Review - Valter by Alexis Woods

Valter is the youngest of the five children of the king and queen. Soon, his parents will be trying to marry him off to some princess, which is a rather depressing thought. Valter's preferences lie in another direction. But Fate has other plans for the young man. On his eighteenth birthday, after a particularly cruel round of bullying from his older siblings, Valter discovers that he's fated to mate with not one but two other men. Not only that, one is a werewolf and the other a vampire.

“Valter” is set in a familiar medieval fantasy world where werewolves, vampires, faeries, and magic are all real. As is often the case in such worlds, the vampires and wolves are enemies, although nobody seems to remember why. This adds a bit of frisson to the story, which otherwise lacks much drama.

The point of view for the narration alternates between the three fated mates, Valter, Baron the vampire, and Duke the werewolf. Valter is the catalyst, and he is the most distinctly defined of the three men. Baron and Duke are less well-defined, more true-to-type characters.

There's not a lot to this story. It takes off to a quick start and really just covers the run-up to the three men finally meeting. There's no real drama to the plot. This is the first of a five volume series, so it may just be an introduction to set the stage for later books.

“Valter” is available from Amazon (commissionable link).