Series:Eurona Duology, #1
Publication: March 8th 2016 by HarperTeen
Goodreads Description:
“Aerity…” Her father paused as if the words he was forming pained him. “I must ask you to sacrifice the promise of love for the sake of our kingdom.”
She could only stare back, frozen.
When a strange beast terrorizes the kingdom of Lochlanach, fear stirs revolt. In an act of desperation, a proclamation is sent to all of Eurona—kill the creature and win the ultimate prize: the daughter of King Lochson’s hand in marriage.
Princess Aerity knows her duty to the kingdom but cannot bear the idea of marrying a stranger... until a brooding local hunter, Paxton Seabolt, catches her attention. There’s no denying the unspoken lure between them... or his mysterious resentment.
Paxton is not the marrying type. Nor does he care much for spoiled royals and their arcane laws. He’s determined to keep his focus on the task at hand—ridding the kingdom of the beast—but the princess continues to surprise him, and the perilous secrets he’s buried begin to surface.
Inspired by the Grimm Brothers’ tale “The Singing Bone,” New York Times bestselling author Wendy Higgins delivers a dark fantasy filled with rugged hunters, romantic tension, and a princess willing to risk all to save her kingdom.
My thoughts:
The Great Hunt is just an okay read; it is definitely not as good as Wendy Higgins' other books in my opinion. I might not have liked The Great Hunt as much as I could have because my expectations were too high. I'm a big fan of the Sweet Evil Trilogy so I went in was expecting a fast and fun story and that's not what the Great Hunt is.
Firstly, the main character, Aerity, didn't blow me away again this could be because of my expectations! I thought she'd be all fierce and strong headed and totally against someone winning her hand and that's not what she was. I will say though that I admired how much she was willing to do to save her people (even if she didn't actually do anything herself just agreed to be married off). There was some aspects of her character that was kind of cool though. I liked how she was an acrobat and we got to read about her using silks; that's not something I'd read about before and I love coming across characters with unique hobbies. But if your looking for female empowerment you won't find it here, Aerity is not the kickass smart heroine we have been seeing a lot of in YA over the last few years (there is a groups of women who enter to kill the beast which I got very excited about but sadly they were very underdeveloped and kind of pushed off to the side).
The plot wasn't great to me, but again this was because of my expectations; I thought the focus would be on killing/hunting the beast, (before reading it I thought Aerity would go off and try kill the beast herself) instead the focus was on Aerity and her cousin Wyneth and their affections for the men who were hunting the beast.
The story is told I'm dual POV so there is a good few scenes about the actual hunting of the beast which I liked a lot more than Aerity's chapters. The story was paced fine; I didn't find it too slow or too fast- I was engaged reading for the most part and it did pick up near the very end and I did start getting more invested in the story.
I was not a fan of the love interest Paxton. He was way to moody for my taste and to be honest he was pretty mean to Aerity. I didn't see what she saw in him.
I really liked how big a part family was in the story. Aerity's two siblings, Vixie and Donny and her cousins are very prominent in the story. I loved her relationship with her oldest cousin Wyneth. It was nice reading their friendship. Family also plays a role in Paxton's POV. I liked how his relationship with his brother, Tiern, was a big part of his story.
Overall I feel like The Great Hunt was just meh. The blurb misled me and my expectations lead to not enjoying it as much as I could have. I'd say if you were going to pick up Wendy Higgins books pick up the Sweet Evil trilogy instead.
My rating: 3 stars
Thanks for reading,
A:)
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