Alessia Appleton is desperate. She’s desperate to silence the voices inside her head, but being committed to an island asylum has only made them worse. Still, at least there’s the ocean. Water is the one thing that blocks Alessia from hearing the thoughts of those around her. Complete submersion is her only relief. So, when she gets the chance to escape her wardens and the voices, Alessia takes … takes it. She dives into the sea and a giant wave drags her under.
When she comes to, one thing is clear–either Alessia’s completely lost her mind, or she’s not on Earth anymore.
Instead, she finds herself in a world with two moons, a complex undersea society, a long-lost grandmother, and a drool-worthy young man named Dante Erajion. However, it doesn’t take long for Alessia to realise that a new world comes with all kinds of new rules and new problems. In Zeneshia sequence takes precedence over chance, and Alessia’s arrival has set off the Foretold Sequence of Hearts, shifting the future to a dire series of choices between Life, Love, and Death.
Shortlisted for the 2015 Love Stories New Talent Award
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I was hooked from the first chapter however, I’d like to applaud the books’ cover. It’s an accurate representation of everything in the book, and it is also beautifully executed, so kudos on that.
Alessia hears voices and everyone thinks she’s crazy but she’s not. Her loving aunt Kate at the end of her tether sends Alessia to a mental institution on an island in the Indian Ocean. Our young heroine tries to make her escape on her birthday, she’s taken out by a rogue wave and awakes in a new land that’s under the ocean.
Zeneshia is the new land that Alessia has found herself; she’s also discovered her maternal grandmother there too. It turns out Alessia’s mother wasn’t human. She goes through the process of trying to learn Zeneshian history and customs, and she falls in love with Dante a handsome red-eyed youth.
Dante is the heir apparent to the Ocean Crown of the whole place (he keeps this from Alessia), and he seems to run from her whenever his feelings become too much for him, this annoys Alessia (and the reader) and saddens her greatly.
There are several ruling houses in this land, and some vie for power, some use their ability to manipulate, others try to keep the peace between the houses. There’s also a shield that protects them from a group of warriors who are ruthless and seem blood thirty. This shield is failing, and this is a cause for high tension and discord amongst the houses.
The middle of the book drags a bit telling of Dante’s history, how his mother was kidnapped and forced to marry and have him against her will. Years later he escaped his father with his mother, however, she died due to an arrow shot at her from his father’s hand.
Alessia is kidnapped, well more like hypnotically compelled by the water creatures, who brought her to the land she’s in, and Dante and a party of soldiers rescue her. Dante gets himself into trouble, and Alessia’s powers come forth to save her beloved and blow everyone’s minds, including her own.
Alessia nows that she’s incredibly powerful. She has the destiny to protect this land, and only she can power the failing shield that protects them all. She must accept all this while she’s trying to figure out how she and Dante can keep their budding relationship going. We’ll all find out in the next installment.
The writing is engaging; the characters are rich and multifaceted. I’m hoping that our heroine gets a bit more teeth during the series. Dante seems to be the most conflicted character coming from two different races, one perceived as good the other as evil. He seems to be continually battling his dual nature when in reality, we all have that duality in us. Zaira, Alessia’s grandmother, appears to only see Alessa as a replacement for her daughter and not as her sentient self. There’s also a host of other characters, like Dante’s family who is funny and loving. Then there’s Gradho, from one of the neighboring houses who’s a power-hungry, a social-climbing manipulator who is always trying to cause discord. He reminds me of that uncle you only see at holidays and wish you didn’t.
All in all, I think this is going to be an exciting series.