Series: Eurona Duology #1
Author: Wendy Higgins
Genre: Young Adult, Romance, Fantasy
Publisher: Harper Teen
Publication Date: March 8, 2016
Source: Bought
“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.
Find The Great Hunt online
This was one of my most highly anticipated reads of the year. I'm a HUGE Wendy Higgins fan and reader. Her Sweet Trilogy is what initially inspired me to start this blog because oh my gosh I needed to talk about it. I've read some of her other books - mostly standalones - and have really enjoyed those as well so I was expecting a lot from this one. Unfortunately, I was missing the spark in this novel that made those others so magical for me. While I still enjoyed reading this one, I found that it was something that I could put down for hours and not be excited to pick it back up again.
I think the thing I struggled with most in this novel was the characters. I just could not connect with them. For one thing, it felt like there was an incredibly wide cast of characters which made it hard to remember who was who while reading. Also, because of this I never felt like we learned a lot about of them. They all just fell kind of flat and didn't have a lot of depth. As far as Aerity goes, she was really kind and loyal but that's about as much as I can say about her. She felt like a flatter replica of Anna from Wendy's first series. I got really tired of her. Paxton was similar. While he had that brooding, rough around the edges thing going for him that's so popular in YA, he fell really flat, too. I just . . . these characters bored me.
I liked the plot and the world but I would have liked to see more of it. A lot of the story felt kind of repetitive which was disappointing because it seemed like there was so much more than could go into it.
Overall, I'm not thrilled with this book. It was entertaining at times but for the most part, it felt fairly forgettable and I found the characters boring. It's disappointing that this book came from one of my favorite authors but I guess I'll just have to stick to her other works for now on.
“Fear was a dangerous, unpredictable weapon.”
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