, Matthew, and Dorian.
Bones!!!! if I can vote for him 3x I would, but if not Cat and Wrath…
Bones gets my vote.
I vote for Charles Cornick,; (2) Gail Carriger’s Conall Maccon; (3) Faith Hunter’s Jane Yellowrock.
I have to second the earlier comment that I would love to see Curren – and alpha Kate herself! – from their May 31 release. Inch the deadline back a little bit?
Can’t go wrong with Lothaire! I’ll also like to nominate Curran and Kate. Hopefully Magic Gift counts even though it wasn’t technically “published”.
Terrible from Stacia Kane’s Downside Ghosts!!!!
Reyes from Darynda Jones’s Charley Davidson series
Both are true Alphas and great characters!
Terrible, Christian Grey and Bones. 🙂
Thank you!;)
I nom Terrible and Dorian of course! But I also went for a long shot: Aren from The Shadow Reader. Whew! Definition of an Alpha!
I would love to be one of the bloggers championing for one of my alphas! 🙂
I would choose Curran from Kate daniels, Reyes from Charley Davidson and Tybalt from October Daye.
Okay, if I can’t puck Barrons then my top 3 would be Bones (Night Huntress), Terrible (Downside Ghosts) and …hmmmm… I have like 10 tyed for third so I guess I’ll just go with those 2.
Give some love to Terrible!!
Terrible (of course), Aren from The Shadow Reader, and Pritkin from Hunt the Moon.
Bones and Terrible please!!!!!! Both Alpha, both dreamy 🙂
Terrible, Aren from The Shadow Reader, and Disco/Gabriel from Saare’s Rhiannon’s Law.
Ugh I’m so upset no Barrons this year! I think my nominee is not an obvious choice but I absolutely loved him in his book. Didn’t realize how alpha and bad ass he really is! Chase Sterling from the Midnight Breed series. Boom!
Sigh, Barrons still makes me swoon. My choices for this year are:
Rachel Morgan
Zayvion Jones
Ethan Sullivan
I would say Acheron, but I don’t know if he makes an appearence in the latest darkhunter novel.
Cernunnos from C.E. Murphy’s Walker Papers novels; he makes an appearence in Raven Calls.
Dane from Foundations of Magic Series, Trammel by Anah Crow. It is a slash (m/m) novel so I don’t know if that counts.
SHOW TERRIBLE SOME LOVE!!
Bones, Adrian Ivashkov and Will Herondale! ^^
Daniel from Fallen. Tore923@aol.com
Oh, this is going to be fun! Bones, Charles Cornick & Curran. If Curran doesn’t count, then go with V.
Awesome nominations! I picked Charles Cornick, Alexander from Diana Pharaoh Francis’ Horngate Witches and Jeff Martin from Gini Koch’s Kitty Katt Series.
I nomiated:
Terrible from the Downside Ghosts series
Ethan from Chicagoland
and Gin Blanco from Elemental Assassins! I’m reading Spider’s Revenge right now, so I’m all about Gin!
This should be a fantastic Alpha showdown!
Book Savvy Babe
It’s a female showdown for me…
1. Rhiannon (J.A. Saare)
2. Jessie (Mary Abshire)
3. Darian (Amanda Bonilla)
Female showdown for me too!
1) Anita Blake
2) Merit from Chicagoland and
3) Rachel Morgan, i was tossing up between her and Trent, but she always manages to win somehow, even if she loses at first 😉
Only 3???
Damn this is a tough one but here it goes!
Eli Dupre (Elle Jasper’s Dark Ink Chronicles series.)
Malkolm (Kristen Painter’s House of Commarre series.)
Lothaire (Kresley Cole’s IAD series.)
These vamps’ pics can be found under HOTTIES in the dictonary…or DARK, or DANGEROUS, or DELICIOUS…LOL
It is hard to narrow down to 3!
1. David Solomon from Shadowflame and Shadow’s Fall by Dianne Sylvan. A geeky hotty vampire ruler.
2. Secret McQueen in Deep Dark Secret by Sierra Dean.
3. Fenris from Howl for Me by Dana Marie Bell. Gotta love a werewolf who was tortured for centuries and can still fall in love.
Bones and Cat are always awesome. Demetri, too.
Lothaire, Hawke, Chase
Like others, I found it hard to narrow it down to 3, but here are my picks:
Bones, Vlad, and Charles Cornick.
This contest was a lot of fun last year. Rooting for Curran and Kate to go all the way this year!
I nominated Terrible (Downside Series), Reyes (Charley Davidson), and Kallie (Hoodoo Series). Can’t wait to see who makes the brackets!
Lothaire, Bones & Dorian.
I’m going to throw in a couple of long shots…
Packard (Disillusionists series)
Caleb (Dark Mission series)
Hitch (Annabelle Lee series)