Hunted

Hunted

by Megan Spooner

3/5

“Fairy tales are about lessons. Those who are virtuous and true are rewarded,

while those who are wicked and greedy are punished.”

     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?

 

          I feel like I say this with every YA book I read, but I feel like if I read this book four years ago it would have got a 5 star rating instead of a 3 star, so just understand that going in to this review! This book was good and one of the better YA books I've read in a while. The writing was superb and the setting was fantastic! This is a retelling of Beauty & the Beast and definitely one of the better retellings out there, is it my favorite? No but still worth a read!

       However at some points I felt like the book was just meh, or I was bored. I always have a hard time relating to younger characters and some of the things they tend to do are silly and unrealistic. This book though didn't have too many of those annoying character traits. The characters were really well done and I think that had a lot to do with the fact that this author is just fantastic at writing. I just felt like this was nothing new. I mean it reads like every other YA book out there, except it's a retelling instead of a fantasy. I enjoyed it, but I also felt like I had to push myself to finish it at some points.

       The Beast. Well he was definitely tortured and some of the fairy tales made like no sense in this book. Like 45% into this book the author decided to throw in some magic, and bam we have random stories and magical birds, and overall the book had like a blanket of dullness over it so even the magic didn't feel too magical. I also felt like Yeva was very wishy washy, like one minute she hates the beast and the next she's normal around him. I get it, she thinks he killed her father. I'd be pissed too, but there was a point in this book where I felt like we had finally progressed in the story and relationship and then BAM she does something so intense that I felt like there was no going back for them. To be honest my favorite part about this book was probably the setting and the Beast. Like I really enjoyed his character, way more then Yeva.

      It's definitely a slow burn romance so if you think they'll be in love by chapter three, nope. Yeva hates him for like 85% of this book, which is also something that bothered me. I think the author was just trying to create a realistic relationship, but I mean you're writing a fairytale retelling.... the girl legit falls for a beast... BE DRAMATIC, IT'S OK! So yeah, I feel some kind of way about this book. Like I said I would still recommend this book because I think fans of YA would loooooooove this book, and I hardly hear anyone talking about it, but as a hardcore romance reader this was just a little lacking for me! If you want an adult retelling check out Beast In Shinning Armor by Cassandra Gannon. She does a whole series of retellings, and they're SO good!

His Royal Higness

His Royal Highness

by R.S. Grey

4/5

“To love is to settle, to feel calmed by a lover’s embrace.

It’s why people often define home as a person, not a place.”

    I’ve spent eight years wishing I’d fall out of love with Derek Knightley. Blowing out birthday candles, chasing after shooting stars, making it rain spare change into mall fountains—every time it’s the same wish: forget about Derek. 
    But the day he walks back into my life, I realize there are two things time has yet to soften: my feelings for him and his chiseled jawline. 
    It’s infuriating that my heart still races when he walks into a room. I refuse to fall prey to old unrequited love, so I decide the less I’m around him, the better. Avoidance is key. 
    Unfortunately, Derek isn’t going to make it easy. As a teenager, I would have crawled on my hands and knees to attract his attention. Now I can’t seem to escape it. 
    I’m not sure why he’s bothering. He’s not just out of my league—he’s out of my tax bracket. As the sole heir to the Knightley Company, he’s as close to American royalty as you can get. As for me, I’m just a part-time princess at Knightley’s flagship magical theme park. 
    I spend my days playing make-believe, but Derek has no use for fairytales. His unwavering confidence makes it clear he thinks I’ll surrender in the end. 
   He’s just biding his time. 
Making me sweat. 
His Royal Highness always gets what he wants.
And he wants me. 

    Well R.S. Grey has done it again! I laughed out loud and fell in love with this story! If you're a fan of Disney you need to read this, the setting is so magical and made me crave a Disney trip ( which I gave into because I'm going this weekend! )! Her past few books haven't been my absolute favorites, and I felt like she was beginning to become repetitive but this one changed my mind! Was it still a rom com with a swoon worthy hero and a quirky heroine? Yes, but that's my guilty pleasure! Speaking of our heroine I loved Whitney! I adored that she was a freaking princess at Fairytale Kingdom! She was a typical R.S. Grey character but I also felt like she had a little more depth then some of her other characters do! I loved the relationship between Whitney and Cal. Cal is the owner of the theme park and also Whitney's standing Wednesday night dinner date! Cal is really more like a father to her then a mentor and trust me the girl needs someone on her side because her parents are absolute crap! From an early age her parents haven't really been there for her, not neglect but their life revolves around their other daughter, and man I felt all the feels that Whit was feeling! So Whitney decides to create her own life and family at Fairytale Kingdom!
    Now our love interest Derek was definitely swoon worthy! He's older than Whitney which I really liked about his character, and I also loved seeing the progression of their friendship/relationship. Upon entering the college program with the park, Whitney gets assigned a mentor and it just happens to be the grandson of the infamous Cal Knightley, the park owner. It was also really relatable seeing how cringeworthy and odd Whitney was as a teenager, and her harmless crush on Derek. I mean we can all relate to those silly crushes! It definitely adds to the humor and even chemistry in their relationship when they reconnect years later. They create an almost explosive relationship, one filled with lots and lots of tension, and when the tension finally peaks we're rewarded with a wonderful parade scene that I died for! UGH! SO CUTE!
   So why the four star? Other then the fact that I'm picky and selectively give out 5 stars, I also felt like I was more invested in Whitney's life as a princess at Fairytale Kingdom then the relationship in the book. The relationship was good, don't get me wrong but I also felt like I still would have read this book without it! So you still think I would give it a 5 star right? Sure if the book wasn't labeled as a romantic comedy, like I picked this book up for the romance and it did deliver, just not five stars! Still a wonderful book and quick read! I definitely recommend this book for a light read that gives you all the Disney feels! Also this is free on Kindle Unlimited! If you did read this book and loved it you should check out Hotshot Doc by R.S. Grey!

No Exit

No Exit

by Taylor Adams

5/5

“The difference between a hero and a victim? Timing.” 

    On her way to Utah to see her dying mother, college student Darby Thorne gets caught in a fierce blizzard in the mountains of Colorado. With the roads impassable, she’s forced to wait out the storm at a remote highway rest stop. Inside, are some vending machines, a coffee maker, and four complete strangers.
   Desperate to find a signal to call home, Darby goes back out into the storm . . . and makes a horrifying discovery. In the back of the van parked next to her car, a little girl is locked in an animal crate.
  Who is the child? Why has she been taken? And how can Darby save her?
  There is no cell phone reception, no telephone, and no way out. One of her fellow travelers is a kidnapper. But which one?
  Trapped in an increasingly dangerous situation, with a child’s life and her own on the line, Darby must find a way to break the girl out of the van and escape.
But who can she trust?

WOW, this book blew me away! This is honestly the perfect book for people new to the thriller genre! The summary sets you up with a pretty clear picture of what's going to happen in the book, and yet you're still shocked at some of the twists! Throughout most of this book it was a steady 4 star rating for me, and then I got to the last 20% of this book and I was BLOWN away. I was legit on the edge of my seat. My husband came home from work and the first thing he said to me was, "Why are you sitting all weird." I preceded to SHUSH him and read the last five pages of this book. It was so intense at some points that I had to reread pages and paragraphs to make sure I had really just read what I thought I did. 

  At no point in this book was it slow paced, from the moment that Darby pulls in to that rest area you're biting at your nails. The writing was superb in this book, although you figure out who the perp is pretty quickly the author does it in a way where you question the very obvious choice and then when you find out who it was you're still shocked! 

  One scene in particular gave me straight chills! One of my first thoughts after reading this book was that I was going to have nightmares. Remember how I said that some plot points were a little predictable? Well not all of them were, some of them I couldn't have even guessed and I think the author found a perfect balance in this to make it come alive. Lets face it, the most thrilling and scary part of this book is the fact that it's realistic. How many of us stop at rest areas late at night? How many times has your gut given you a weird feeling?! You never know what's going on around you, and unfortunately in this world monsters aren't werewolves and vampires, they're humans. 

   If you need a break from your current genre and want something addicting you need to pick this up! Why isn't this a movie? It needs to be! I could definitely see Leonardo Dicaprio playing some role in this! Also if you have read this book and loved it you should check out I Let You Go by Clare Mackintosh!