The White Thread
By K. B. Hoyle
Book Three in the Gateway Chronicles

I was thrilled to get a copy of this book, and I read it in a day, carrying my Kindle around with me everywhere I went, doing laundry and other household chores. I didn’t answer the phone, didn’t read anything else, didn’t care about email, I was just lost in the spell of Alitheia.
In this third installment of the Gateway Chronicles, the six teenagers from our world return to the family summer camp and thence to the gateway leading them back to Alitheia. And I was ready, eager to jump back into the land and the adventures we would all find there.
The book is mostly caught up with the events of trying to save a beloved Aletheian friend from the fate that befell them in the previous book. But this time, the Six go together, along with Tellius and Rubidius and other familiar Aletheians. They meet with new dangers and new friends along the way. We have a group of six fifteen-year-old teenagers, so we do get a bit of typical teenage angst and craziness, but it really works, and the author does not overdo it in any way. Prince Tellius has grown up greatly in this book, and I think I enjoyed him more than almost anyone in the story. Darcy has really matured by this book, and she was a delight to read and follow as she desperately tries to save a friend.
I think this is my favorite book so far in the series, except that the first book is usually my favorite as it is what introduced me to the wonders of this new world and the characters I came to love so deeply. At the end, I was saying, out loud, repeatedly, “No, no, no, no! It can’t be over!”
The Gateway Chronicles, what can I say? They are magical, wondrous. They make me believe again, make me want to go on adventures and save a different land, make me want to meet all the characters. And Now, I wait, eagerly, and not very patiently, for the next book. But in the meantime, I think about the story and the characters. I wonder what they’ll do, how they’ll save Alitheia, what will happen to them and where the gateway will take them next time. I even worry about the character from our world who is being seduced by the dark evil, joining Darcy in her concern for him, even though he’s not one of the Six.
I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating, the last time I had such a strong draw to a series was to the Harry Potter series. I couldn’t stop thinking about them between books, wondering what on earth would happen next. The Gateway Chronicles does the same thing to me, living in my heart and mind long after the final word. And I really think I need to go back and start the series over from book one!