Book Review|The Great Hunt by Wendy Higgins

When a strange beast terrorizes the kingdom of Lochlanach, fear stirs revolt. In an act of desperation, a proclamation is sent to all of Eurona—kill the creature and win the ultimate prize: the daughter of King Lochson’s hand in marriage.

Princess Aerity knows her duty to the kingdom but cannot bear the idea of marrying a stranger… until a brooding local hunter, Paxton Seabolt, catches her attention. There’s no denying the unspoken lure between them… or his mysterious resentment.

Paxton is not the marrying type. Nor does he care much for spoiled royals and their arcane laws. He’s 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 perilous secrets he’s buried begin to surface.

Since I dnf’ed the first book my husband chose for me off my physical shelf, I figured I’d get him to pick another one. He, of course, picked it by the cover since he has no idea who the author is, but I think he chose pretty good.

I had read a couple books from Wendy Higgins’ other series, Sweet, and I enjoyed it. But when I found out she was coming out with a fantasy novel, I was definitely intrigued.

I really did enjoy this while I was reading it. It’s a pretty quick read, but one thing I do have to say is the pacing is extremely slow. I find that a lot with high fantasy novels, though, so I was kind of expecting it. The first book of the series really has to delve deep into world building so you can actually understand what’s going on. The world that Higgins created was definitely interesting. All of the Kingdoms, the Lashed, the Beasts, I really did enjoy reading about it.

This is, again, another novel that is written in third person that jumps around a little bit, and I do feel that I would of gotten more out of it if it was written in first person is Aerity’s perspective. I loved her character, so I really wish I would of been in her head more.

I don’t want to give a whole lot of this away, because obviously the fun is in reading it yourself, but I really really loved Pax. And I hope he is permanently around by the end of the second novel.

I am intrigued enough to read the second book of the duology. Although I tossed back and forth between 3 stars and 4 stars, finally landing on rating this 3 stars for the pacing, I will read the second one.

3 Stars