I received this book for free from Reviewer Purchase in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Hunted by Meagan Spooner Published by HarperTeen on 3/14/17
Genres: Fantasy & Magic, Retellings, Romance, Young Adult
Pages: 384
Format: Hardcover
Source: Reviewer Purchase
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Beauty knows the Beast's forest in her bones--and in her blood.
Though Yeva 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?
Short and Sweet
Yeva lives in the city with her two sisters and father, but when her father makes a risky business decision that goes wrong the family is forced to move to her father’s lodge in the forest. Her father used to be a hunter and takes it up again once they arrive at the lodge, but he starts to lose his mind and goes missing in the woods. Yeva goes after him and the beast that he mentioned before he went missing.
Characters
Yeva (Beauty): Yeva is family oriented and she loves them a lot and she’s willing to make sacrifices that she thinks will help her family. Yeva is graceful and intelligent, she has a love for nature and hunting.
Beast: We get to read from the beast’s POV and we see that he’s conflicted with fighting his animal side and human side.
Romance
Yeva and Solmir: He was one of Yeva’s suitors he was rich and willing to help her family. He and Yeva built a friendship over time and Yeva tries to find feelings for him, so that she might take him up on his offer of marriage. When Yeva goes looking for her father she makes a deal with Solmir that if he looks out for her sisters when she comes back she’ll marry him.
Yeva and Beast: This was a slow building relationship. Yeva was being held captive by the Beast and their interactions were tense at first, but they soon began to understand each other and show more compassion.
Quotes
“She wept because she did not know what she wanted, and because she wanted everything.”
My Thoughts
~ Let me be completely honest, I’ve never watched Beauty and the Beast so going into this book I didn’t know much about the original story.
~ I think the book started off slow but once I got to the point where Yeva and her family moved to the lodge things started to pick up for me.
~ Yeva was always looking for something more in her life but whenever she thought about what that something was she didn’t know. The Beast was also the same way and that was what led him to being cursed.
~ I liked seeing the relationship between Beauty and the Beast develop it was slow and it took time. Beauty’s presence helped Beast regain control of his human side.
~ Beauty was intelligent and knew that the Beast couldn’t tell her about the curse so she did some inquiring of her own around his castle whenever she had the chance.
~ I loved the setting, it was somewhere in Russia and we get to go through the seasons and it felt like I was there with the characters.
Overall
The writing was beautiful and as soon as I got into the book I couldn’t put it down. I loved the characters and their different personalities and getting to see Yeva grow. This was a great introduction to Beauty and the Beast for me, and I recommend it!
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