The Hunter's Companion (Familiars, #1)

by Lori Powell

[Sarah Says]

I received a copy of this book from the author, through the Goodreads Group “YA Lovers” in exchange for and honest review. So first up I’m going to say Thank you!

Straight up the book was filled with full on imagery. I really really wanted to like this book as the first half of it was brilliant. I loved Ms Powell’s take on Witches Familiars. I was fascinated learning about them as the main characters did.

The chapters alternate between Lora in 1645 and Regan in 2013, I came to care for both of female protagonists. The switch between times is done quite well and Ms Powell manages to capture both time periods beautifully.

The Regan character really grows throughout the first half of the book. We see Regan going from silly seventeen party girl to eighteen, adult with responsibilities and evil creatures to fight, which creates all sorts of drama. With Regan discovering some old family heirloom diary’s in the attic, we finally find out the connection between Lora and Regan (with help from the mysterious and delicious Nate).

We get a lot of information given to us in the book as it is the start of a series. The first half of the book is faced paced and fascinating, but after about the 60% mark it starts to get bogged down. The ending however picks back up and leads to a perfect opening for the next book.

I think that the next book will out do this one, as thanks to the first book we won’t need all the background info and it can all be action.

I did come across a few grammar and formatting issues in my copy while trying to read it, I know some people like to nit-pick at this, but I found it in no way detracted from the story, I’m just warning the picky people out there.

There were a few things later in the book that irked me; language I didn’t feel fit the characters (it just felt wrong) and the unnecessarily dragged out Regan / Nate love or not business. I breathed a sigh of relief when I’d finished reading it, as at around the 70-90% mark I was getting rather stressed out at how drawn out everything was becoming and I just wanted to know how it was going to end.

So to sum it up first half of the book was awesome, but up until the last few chapters is was rather Meh, but it definitely redeemed it’s self in those last chapters. 3.5 stars.