The Great Hunt (Eurona Duology, #1)

by Wendy Higgins

Wendy Higgins, the author of the New York Times bestselling Sweet Evil series, reimagines a classic Brothers Grimm fairy tale with The Great Hunt, a dramatic, romance-filled fantasy with rugged hunters, romantic tension, and a princess willing to risk all to save her kingdom. When a monstrous beast attacks in Eurona, desperate measures must be taken. The king sends a proclamation to the best and bravest hunters: whoever kills the creature will win the hand of his daughter Princess Aerity as a reward. The princess recognizes her duty but cannot bear the idea of marrying a stranger-she was meant to marry for love-until a brooding local hunter, Paxton Seabolt, catches her attention. And while there's no denying the fiery chemistry between them, Princess Aerity feels that Paxton's mysteriousness is foreboding, maybe even dangerous. Paxton is not the marrying type. Nor does he care much for spoiled royals and their arcane laws. He is 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 secrets he's buried begin to surface against his wishes.

• ISBN10: 0062381334
• ISBN13: 9780062381330
• Publish Date: 8 September 2016 (first published 8 March 2016)
• Publish Status: Active
• Out of Print: 25 July 2021
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Inc
• Imprint: HarperTeen
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 432
• Language: English

Reviews

[pagingserenity]

I'm debating whether this is a 3.5 or 4 star read. It sucked me in and got me out of my reading slump but it also wasn't everything I wanted it to be. I loved the world-building and the magical aspects, but the pacing was kind of off. And the romance, while nice, was also a little disappointing. I'm still trying to decide if it qualifies as insta love or not. 

Review originally posted at Simply Adrift.

When I first read the synopsis for The Great Hunt, I suppose I already had an idea of what this story would be about. I love reading the troupe where the two characters start off hating each other but as they get to know each other they start to fall in love with each other - the slow burn romance. Throw in one of the characters being of higher standing in society than the other (like royalty in this case), and a high stakes problem to solve, and it makes it even better. So I had high hopes for The Great Hunt because this was exactly what I was expecting.

The Story & the Characters

Aerity is next in line to the throne in the Kingdom of Lochlanach, her father has always been adamant that Aerity and all of his children would marry for love; just like he did. No matter the standing or rank of the chosen person. When a beast starts killing the people of his land, he is forced to make a decision that goes against everything he believes in. But for the sake of his kingdom he has no choice. He declares a proclamation, any person that manages to kill the beast that is terrorizing their Kingdom, that man will win the hand of his eldest daughter Aerity.

Aerity is an intelligent, mature teenager, she knows she cannot deny her fathers wishes even though the thought of marrying a stranger makes her feel ill. And she knows she must do what she can for her Kingdom, she wants the people of her Kingdom to be safe and happy. That also includes the ones known as the Lashed, the ones with powers. Everyone in Lochlanach is terrified of the Lashed because one Lashed tried to destroy all humans a generation a go, that particular Lashed was killed and eventually a witch hunt was pursued for other's that were Lashed. You could tell who the Lashed are by their fingernails, every time they use their powers, a purple line would appear under that persons nails. Aerity believes that not all Lashed are evil, she hates that the people in her Kingdom are so terrified of them, she hates how they are treated and she believes there's a way to protect the Lashed. Alas, she is not yet in any position of power to carry out her beliefs. I liked Aerity because she was intelligent and kind, she was understanding and she was thoughtful, she wasn't a whiny brat. She hated that her father was forcing her to marry a stranger, but she agreed to it without kicking up a fuss because she knew this was for the better of her Kingdom. I really liked that, it was a relief.

Paxton Seabolt is a hunter, the only reason he's joining in on the hunt to kill the beast is because he wants it gone, it's killed too many people. He has no interest in the princess's hand, he has no interest in love or marriage, and he despises the royals. He believes them to be horrible people that are fine with executing innocent people because of what they were born to be; you can't help what you're born with. Paxton was definitely the handsome, strong, broody type of character. I really liked his brother Tiern, Tiern was young and reckless but a lot of fun. Paxton was the more serious brother, moping about all the time, he had a lot of hate in him. However he was very strong and focused, he had his reasons to hate the royals so it wasn't unfounded.

The Romance

As I said, I had a lot of expectations for this book simply because of the synopsis. However I'm sad to say The Great Hunt did not meet those expectations. First off, the romance was not the slow burn romance I was looking forward to. Instead it was puppy love.

Aerity fell for Paxton straight away, simply because of how handsome he was. That disappointed me a lot. When Aerity and Paxton first meet, it's when Aerity is meeting all of the hunters for the first time. They all line up so she can meet them one by one, Paxton however refuses to do this so continues doing what he was doing. Aerity immediately finds this intriguing and instead of leaving him be, she decides to walk over to him to speak to him. This results in Paxton being rude to her and Aerity finding him even more intriguing. Honestly? I was really annoyed by this.

Aerity wore her heart on her sleeve. The 'romance' was pretty much Aerity seeking Paxton out whenever she could. She was like a puppy following him around. She never tried to hide her feelings, she made inappropriate decisions just to see him, and she worried about him and thought about him all the time. However, their interactions with each other didn't do much of building some sort of relationship between them. I didn't feel a deep connection at all.

Paxton continuously tried to get rid of Aerity, purposefully avoided her even, but she always found him. I was embarrassed for how Aerity acted around him. I felt like she had no pride at all. She did not care if everyone could see just how much of a crush she had on him, it made me cringe. Every morning she would dash out to see how the hunters fared that night with the beast, but only for the sole purpose to make sure Paxton Seabolt was still alive.

The romance didn't interest me that much. There wasn't a lot of interaction between the two that made me think they were falling for each other. Aerity fell for Paxton before she knew much about him. It was not a slow burn romance, and Paxton honestly didn't seem too interested in her at all. He found it more annoying that she kept seeking him out. There was no tension between the two. I wanted more.

The Beast & the Hunt

The beast isn't seen that often in this book. You just hear about what it's done, who it's killed now, where it may have gone. The beast was meant to be scary but I didn't really find it all that scary. In fact, I figured out it's pattern way before any of the characters did, it was obvious to me. So that was disappointing.

The hunt was difficult because the hunters couldn't decide which tactic would be better to take. The person they tried to follow as their leader was an idiot brute that had no strategic thought. So people died. Once they start to realise that they're doing everything wrong, they start to get smarter about they way they hunt the beast.

Overall

Overall The Great Hunt was an okay read. It wasn't deep, it wasn't complex, and it wasn't intense. But it was fun to read. The romance disappointed me but I still liked the characters individually. I did want more depth out of it though, I wanted more depth from the characters, the romance and the story. However, this was an enjoyable read still. I will definitely be picking up book two as the story gets more intense by the sounds of it.

Always,
Jordon

This review was originally posted on Simply Adrift

[Chelsea]

I loved that this was a retelling of a less popular fairy tale! It was something different and I enjoyed reading it.

[Cocktails and Books]

Another case where the cover pulled me in, but the story didn't keep me there.

I loved the premise of this book: a great beast is loose and on a killing spree. The King offers up a great hunt with the successful hunter given the prize of his oldest daughter's hand in marriage. But as the story unfolded, I didn't find myself sympathizing with Aerity, when I should have.

Aerity had been raised with the understanding that she could marry for love, but when her father takes that option away, she doesn't fight it and the story moves on. I wanted to her be upset and fight the royal decree, but she never did.

Paxton, was a broody, temperamental hero who was a bit ruder than I would have liked. He often wasn't nice to Aerity, so it made it hard to understand why she would find him attractive at all.

[Leigha]

A princess must sacrifice her ability to marry for love in order to stop a rampaging monster terrorizing her kingdom.

I have enjoyed every single Higgins book…until this one. While the plot was interesting and the setting intriguing, the characters and the romances fell flat for me.

I really wish princess Aerity did more in the novel. She seemed so far removed from her kingdom that it was hard to picture her as its future ruler. The only event she seemed to have any say in was accepting to marry the killer of the beast, but I wanted her to have a say in more. Additionally, I detested her romance with Paxton. It was love at instant sight for no apparent reason. I would have believed their romance way more if they had developed some sort of connection along with the attraction, but I never felt them connect as individuals to each other. I know Higgins can write a wonderful romance between a broody boy and a “good” girl (*cough* Anna and Kaidan *cough*), but I never felt the connection between Aerity or Paxton.

Not only did I not buy the romance between the two lead characters, I thought it awfully convenient that all the young, supporting characters close to the leads had viable dating options. In particular, I had a really hard time accepting that Aerity’s cousin, Wyneth, developed feelings for *name redacted* so quickly. I didn’t think any time had passed between the death of her fiance and her introduction to *name redacted*. Perhaps the time jump wasn’t written very well.

tl;dr While it contained an intriguing plot and well-developed setting, the characters were not as fleshed out or interesting enough to entertain me.

[cornerfolds]

A couple months ago, in the middle of a pretty intense fantasy binge, I added The Great Hunt to my must-read list for 2016. Not only was the cover gorgeous, but the synopsis was intriguing, and it was even a retelling, albeit of a story I'd never heard of. All that to say, I was really excited to read this book! I was really surprised to see that it was available without a wait through my library as an audiobook, so I immediately snatched it up and started listening.

Aerity is the "heroine" who "risk all to save her kingdom." I expected a lot out of Aerity, but was actually more confused by her than anything. First of all I have to ask the most pressing question: what color is Aerity's hair?? The cover model looks exactly like Merida, blue dress, red mane, and all. In the book, however, she is described as having blonde hair, which is apparently a big deal because all of her siblings have red hair. Later on, though, her hair is described as red. Just... what?? Does the author have no idea what her character looks like? Maybe this is a petty complaint. It seems like such an obvious thing not to mix up, but I digress.

I really didn't connect with Aerity at all. She is a princess and she acts like a princess. Her talent is aerial fabric acrobatics, no joke. She "gives all" by agreeing to an arranged marriage with whoever kills the beast who is terrorizing the kingdom. I get that it might suck, but the synopsis make her involvement sound much more noble and dramatic than it actually is. She really doesn't do much in the entire book other than flip around in the air, talk to hunters, and hang out with her cousin...

Thankfully, there's no love interest in this story. Unfortunately, the romance itself isn't impressive. In fact, Aerity and Paxton speak maybe ten sentences to each other before they're in love, and most of them involve Paxton being kind of a jerk. Still, he's a better character than Aerity. Paxton has something of a tragic backstory and is unconditionally loyal to his younger brother. He's also a skilled hunter. Even though he does have a decent excuse for being rude to Aerity, it still bothers me when male love interests act this way and women swoon all over them.

The story here is honestly the saving grace of The Great Hunt. The beast itself, while not actually very terrifying (especially once it's actually revealed) still creates enough tension to make everything seem a little bit urgent. There's always the mystery of where the beast came from and why to keep the reader guessing. The other unique element is the magic. There are those in Eurona who have magical healing (or killing) powers called the lashed. They aren't allowed to use their magic and, if they do, there's an obvious sign that allows them to be found out. I thought they were interesting, although I wish there had been more background information given.

The Great Hunt honestly comes off as an adult historical romance novel masquerading as a YA fantasy. Literally the first scene of the book is two teens getting very close to down and dirty on a boat dock. I feel like the author really wanted to write a more explicit book, but tamed it a bit and threw in some magic to market it to a younger crowd. Although it was an okay book, it wasn't anything like what I expected. This is a duology and I honestly probably won't read the next one since this book actually wrapped up pretty well. If you're into fantasy that's overpowered by romance or you want to break into Harlequin romance gently, this is the book for you!

Actual rating: 2.5 stars

[shannonmiz]

You can find the full review and all the fancy and/or randomness that accompanies it at It Starts at Midnight
I really enjoyed this one!It started off a bit iffy for me, for two reasons: One, the idea of the "big scary monster" was kind of strange for me, and two, I felt like all the women were giving off a "damsel in distress" vibe. 

But as the book got going, I realized that I was curious about the monster, and while society may have seen the female characters as weak, and they did have to keep appearances, in no way were these women anything but strong. When the hunt first starts, there are no women involved. And it was making me mad. But then women showed up and they were the actual best. So like, in your face, all of the rest of society!

There's romantic drama involved, which I feel like you'll either love or hate, depending on how you feel about romance, and that hopeless, desperate sort of thing. I love it, so it worked for me. This quote kind of sums it up:

"All around her were the constant reminders of what each of them could not have."

The hunt was intense, and grueling. Aerity was brave and selfless as the main character. In fact, all the women in her family were completely amazing. Speaking of, the family element was huge during this one too, so there's another win. All the characters went through a lot of development too, as they had to deal with the external and internal beasts.

Bottom Line: Once I got into it, I got really into it. I absolutely cannot wait for the sequel!

*Copy provided by publisher for review
**Quotes taken from uncorrected proof, subject to change.

[nightingalereads]

1.5 stars

Skimmed after about 100 pages. :/ Sadly everything about this book fell flat for me, and I found myself bored to tears. The story and characters seemed to lack any and all sense of depth, but perhaps it's just not my kind of storytelling.

[Ashley]

Ehhh.. Somewhere between 2 and 3 stars—I can't decide yet.

It certainly wasn't bad, but I didn't FEEL much of anything. The whole book just wasn't what I expected, based on the tone of Wendy's previous books. It was a bit stuffy and hollow. The tone of the book didn't really click with me. The whole thing sounded a bit... proper? That, and I just never got into any of the relationships or romance.

Cool story, but didn't really pull me in.