The Great Hunt (Eurona Duology, #1)

by Wendy Higgins

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