Sotier Alderic Du’ Castine, Leader of the Dranovian Order of the Tri-Worlds, Guardian of the Rituals of Tongerno and Commander Priest of the Dawn, was in the middle of brokering peace between two warring communities of Daetz’ when he saw the shimmering portal open in the sky. With the portal so close to the Dranovian stronghold, Alderic is forced to participate in a Human Hunt for the first time. … first time. As he searches the forest surrounding the Talunaha, he is shocked to see the beautiful and wild-eyed human standing fearfully in front of him.
Helena Chapman moved to Nome, Alaska after catching her fiancé in bed with her best friend the night before their wedding. Ignoring the warning of the longtime residents, she set out for a lone hike in the Denali National Forest. Her first night out she saw the strange, Mirage city in the sky and was swept into what she thought was a nightmare.
Literally from two different worlds and cultures that are evolutions apart, Alderic and Helena will have to try and forge a new path for the tri-worlds in order to prevent a human uprising that threatens Helena’s life and to unravel everything Alderic has ever fought for.
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I have not read anything by this author before so this was a first for me.
So a brief outline of Alderic (Third Wave) By Mikayla Lane here goes, this is quite complicated so I’m going to try and simplify it.
First, we have Helena Chapman shes just moved to Alaska after finding her cheating fiancee in bed with her so-called bestie.
Helena sets out for a hike in the Denali National Forest despite warnings by the local residents.
So obviously she loses her way and settles down for the night in the open air. unable to sleep she sees a fantastical mirage of a city in the sky, and yep you’ve guessed it gets sucked right up into the illusion.(which is in actual fact a portal to another world) Think Stargate and you’re right about there.
So then we have Sotier Alderic Du’ Castine, Leader of the Dranovian Order of the Tri-Worlds, Guardian of the Rituals of Tongerno and Commander Priest of the Dawn, bit of a mouthful aye.
I will just call him Alderic for short.
So he’s acting as a pacifier between two warring factions when the shimmering portal opens up in the sky, The portal has never been this close to the Dranovian stronghold before so Alderic is compelled to participate in his first human hunt.
Something he has always managed to avoid in the past as humans are not far up his importance list, or actually even on it.
The hunt is basically used to scoop up the displaced humans that have been deposited on this new world, basically, it’s a one-way ticket and humans seem to be a lesser species here.
so much so in fact that there seems to be an uprising in motion and Helena and Alderic are about to be swept along for the ride, All while falling for each other along the way of course.
So that’s the basic gist.
So what did I think?
well for starters, I didn’t realise this was spin-off series If I had and had read this, then maybe things wouldn’t have been so hard to make head or tail of.
There was such an information dump put on the reader that I spent much of this book deciphering what was actually occurring.
I felt that with every important event I was given a dranovian history Lesson as well.
And while this was all very fascinating and informative I just wanted to get on with the story.
I understand why such backstory was needed, as we were in this instance being introduced into a whole new culture, more so if this was your introduction into this world)
In my opinion, this book would have been better if it was assumed the reader had read the previous books that this was a spin-off from.
That way everything could have been drip-fed slowly over the course of the series and there would have been no need to cram like crazy.
Some things I’m still a trifle unsure off, In particular how The Beast thing worked, I just went with the flow eventually.
So impression wise I found Helena a bit irritating, I have a real hate relationship with those whiney women who always do the complete opposite to what is asked of them and Helena had this in spades.
Also, her responses to certain situations didn’t sit right with me, for someone who has never seen violence upfront she seemed to get quite vocal and handsy.
I thought She came across more bratty than feisty, just saying.
Aldric himself seemed quite one dimensional and I never really felt I got to know him as a person.
In fact, I didn’t feel much of a connection between our two mains at all, which was such a shame as I had high hopes here.
Maybe some of the problem lies there, my hopes were too high.
I really tried, I just wasn’t feeling the vibe.
I should also mention that this was very insta-love another pet peeve of mine.
So positives I picked up from Alderic,
well, I actually picked this up because I liked the overall concept and the subject genre itself here is oh so unique.
I have quite a few good impressions taken away from this that I loved, the fated mates is one such idea, adored this.
I also enjoyed the animated trees and fauna, fabulous touch.
I found there was a very Egyptian flavour to the whole book with the pyramids and such and as I love anything to do with Egypt I found this to be a winner for me also.
In fact, the world-building here was amazing, hence why I said this should have been introduced slowly to give it its due.
What else?
Well this was well written if a trifle predictable in places and I also did finish Alderic, so these are all plus points in its favour.
So In conclusion, this didn’t quite get there for me. my advice is read this after The first Wave series and you will probably enjoy it more.
I really Wish I could say otherwise but this was really just an Ok read for me and I have no desire to read the rest of the series sorry.
Reviewed By Beckie Bookworm
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