Hunted By Meagan Spooner [Review]

RELEASE DATE:  March 14, 2017
AUTHOR: Meagan Spooner
GENRE: Young-Adult, Fantasy,  Retelling.
PUBLISHER: HarperTeen
SUMMARY:
Beauty knows the Beast’s forest in her bones—and in her blood. After all, her father is the only hunter who’s ever come close to discovering its secrets. So when her father loses his fortune and moves Yeva and her sisters out of their comfortable home among the aristocracy and back to the outskirts of town, Yeva is secretly relieved. Out in the wilderness, there’s no pressure to make idle chatter with vapid baronessas…or to submit to marrying a wealthy gentleman. But Yeva’s father’s misfortune may have cost him his mind, and when he goes missing in the woods, Yeva sets her sights on one prey: the creature he’d been obsessively tracking just before his disappearance. The Beast.

Deaf to her sisters’ protests, Yeva hunts this strange creature back into his own territory—a cursed valley, a ruined castle, and a world of magical creatures that Yeva’s only heard about in fairy tales. A world that can bring her ruin, or salvation. Who will survive: the Beauty, or the Beast?

Beauty and the Beast is one of my favorite fairy-tales and I always love reading its retellings because I’m a total sucker for them. Hunted is a wonderful retelling that felt very close to the original tale but this story is definitely unique in its own way. I’ve been waiting ages to have this book in my hands and  I loved the unique combination of the original fairytale with the Russian fairytale Tsarevitch Ivan, the Firebird and the Gray Wolf which I haven’t heard before but I really enjoyed it. I liked the characters Yeva aka Beauty and of course, the beast. Except from these broken stars, I haven’t read any books from Meagan Spooner but I have to agree that she’s done an amazing job in weaving this beautiful story and I also liked her narrative skills.

The story follows Yeva aka Beauty who is also youngest of the three sisters in her family. When his father loses all his fortune, their life among the aristocracy is over and they all move to a hunting cabin which is far away from town and near to the woods. Before their rise to aristocracy, Yeva’s father is a best known hunter in the town and he used to teach her hunting skills when she was young but it all stopped when she came to an age. The forest is the only place that makes Yeva feel free and now she’s back to the hunting cabin, Yeva’s thrill for hunt begins again but sadly, her father is totally against it. To make up for all the lose, Yeva’s father starts to hunt again which slowly turns him into a crazed person and one day when he doesn’t return to them, Yeva gets afraid of his well being and prepares to search for him alone with her dog Doe Eyes. Yeva’s search for her father leads her to a strange beast that she’s never seen before and later she wakes up to find herself locked up in a dungeon of a ruined castle. Yeva knew she’s not strong enough to defeat the beast so despite her hatred for him, she has no choice but to obey his commands.

Yeva is a strong female protagonist who is smart, stubborn, fearless, independent, loyal and very protective towards her family. She’s a huntress who genuinely  loves the thrill of the hunt and she always felt like an outsider among her friends. Honestly, I like reading flawed characters and I really enjoyed Yeva’s character in this book who is little bit different than the Original Beauty. The Beast is a mysterious character who is very hard to connect with but we can definitely feel his anguish regarding his lonely existence. Just like the original beast he is dark, broody and aloof who’s being torn between his human side and the beast side. Yeva and the Beast don’t trust each other at first but with each time they spend together, they began to grow closer. I really enjoyed how their relationship slowly developed and I loved their story telling times where Yeva tells different Russian tales to the beast. It’s a bit sad that there isn’t much romance in this book however it didn’t really hindered my enjoyability though. As for the secondary characters, I loved Doe Eyes. She’s cute loyal pet dog of Yeva and as a dog lover myself, I can totally relate to her relationship with her dog. I also enjoyed Yeva’s relationship with her sisters and also solmir, the guy who played Gaston’s character but Solmir’s personality is quite opposite to Gaston because instead of rude and arrogant, he’s sweet, kind and caring.

The plot is definitely captivating! When the story began with the slow start with nothing exciting happening, I began to have doubts with this book but when Yeva gets captured by the beast the story takes an interesting turn and I was totally hooked. Although the book is a slow paced read, the story will definitely hold your attention through out. I loved the beautiful writing style of the author and I enjoyed how she described everything so vividly.  The story is mostly told in Beauty’s POV[third-person] but there are also short  POV’s of Beast[first-person]. The world the author created is absolutely fascinating. Besides the cursed beast and the castle, the author also introduced us to a new magical world filled with all kinds of magical creatures that I really enjoyed knowing.

Overall, it was a fantastic read! The ending felt a bit rushed but nevertheless, I loved how everything turned out in the end. I really liked how the author cleverly incorporated russian fairytale into the story. Seriously, we need more retellings like these and I can’t wait to know what the author has in store for us next.

Recommend it?

Hunted is a wonderful YA retelling of Beauty & The Beast and I highly recommend this book to everyone who loves Beauty and the Beast fairytale.

MY RATING:  [4/5 Stars]

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