Through the Hostage (book 1 in the Cortii Universe) by J C Steel

The Wildcat Cortiia, a command unit training to face its final test called the Crossing, struggles to accept its leader Cortu Khyria Ilan. She’s a rebel in her heard and abandoned the Cortiia during the first phases of its training and now her second in command Taiva is trying to persuade her to take her responsibilities and lead Wildcat into the Crossing. Failing to do so, will result in the failure of the Crossing and their possible death. Same would happen if their Cortu dies, before or during the Crossing.

To everyone surprise, during the training, and before passing the Crossing, the Cortiia is sent to earth to retrieve an observer, but what Khyria finds out about Jack after meeting him is something that threaten both their lives.

This is the last novel I will be reviewing in 2019, and the first one to appear in my blog in 2020, and I was not disappointed at all, by the story narrated in Through the Hostage book 1 in the Cortii Universe by J C Steel. Her descriptive style and world-building is amazingly vivid despite describing an alien race of altered mercenaries and their alien environment. The excessive use of adverbs and the repetition of the smile verb in the last few chapters of the first half of the novel, made that segment a little bit boring, but the story wanted to be read and I obliged. Beside this, everything seems to fall into line in this adventure of intergalactic proportions. Highly recommended for those who want to taste something ‘alien’, but still close home somehow.

You can find the book here: https://www.amazon.com/Through-Hostage-survival-matters-Cortii-ebook/dp/B00U4IY108/