Hunted by Meagan Spooner on January 1st 1970
Pages: 374
Goodreads
Beauty knows the Beast’s forest in her bones—and in her blood. Though she grew up with the city’s highest aristocrats, far from her father’s old lodge, she knows that the forest holds secrets and that her father is the only hunter who’s ever come close to discovering them.
So when her father loses his fortune and moves Yeva and her sisters back to the outskirts of town, Yeva is secretly relieved. Out in the wilderness, there’s no pressure to make idle chatter with vapid baronessas…or to submit to marrying a wealthy gentleman. But Yeva’s father’s misfortune may have cost him his mind, and when he goes missing in the woods, Yeva sets her sights on one prey: the creature he’d been obsessively tracking just before his disappearance.
Deaf to her sisters’ protests, Yeva hunts this strange Beast back into his own territory—a cursed valley, a ruined castle, and a world of creatures that Yeva’s only heard about in fairy tales. A world that can bring her ruin or salvation. Who will survive: the Beauty, or the Beast?
3.5 Nuts
When it comes to fairy tale retellings I think I have a type. Because it seems like the majority of the ones I pick up are Beauty and the Beast. Now add a Belle character who is a boss at archery and, yep, I’m good with that.
The first thing that drew me to this book was the beautiful cover. I mean come on, how can you say no to that thing. Add to that the fact that I adore Meagan Spooner, (i met her in person once, she’s lovely) and you would think that this book would be perfect. Then why am I only giving it 3.5 nuts?
First, let me point out that a 3.5 is still an “I liked it”. It’s better than average. And really the biggest reason I didn’t give it anything higher was because of pacing. See, I listened to the audiobook for Hunted. When it comes to audiobooks, moreso than with a print copy, if the pacing of the story is off you REALLY notice it. I was sitting there listening and I was a little bit bored. I switched books a couple of times, even, coming back when I finished something else.
Other than the pacing problems though, I did enjoy the book. It goes for the original fairy tale version of Beauty and the Beast much more than the Disney-fied version, which I was very happy about. The characters are all well written and many faceted, the Beast reminded me a lot of Ignifex from Cruel Beauty (<3 Ignifex), and our Beauty was much more than just a girl into stories.
I just wish that the story moved a little faster, and I guess that the Beast character didn’t talk so freaking weird. Seriously, that was incredibly distracting. Stop that.
I am looking forward to more Meagan Spooner books, and I think I’m going to give this one another try in the future, reading the print version to see if maybe a different mood and format will change my opinion on pacing. Who knows, perhaps it was just a narrator issue.
What did you think of Hunted? Share your thoughts in the comments.
From my shelf to yours,
Erin
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