It’s been a wicked Alpha Showdown so far. Both the characters in today’s match had lots of fans come out for them in their first rounds. But they both won by only a handful of votes.
Will this round be the same? Kate Daniels from the Ilona Andrews’ series of the same name took out Bones, and Wrath from J.R. Ward’s Black Dagger Brotherhood beat the archangel Raphael.
It’s going to be a close one, and your votes will decide the winner.
We’ve lined up excellent bloggers to fill you in on why each alpha deserves to advance. Read the pitches, and then make the call.
You know her from: The Kate Daniels series by Ilona Andrews
First appeared in: Magic Bites (VBC Review | Amazon)
Supernatural status: Good question
Championed by: Jen at Red Hot Books | @redhotbooks
You don’t have to be a man to be the top dog alpha. It’s something intangible that separates you from the sheep. It’s about strength of the body and mind. It’s about power. For a man, strength can be more obvious in the physical sense. His dominance can be downright sexy at times. But a woman who can burn the world with a strong sword arm and an iron will, to me, is even more impressive.
Kate owes a lot of her strength to her lineage, but she is more than the sum of her parts. Her father passed on many of his powerful gifts, like the ability to manipulate blood. He can’t take credit for her years of training, though. He can’t compete with her drive to protect those around her and to save the day at all costs. The fire that is inside of Kate is all her own, and she will destroy you without hesitation if you are a threat to someone she loves.
She uses every weapon at her disposal, and is willing to risk everything to protect others. She’ll throw herself into a fighting pit, face off with her own deranged relatives, battle deities, and stare down supernatural baddies of all shapes and sizes –not for her own gain—but do what needs to be done for people who can’t do it themselves. She is strong, but not infallible, which is what makes it all the more meaningful when she puts herself in the line of fire. She could die, but she doesn’t. She prevails and lives to fight another day.
Kate’s abilities keep getting stronger. And she keeps getting smarter. Whether she is leading hundreds of shapeshifters or slapping down detractors; whether she is fighting alongside members of the Guild or against them; whether she is battling a legend or edging closer to becoming one herself… she is fierce. She is relentless. She doesn’t stop until she is done.
What other woman could be a worthy mate to Curran? Could hold her own with Aunt B? Who else could face off with Roland and walk away with an entire city under her protection? No one. Kate is in a category all her own.
And she could kick your ass. Without breaking a sweat.
You know him from: The Black Dagger Brotherhood series by J.R. Ward
First appeared in: Dark Lover (VBC Review | Amazon)
Supernatural status: The Blind King, the last purebred vampire
Championed by: Jill from VBC
Wrath is a no-hold-barred badass. He’s the king of the vampire race, but don’t let that fool you, he’s not some pompous politician. He could, and often does, take on anyone and anything. He’s a fierce protector of his people. He would give the shirt off his back to anyone in need. He’s exactly the kind of man that you would want to be your friend, your bodyguard, the leader of your people, or your sexy, badass, alpha boyfriend.
He is a very reluctant king. He just wants to be a simple soldier like the rest of the Black Dagger Brotherhood. Wrath isn’t made for the simple soldier life, though. He’s way too much of an alpha to be just a warrior. Oh no, he’s the literal king of the warriors.
When some obnoxious posers decide that his chosen mate Beth isn’t vampire enough to be his wife, Wrath takes the throne so that no one will take his leelan. He has single-handedly fought off assassination attempts, evil soul-less demons, and smart-ass brothers, all in day’s work for this alpha king.
Throughout his few years as King, we see him grow as a man and as a leader. We’ve watched him discover love and loyalty, struggle with the heavy burden of leadership, and find the balance in being an understanding leader and not a political push over, all with his sexy shades and ass kickers on.
Wrath has a lot more coming his way, especially with the development in the newest book The King starring Wrath and Beth, set years after their first encounter. Wrath is compassionate, strong, intelligent, loyal, honorable, and this alpha king deserves your votes!
Who are you putting your money on: Kate or Wrath?
At the request of last year’s voters, we’re going back to traditional polls for the voting, but keep reading for your chance to win awesome books. Your to-be-read pile could always use more. Trust us.
Participating in the Alpha Showdown is all about fun, and free books totally lead to fun, right? We hope you’ll find lots of great new reads during the Showdown, and to help that along, we’re giving away some stellar reads.
With Round 11 we’re giving away a signed copy of Lion’s Share by Rachel Vincent. Use the Rafflecopter form below to enter.
This is obviously not a poll for readers with feministic views or for deep deconstructive analysis on the characters’ merit as alphas,at least judging by the comments. My mistake.
What the heck…? This has absolutely nothing to do with feministic views, where did u get that idea from?
i am confused. this poll is for anyone that wants to state their opinion on the characters and books. Just because Kate lost does not mean the poll is not a place for feministic views. She got really far in the Alpha Showdown, she lost because the majority of people think Wrath is the better alpha and the person that would come out on top in a fight. Your fully welcome to go into ”deep deconstructive analysis” on Kate just as much as we are aloud to share are thoughts on everything.
what on earth does that mean? This is a poll for anyone and everyone. I don’t like Kate, the books are good but I do not like her character very much, that doesn’t mean this isn’t a place for feministic views.
She lost. Deal with it.
I hated her ever since she took Bones down, although to be honest I never liked her or her books very much even before that. Wrath deserved to win, xoxoxo – See more at: http://vampirebookclub.net/alpha-showdown-2015-round-11-kate-daniels-vs-wrath/comment-page-2/#comments
Hmmm, how about taking your own advice? 🙂 peace!
If Wrath won because majority of the voters believe he is the better alpha, either by virtue of his strength and power as a fighter (a criteria most often debated in the comments section and some based their votes on) or because he is a better leader, a real alpha and someone you would willingly follow, (as some of us based our votes on) then I am honestly okay with that. I just hope Kate did not lose because some voters want to avenge Bones. 🙂
”This is obviously not a poll for readers with feministic views or for deep deconstructive analysis on the characters’ merit as alphas,at least judging by the comments. My mistake.” – See more at: http://vampirebookclub.net/alpha-showdown-2015-round-11-kate-daniels-vs-wrath/comment-page-3/#comment-37583
Who is that comment directed to? Its the stupidest thing I’ve ever read.
Just because Kate didnt win and people are happy for it does not mean this is not a place for ”feministic views” thats a really absurd comment.
My favorite characters are Cat Craiwfeild from The Night Huntress, MacKayla Lane and Dani O’Malley from the Fever series, and Eugenie Markham from the Dark Swan series. I love these characters to the bottom of my heart. I do not personally like Kate very much, I read all her books and will defiantly read the ones that come out after that but I just dont think she’s all that, I believe Wrath is the better Alpha and the one who would best her in a fight. Just because this is my opinion and probably a few others does not mean ”this is not a poll for readers with feministic views or for deep deconstructive analysis on the characters’ merit as alphas”
I agree, don’t know who Joanne’s comment was addressed to but its wrong.
My comment was not really directed at anybody or addressed to any particular poster or comment. It was not even really meant to be directed at this particular showdown battle or this poll in general. I had this really long-assed post that got lost in submission explaining my thoughts and frustrations and just contemplating on what defines an alpha, and why up to this day this word is still pretty much associated with male characters in paranormal fiction and well, in real life in general I guess. Alpha, strength, power, leader, male.
I mean take Cat Crawfield for example. This is a character who even before her power upgrades in the series was already a dangerous fighter, a leader of her own elite team, has earned the respect and loyalty of her subordinates, and has displayed the willingness to shoulder responsibilty for the welfare of her people. I mean to me THAT IS AN ALPHA. Why isn’t she on this poll? Because again, the cold fact is that if you ask readers to nominate an alpha personality from the Night Huntress series, the general answers would most likely be Bones and Vlad first, and that really just frustrates me. That was just what I meant by that shortened, clumsy post above.
Your first comment was highly misunderstood, I see that now. I also love the female alpha’s and was furious when I saw Cat wasnt in the bracket this year, she and Bones are my favourite characters in the whole paranormal universe.
The thing is, female characters are in the brackets every year, yes we have never had a femal alpha win before but we also never had a vampire alpha win before. (and this is Vampire Book Ckub for gods sake) Strange things happen. It doesn’t really mean women alphas aren’t recognized, like Chelsea said Jane was voted for second most in the nominations, she got crushed in the first round though because she was put against Barrons and the guy is immortal, theres just no beating him. (Dont know how Curran managed to beat him but theres a lot of rumors floating around about people voting for Curran excessively more then once, I believe it) Also have you read the comments in round 3? Almost all of them say their voting for Kate because its tme we had a female alpha win the crown, I sincerely hope we do have a female alpha win some time but I’m going to be honest snd say I hope to God that its not Kate. Sorry we all sort of ganged up on you, I think we all just misunderstood your first comment.
Ooh, nice how you accuse Curran fans of multiple votes (iow, cheating???). Personally, I’ve never voted for Cat or Bones because I don’t think the characters as written are that appealing, especially Cat.
Speaking of poorly written, that first comment by Joanne was nearly incoherent.
My apologies if my previous comment sounds insulting to the organizer of this poll or to the voters/readers. Didn’t mean to stir up any trouble. I just feel really passionate about this. I don’t know if you have seen this before but take a look at this:
http://www.buzzfeed.com/ryanhatesthis/katniss-taught-me-to-survive#.bojmwNbgy
This very perceptive little girl’s scrapbook said:
“Katniss taught me to survive…”
“Hermione taught me to reason…”
“Tris taught me to be brave…”
“Hazel taught me to hope…”
“Éowyn taught me to fight…”
“Merida taught me to fight for what I believe in…”
I am hoping that in the future, little girls would be saying: Kate, Cat, (or insert other strong female character here) taught me how to be an alpha, a leader. Because women are also capable of being strong alphas.
That is all folks. Peace.
I suppose it’s time for me to jump in. 🙂
I’m not sure if you’re a long-time reader of this blog, Joanne, but we’re very big on strong, independent female characters. You may not have been a part of the nominations round back in March (http://vampirebookclub.net/alpha-showdown-2015-nominations-are-now-open/), but I can tell you that we had LOTS of support for female alphas. So much so that Jane Yellowrock was the number two seed—as in she got the second most nominations for the showdown. People see her as an alpha.
While, yes, when we’re including romance characters in this Showdown, it makes sense for many readers to pick the hero as the most alpha, please don’t discount the VBC readers or staff in terms of loving and supporting the female alphas.
This is the first year that Cat from the Night Huntress series didn’t make the final bracket. Gin Blanco is a regular each year, too.
My final note here, is to everyone who feels like they wish Character X had been in the Showdown. Our readers determine who ends up in this bracket, and your votes decide the winner. If you want to see different characters, rally for them during nominations (late March/early April). We love that!
Ok u cant blame us for ganging up on you, that first comment of yours was messed up. But now I see we just misunderstood it. I love Hermione, I love Cat, I love Dani, I love Eugenie, I love Mercy T., I love many many female alpha characters, more so then men. I dont like Kate but thats not really relevant right now, my point is that your right about women being just as capable of being strong alphas as men but I think a lot of people realize that, most people rallied behind Kate because they wanted a female alpha winner, Jane had the second highest score in nominations, Cat has always been in the brackets except for this year(and im so angry about it), Gin Bianco is a regular, And many more have appeared over the years. The world is still a sexist place but it is rapidly changing, Katniss and Hermione are icons, america has its first ever black president, gay marriage is now allowed in many parts of the world, and for the most part; people are no longer prosecuted for their religion and beliefs. We are changing. And one day-hopefully next years Showdown-we WILL have a female alpha winner.
It says very clearly in both my comments that I never even liked her to begin with, Wrath would have gotton my vote regardless of wether she beat Bones or not.
Deat Sarafina, I love how in this whole conversation, my comment about Curran is what you chose to comment about. Lol so funny. And i’m not specifically acccusing you of it, i’m just saying that like Blaise said, votes for him were going up by 3 everytime she refreshed the page, she had been doing that for a solid 10 minutes before she just gave up. If there was foul play (and their always is) it was on both sides, but my opinion remains that I dont think that Barrons could have possiby lost-especially with him and Ryodan taking home the crown in previous years, along with them both having such high numbers in every round- to Curran unless their was some serious fan intervention. Its happened before with Curran, in 2013 I believe.
Did I ever mention that you are my favourite commentor? Lol preach it, sister!!!
Sarah,
Whatever. I’ve never read anything with a “Barrons” or “Ryodan” and knowing you are a fan I’ll make a point to avoid them in the future. I only read J. Frost because Ilona plugged her so much. I’m giving Ilona less credit in the future, although I did like Rachel Bach for something different. As to the mechanics of the poll, I only found out about the contests mentioned on Ilona’s blog. The reason I commented on you calling Curran supporters cheaters was because I thought the other conversation irrelevant. I’ve read a fair amount of books, but find my real inspiration comes more from actual people than fictional characters, however entertaining they may be. But you keep focusing on the unfairness you JUST KNOW is there, it’s your choice.
Wow you are a b*tch
Not even gonna bother getting into a arguement over this. Some people just aren’t even worth it.
Holy crap sarafina, u are a major b*tch
Dear K,
Little imagination and poor word choice combined, you and jay are an embarassment to intelligent women everywhere. If you, jay and Sarah are representative of this board, I won’t be back.
Except to run up the votes for Curran and Kate next year.
Have a day.
You wont be back? Great, I have a feeling we’ll be better off for it. The only embarresment here is you, I wasn’t even following the conversation and even I can see that Jay and K are right, your a b*tch with a attitude problem.
“embarresment” ??
If English is NOT your first language, you communicate in it pretty well. If it is, you are a fit companion for the other 3.
I’m done, you all are just too adorable!!!
Actually english is my second language. Go to bed now, b*tch. You seem very grumpy, maybe some sleep will help. Fighting is not necessarily, no one had meant it in the first place. Just get over it an move on like everyone else.
Ok sarafina, u need to lay off the internet for a while.
I think we all just need to relax. No more fighting and insults, its not getting anywhere. Lets just try and enjoy the remainder of Alpha Showdown. Good night, everyone!!! Xoxoxo