On The Hunt

by Dianne Duvall, Alexandra Ivy, Hannah Jayne, and Rebecca Zanetti

[Linda]

This review was originally posted on (un)Conventional Bookviews
On the Hunt is an anthology with fantasy stories from four different authors' series. The first story made me satisfied and happy to discover a new-to-me author!



On the Hunt - this was my introduction to Alexandra Ivy, and I am hungry for more from her The Sentinels series. There is magic and mayhem, and sentinels who hunt down those who don't abide by the rules. I found the female lead character, a witch, to be very interesting, because she wanted to live on the outskirt of society in order to help heal those who couldn't always show themselves everywhere. The story was intriguing, even if it was not the beginning of the series, and I enjoyed both the world building and the character development.

Scorpius Rising - I am still shaking my head at myself for not having read this as soon as I received this ARC! I have read the first two books in Zanetti's The Scorpius Syndrome and really loved them! However, with Scorpius Rising, I got the very beginning of the Scorpius outbreak, and a back-story to several of the characters I've come to know and love in Mercury Striking and Shadow Falling. A thrilling, dark and realistic world, with a sickness that is scary because it sounds like something that could actually happen. Zanetti crowns it all with amazing characters who are both smart and strong willed, and ready to fight the fight not only for their lives but for the future of humanity.

Phantom Embrace - I had never read anything by Dianne Duval before, and I'm sorry to say I didn't enjoy her story as much as the others. The writing was more stilted, and especially the female lead character annoyed me - she was very woe is me, and her inner dialogues made me roll my eyes. Now, this is quite far into a series, and I might have enjoyed this more if I knew more about the world as I didn't really get everything that was going on between the immortals and the vampires, and how the guardians were supposed to keep the world safe.

Stake Out - I hadn't read any books by Hannah Jayne before, either, and I'm not sure if it's because I completely fell off the wagon with Phantom Embrace or something else, but I didn't manage to finish Stake Out. Again, this may very well work perfectly for fans of Jayne and her series, I just wasn't into anything to do with this story or the characters, so I quit reading after only ten-ish pages.



It was difficult to decide what was more aggravating. The swarm of bugs that attacked without warning. The goopy mud that clung to her shoes. Or the air that was so thick with humidity that breathing was an Olympic sport.

Any sense of right and wrong that had been instilled in them by their parents had packed its bags and headed for the door.