Hunted in Hype or Like Friday

Oct 09, 2016 Sammi rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2016

Be still my beating heart!!

As most of you have probably figured out… I am obsessed with retellings!! And apparently Wolves! Ha!! If you haven’t heard I am in love with The Big Bad Wolf from The Forgotten Fairytales by Angela Parkhurst. Anyway back to this book. I buddy read this book with my book blogging friend, Jasmine @How Useful It Is. Check out her amazing review here!

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Mar 05, 2017 Lynn Williams rated it it was amazing

This was amazing. I'm in love with this book!
Full review to follow ...more

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Mar 16, 2017 Lila (Hardcover Haven) rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2017-most-anticipated

This review was originally posted on The Bookkeepers' Secrets
Ah, love. The feeling you experience when you read a good book. A good book such as Meagan Spooner’s Hunted! (*wink wink, nudge nudge*) I certainly found many things to love in Hunted, the latest Beauty and the Beast YA retelling on the market. And that’s saying a lot because, in all honesty, a) Beauty and the Beast isn’t my favorite fairytale and b) the market is kinda saturated with YA Beauty and the Beast retellings, in my opinion. This review was originally posted on The Bookkeepers' Secrets
Ah, love. The feeling you experience when you read a good book. A good book such as Meagan Spooner’s Hunted! (*wink wink, nudge nudge*) I certainly found many things to love in Hunted, the latest Beauty and the Beast YA retelling on the market. And that’s saying a lot because, in all honesty, a) Beauty and the Beast isn’t my favorite fairytale and b) the market is kinda saturated with YA Beauty and the Beast retellings, in my opinion. Nevertheless, I really, really enjoyed Hunted and sped through it in 2.5 to 3 days!

First off, I loved the characters. They were each unique and distinguishable. Even the secondary characters, like Galina, Solomir, and Yeva’s sisters had depth! I loved that Spooner didn’t just name attributes to the characters, but actually showed those attributes in action. We saw Yeva’s bravery and skill as a huntress and Beast’s dual nature, and Asenka’s compassion and so on.

I’ve gotta talk about my fave, Yeva, the main character! I adored Yeva. She’s a skilled huntress who’s always felt a deep longing for more. It was Yeva’s desire to experience more that I really identified with, because that’s something that I’ve always felt. Yeva was strong and brave, but she was also kind and loving. I was really happy to see that Spooner didn’t fall into the trap of making Yeva the typical Strong Female Lead™–ya know, the one’s who’s sassy and good at everything and beautiful and brave and blah, blah, blah. Yeva was strong, yet also soft. And she was deeply flawed, as we learned in the end. She was human and that made her easy to connect with.

The relationships portrayed were also amazing! I particularly loved Yeva’s relationship with her sisters. The girls were incredibly close and never once did their loyalty to and love for each other waver, even when they could have easily fallen into jealousy and competition. It was so nice to see a positive and close portrayal of family!

And the romance! Swoon! Hunted is the prime example of a slow burn romance done right! I appreciated how it was only after coming to really know each other that Yeva and her love interest really begin to fall for each other. You can see their progression from enemies to wary acquaintances to friends to good friends to feeling something more for each other. The unfolding of the pair’s love was really beautiful and touching to witness.

Another element I enjoyed was the world. Spooner’s world building is clear, yet lyrical and gracefully executed, without getting info dump-y. Hunted is set in an ancient, mythical version of Russia, where fairytales mingle with real life. The magic was just enough, but not overpowering and in this way, Spooner made the magic seem all the more real as it intertwined with the plausible. The snowy, harsh landscape was also a nice setting for the story because it added an extra obstacle to the tale. Everything about the world was so easy to lose yourself in and it really added an extra dimension to the story.

Okay, so while I loved 95% of Hunted, there was that teensy-weensy 5% that I thought could’ve been done better. In particular: the story dragged slightly in the middle and I also felt the story could’ve been a tad more original.

Let’s address the first of my complaints: the middle. There is this section where the story kinda gets stuck in a rut, with Yeva hunting, returning to the castle, rinse, wash, repeat. It gets repetitive and that starts to slow the story a bit. I just wish we’d spent that time doing something more, perhaps exploring Beast’s past or learning more about th world. Spooner resolves the issue eventually, but just barely after I started fading.

Now onto my second issue. While Hunted was quite honestly compulsively readable, it didn’t stray much from the original tale. In fact, it’s almost an exact retelling. It differed in the world and setting, yes, but the plot stuck pretty darn close to the original Beauty and the Beast tale. I just feel like, in this new and magical world, and with the writing talent that Spooner clearly displays, there definitely was room to elaborate and embellish. It just seems to me like Spooner played it safe when it came to plot and I think that she’s talented enough that taking a risk would’ve really paid off.

So all in all, I really enjoyed Hunted. I’d recommend it to fans of Beauty and the Beast and Russian-inspired fantasy such as The Grisha Trilogy by Leigh Bardugo or The Crown’s Game by Evelyn Skye. Definitely a great read! ...more

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Sep 10, 2017 Larkin (Wonderfilled Reads) rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: reviewed-on-blog, own, retelling, romance, stand-alone, young-adult, fantasy, harper-teen, 2017-release

Really good book, and such a wonderful take on this classic fairytale. I loved how Spooner was able to weave it seamlessly with Russian folklore. While it did tend to drag a bit in the middle, I think its one of those books that should be savored beside a fire with a hot cup of tea.

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Jul 06, 2017 Ashley rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, fairy-tale-mythology-and-retelling, fiction

Somehow I became a sucker for basically any Beauty and the Beast retelling. I love retellings in general, but somehow this particular one has become my jam.

And Hunted does not disappoint. The Beauty in Megan Spooner's retelling is fierce, devoted, and also desperate for something more (not entirely dissimilar from but not quite as annoying as the "there must be more than this provincial life" kind of way). She also feels intense guilt for her desire for a life more than what she has.

Her fathe Somehow I became a sucker for basically any Beauty and the Beast retelling. I love retellings in general, but somehow this particular one has become my jam.

And Hunted does not disappoint. The Beauty in Megan Spooner's retelling is fierce, devoted, and also desperate for something more (not entirely dissimilar from but not quite as annoying as the "there must be more than this provincial life" kind of way). She also feels intense guilt for her desire for a life more than what she has.

Her father loses their money and he, Yeva and her two sisters must sell what they can and move back to his hunting lodge, where he lived and hunted as a young man. He's gone all the time and Yeva begins hunting nearby in the woods to just get away from her sisters' sadness. There, a young man from the village (Gaston, basically, except not at all a Gaston - this young man is sweet, and kind, and full of love) comes to encourage her to marry him. He will love enough for the both of them, take care of her family, and she can always remain exactly who she is. She finally promises she will marry him once her father returns from his hunts. But he doesn't return, and she feels that the beast that he raved about is alive and well in the woods. Yeva sets out to find her father and kill the beast.

Y'all, Hunted is such a gorgeous novel. It's full of anger and darkness. Yes, there is also a library, and, yes, Yeva has a lot of feelings toward the Beast, but this is no heartwarming romance. There are magical creatures in the Beast's world, but they are dangerous and full of trickery. Set in medieval Russia in the winter, there is a lot of ice and cold, but there are no cute snowball fights.

This is a retelling of famous fairy tale, full of magic and wonder and beasts, but this also a human story about the price of greed and the weight of guilt.

I put this book down only when I had to, and then I couldn't stop thinking about when I could pick it back up again. Then I sat outside on my porch, getting eaten alive by mosquitoes, just so I wouldn't have to put it back down.

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