Review: Alterant by Sherrilyn Kenyon and Dianna Love (Beladors #2)

Alterant (Beladors #2)
Sherrilyn Kenyon and Dianna Love
Published: Sept. 27, 2011 (Pocket Star Books)
Purchase: Book Depository or Amazon
Review source: purchased

Reviewed by: Jill

Rating (out of 5): 5 stars

Note: While this review will be spoiler free, it does make references to previous books in the series. If you haven’t started yet, check out VBC’s review of book 1, Blood Trinity.

Poor Evalle has another impossible task from the Tribunal. She has to find three other Alterants, and convince them to come before the Tribunal, even though they could quickly lock them up in isolation forever. Oh, and she has an undefined time limit. On top of that crisis, the Medb (evil witches) are releasing a fog that is causing Alterants to lose control and shift into their beast forms. Can Evalle hold her control together to convince these beaten-down people to risk their freedom for a greater cause?

She’s able to enlist the help of Tristan, the ‘evil’ Alterant that we met in the last book. Interestingly, we see an all new side of Tristan; a gentle, and kind one that might be good after all, if he doesn’t betray Evalle in the end. We also see a new side of Kizira, the Medb witch that had a thing for Quinn in the last book, as well as some of their history. There are a few interesting tidbits about Tzader and the warrior queen, Brina. Overall, this book has a LOT more answers than the last book. And those answers are really exciting; these secondary characters are awesome.

Evalle is slowly conquering her demons. Due to the abuse in her past she doesn’t trust very readily, especially men. Despite that, however, she has a huge heart, and will stop in the middle of a situation that could be deadly to her, so that she can help someone else. She is truly a good person, and you don’t see that often, especially with her past. I found myself admiring her strength of character more and more. Storm is doing a splendid job of helping her become more comfortable and trusting of others. He’s still too perfect to me, so something terrible probably happens, we’ll see. There was just a tiny bit of Isak in this book, but he’s definitely going to start snooping around Evalle soon, which might be a major problem for her in the future.

Alterant gives a more in depth look at the Medb, the Beladors, and all of the characters. We learn the structure of the organization and their purpose. I don’t want to give away any of the surprises, so I’ll just tell you that while they give you a lot of answers, it leaves you hungry for more! It’s like a different author wrote this book compared to Blood Trinity, and that crazy confusion is totally gone. I’m SO glad I didn’t shy away from the series because of the first book.

Kenyon and Love set up the climax of this book wonderfully, with things happening from multiple perspectives, you’re getting the whole picture but the characters don’t have that information. I was left going, “uh oh, oh boy, oh no…” while poor Evalle just plowed straight into the fray.

This series falls more into the urban fantasy genre than the paranormal romance found in most of Kenyon’s other series. Instead of the similar universe, where each book is one couple’s Happily Ever After, this series seems to be following Evalle, and the problems that fall in front of her. I have to admit, I enjoy this type of action combined with romance book more than the strictly romance ones, so I’m a bit biased.

The answers that you get in Alterant are incredible, and we’re given the beginning of a lot of character’s stories. This series just became great and I can’t wait to read the next book.

Sexual content: Kissing