Review: The Last Alignment by Nathaniel Stewart

Title: The Last Alignment: Book One

Author: Nathaniel Stewart

Publication Date: July 31, 2012

Synopsis:

"He had been dead. Really dead. Now he wasn't  But if he had died and were dead, would he have been aware of the actual fact that he was deceased? He was here now, so did that mean that all this time that he thought he was gone he really wasn't? But then what had happened to him if he didn't die? It had felt so real…more permanent than all the other times…"

Hektor has been dead for fourteen years, and he believed that all the chaos that existed had died with him. And now, he has returned, and while he doesn't know how he has found his way back to the land of the living, he recognizes that the situation is far more dangerous and hostile than it was before. Things have not only changed, but they have moved forward so rapidly that on top of everything else, he now has to deal with five teenagers and prepare them to do what those before them could not. But Awbrey, Hudson, Androse, Zander, and Natalye have a ways to go before they can come together and do anything, a daunting detail considering that Hektor doesn't know how far the enemy has gotten in his absence.

~My Thoughts~

The Last Alignment is the story of five teenagers: Androse, Natalye, Awbrey, Hudson and Zander. Even though each teen knows that they have a special power, none of them know why. That is about to change. They are all called to a special meeting where not only will they meet each other for the first time, they will learn just what their powers mean and how to use them. Unfortunately, they aren't being called for a good reason. A very serious evil is looking for them, hoping to wipe out them out before they can stop him. With the help of Hektor, a powerful being in his own right, they will learn to work together and trust each other because their lives and the fate of the world depend on them.

The Last Alignment doesn't waste any time getting right to the heart of the story. We immediately meet Hektor and learn about his past, or at least some of it. It starts out with an intense fight scene that shows us just how powerful Hektor can be and spotlights some of his abilities. After this battle, Hektor takes a back burner to the teens while we learn more about them and their powers. Even though we don't really find out exactly what (or who) Hektor is, I feel invested in the character and am looking forward to learning all of his secrets. 

We then move on to meet the teens one by one. While Hudson and Awbrey are best friends, they don't know any of the others. We meet each character as they arrive at the meeting place, and learn a little about each character's background then. I'll admit to being quite confused while this was going on. There are a lot of people to remember in this story and I had to go back a few times to figure out who was who. Each teen arrived with parents or grandparents and keeping track of who went where tripped me up at first. Thankfully though, I was quickly able to catch up.

What I loved most about this story was the dynamics between the teens. I think a lot of stories throw kids together in rough situations and we are just expected to believe that even though they just met, they immediately bond and trust each other. That is definitely not the case here. I truly appreciated the fact that not all of these kids got along, and sometimes for no good reason. This happens in real life and it felt true to the situation in the story. You can't just throw random sixteen-year-olds together and expect them to become best friends. The author did a fantastic job capturing the attitudes of actual teenagers.

Overall, I enjoyed The Last Alignment quite a bit. Even though most of this book was concentrated on meeting the teens and helping them bond and get to know each other, I felt that was an extremely important aspect of the story and one that we will tested in the second book. I have high hopes for this series and am anxious to get my hands on book two. I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves Young Adult or paranormal. 

For more about The Last Alignment and Nathaniel Stewart, visit him on Facebook.

~Purchase~

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*I received this book for free in exchange of my honest review. This did not influence my opinion in any way and all views and opinions expressed are 100% my own.