Summary(from Goodreads):Elena Manory is by no means an ordinary teenage girl. Being born with the ability to heal herself from any injury, and with the knowledge that on her eighteenth birthday she will become a Vampire, Elena is aware that she is more than a little different from other girls her age.
It isn’t until she meets William Granville, an alluring and impossibly handsome vampire, that she begins to question her destiny and what secrets the Institute of Magical Intervention and her adopted family have withheld—secrets that could change the fates of not only her own life, but of the lives of all the immortals.
As events spiral out of control, William may be the only person Elena can place her trust in. He, and Elena’s magical family, must fight to save her, joining forces to defeat a common, deadly foe. For William, it is his chance to save the girl that he has searched eternity to find.
This book grew on me as I read it. When I first picked it up, it took me a while to get into it. This book is long. I think it is around 580 pages or so. And At points it really feels like it. But once I really got into the story, I ended up connecting with the characters and enjoying myself. Then I liked how long the book was, because I wanted to know what was going to happen. I didn’t want it to end. The ending made me want to stick around and read the second book too! Ok let’s break it down some more.
Elena is pretty cool. She seems virtually indestructible. But it did take awhile to like her. I’m not really sure why. I think at the beginning I just saw her as a bit of a trouble maker. And don’t get me wrong- she is a HUGE trouble maker, but as the book went on I just got to understanding her a little bit better. And then once the mystery surrounding her unusual circumstances came up, I was fully on team Elena. For some reason, I always pictured Elena from the Vampire Diaries when I was thinking about her. I also really, really liked William! I can’t wait to see how that whole thing will pan out.
This brings me to some of the things that I didn’t love about The Hunted. First, the book is a really complex concept, which I really did like- but that takes a lot of foundation laying so you can actually understand how the world works and who the main players are. I get that, but it kind of felt like this book was a bit too much foundation laying at points. I also thought that there were a lot of really dense big paragraphs and they dragged on a bit for me. I would have liked to seen them broken up a bit more with dialogue and other breaks. I think that would have made the book flow a bit better. But I will say that at about the half way point, the story really picks up and I didn’t notice any more slow parts/or find myself thinking there was too much on the page.
I also didn’t like all the references to “tempting fate” with William and Elena. Let me explain, it’s not the situation that I didn’t like. I think that is going to be one of my favorite parts of the next book; I can’t WAIT to see a certain new character and find out what he is going to bring to the table. But, I didn’t like that Elena heard all of these comments and never once asked what they meant. I would think that she would be curious or at least as William when they were alone, but it never came up at all!
Overall, this book dragged for me a bit in some places and it had a lot of set up. But once I got into the story and I knew everything that was going on, I enjoyed the book. The second half was much better than the first half of the book in my opinion. If you started this book and put it down for whatever reason, pick it back up and read the whole thing. I think you will like it! It just keeps getting better as the story goes on, and book 2 looks like it is going to be even better than this one!
 |
| 3/5 Gavels |
If you enjoyed this post, please Subscribe to Book Briefs in a reader
Giselle
Great review! I just read a book recently too that the world was SO complicated that it took nearly half the book to understand it. And by then I was just bored with the story since I didn’t get into it from the start. I do like the premise of this though and the cover is awesome!!
bookbitereviews
Thanks for the review! It does suck when a book doesn’t pick up your interests till the second half. I have definitely had that happen to me.
Jessica B.
Arg. A complex concept. Those are usually very hit or miss because they can either work perfectly or be totally confusing. One is awesome and makes for a great book, while the other makes reading said book a daunting task.
♥Jessica(:
Alyssa Susanna
I read this book when it became free on Amazon (Kindle). For about one third of the book I was actually about to fall asleep. She could’vestarted the book at that one-third point. Descriptions are nice, but this was pointess and a little ridiculous. And I ended up not even liking most of the book. The best part was the love interest, which didn’t even satisfy me by the end. So yes, I think I agree with the 3/5 stars, or maybe 2/5, all for Will though 🙂
Thanks for the review!!!
Alyssa