Unicorn Tracks

by Julia Ember

When a vicious assault compels sixteen-year-old Mnemba to leave her village, she joins her cousin Tumelo as a tracker in his booming safari business. It doesn t take her long to become one of the best safari guides in Nazwimbe. Her work allows her to escape into a new world of wondrous creatures, and to avoid thinking about what happened at home. When Mr. Harving arrives with his daughter Kara to research unicorns, Tumelo assigns Mnemba to them as a guide. The attraction between Mnemba and Kara is almost instant, but Kara is engaged to be married when she returns home. Venturing into the savanna alone, they uncover a plot by a gang of poachers to enslave the unicorns, harnessing their supernatural strength to build a railway. They must save the creatures Kara loves while struggling not to succumb to forbidden love themselves.

• ISBN10: 1634768795
• ISBN13: 9781634768795
• Publish Date: 21 April 2016
• Publish Status: Active
• Imprint: Harmony Ink Press
• Format: eBook
• Pages: 180
• Language: English

Reviews

[Heather]

"After a savage attack drives her from her home, sixteen-year-old Mnemba finds a place in her cousin Tumelo’s successful safari business, where she quickly excels as a guide. Surrounding herself with nature and the mystical animals inhabiting the savannah not only allows Mnemba’s tracking skills to shine, it helps her to hide from the terrible memories that haunt her.
Mnemba is employed to guide Mr. Harving and his daughter, Kara, through the wilderness as they study unicorns. The young women are drawn to each other, despite that fact that Kara is betrothed. During their research, they discover a conspiracy by a group of poachers to capture the Unicorns and exploit their supernatural strength to build a railway. Together, they must find a way to protect the creatures Kara adores while resisting the love they know they can never indulge."

I loved the world building in this story!

A safari guide who lives surrounded by mythical creatures including unicorns?  Yes, please!



People come to Tumelo's safari camp to get close to the magical creatures. Mnemba is one of his best guides in addition to being his cousin.  She's been working for Tumelo ever since she left her village.  She was raped by a popular solider and many people in the town were hostile to her after her rapist was arrested.

She has to go back to her village in the story.  I thought this was well done.  She has to confront her father, the leader of the village, who she feels didn't support her enough in the aftermath of the attack and arrest.



I didn't buy into the relationship between Mnemba and Kara though.  It was too insta-love for my tastes.  Kara seemed too predatory in her approaches to Mnemba, almost like she thought sleeping with Mnemba was a perk of the safari.  There didn't seem to be any type of relationship building.  They didn't know each other at all or have any conversations before they decided that they were in love.

Kara was also a poster child for poor decision making.  If you have a top safari guide who you also claim to be madly in love with and she is telling you to get out of an area right now because it isn't safe, you should do that.  You shouldn't stand in place and pout and complain that she is trying to boss you around.  Bossing you is her job.  I was rooting for Kara to get eaten by the carnivorous mermaids.  (Carnivorous mermaids!  Seriously great world building.) Over and over again she blows off wiser people's advice and it always goes poorly for her.  I don't have much tolerance for that personality type.

Just so we are clear - Kara is white.  Mnemba is black.  Let's revisit that cover.



Yeah.  Totally whitewashed.  This is an interracial lesbian love story with unicorns but you wouldn't guess from the cover.

Bottom line

I loved the world.  I loved Mnemba.  She could do better than Kara.

 

 

 

 

 This review was originally posted on Based On A True Story

[Angie]

A F/F Romance set in the savanna...with unicorns?! There was no way I could pass on Unicorn Tracks! Mnemba works as a safari guide, showing tourists all of the supposedly mythical creatures that live in her country. But her next group is different. Kara and her father are researchers and have come to study unicorns. Mnemba learns of an area that is littered with unicorn horns, so takes Kara to check it out. It doesn't seem right, so maybe the girls can figure out what's going on with these majestic, solitary creatures.

I really enjoyed Unicorn Tracks! I loved how it was set in an African-esque world and out in the wilderness rather than in a city or town. It was quite refreshing. Mnemba and Kara get dirty, spot wild animals, get chased by poachers, and rescue unicorns! What's not exciting about that? Of course, they also fall in love despite trying hard not to, as Kara is engaged and is expected to leave in three weeks. There's a lot of great, fun stuff going on here!

Unicorn Tracks is extremely short though, so I don't want to give too much away. It's unlike any story that I've read before and definitely wish there had been more! I would have loved to have seen more of Mnemba's tours through the safari and the other strange creatures who live there. The big finale was quite rushed, but I'm happy with how things turned out. Although...what about that moonstone?! Dun dun dun...

Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.

[Chelsea]

Quick thoughts (right after reading)
1. The only disappointment with this book was the length. It was way too short for what could have been.
2. I loved the little details in this plot. There was so much diversity it was crazy! Not only was there racial diversity but there was also a character struggling through a sexual assault and even two girls falling in love. It was pretty great.
3. I loved our main character. I thought she was strong and fun but she asks never complained or rushed into a situation only to end up needed to be saved.
4. I'm very happy with how this book turned out and I seriously recommend it to everyone.

Full Review:

What I Loved:

I've been wanting to read this book ever since I saw a few people I follow on Twitter had reviewed it. It was initially the cover that drew me in, plus the talk about unicorns. I'm telling you all right now that I'm team unicorn and that this book did not disappoint.

I think my favourite part of this book was all the diversity! It wasn't one of those books where the author tries to shove it all in to cover their bases, it just flowed really nicely with the story. We had two main characters, one from and African-like country and the other seemed to be from and American or English inspired country. Their cultures were completely different and it was fun seeing them learn more about each other. That's not even all of it though! We also saw one of the characters struggle with sexual abuse and sexuality. Though she didn't really struggle with her sexuality which was actually kind of refreshing. She just went with it and didn't care which I loved. It just made the romance feel so much more natural (though I was disappointed there was no male character I got to crush on hehe) and I actually enjoyed it more than I thought I would. The romance in general was very well done for such a short book.

Another thing I loved about this story was our main character Mnemba. She was the strong, independent type character that we've been seeing in YA a lot lately, only I thought she was better. My absolute favourite part about her was that she actually learned from her mistakes! There was one scene where she kind of rushed head first into a dangerous situation and instead of going back into that same situation (which happens way too often in YA books) , she actually goes and finds help! Imagine that! She knew she couldn't do something on her own and she went to get people who could help her, not because she's a girl and girls are weak, but because she's smart and knew that if she failed the first time then she needed to do something different.

What I Didn't Like:

The only reason why this book didn't get 5 stars from me was because of the length. I thought so much more could have been done with this book but instead it was rushed just a little bit and ended too soon. I could have used just a little bit more information and some extra time for the relationship between our two main characters to grow.

Who I'd Recommend To:

I'd recommend this to any YA fan that's always complaining about not seeing enough diversity in books. This is the perfect book for you because it's full of it. It hits culture differences, mental illness, LGBT romance, mythical creatures, and so much more! Plus it covers all those topics and does it effortlessly.

See the full review on my blog