“Because while hatred is a fire only man feels, he does not hate the beast that comes in the night. Mankind fears it, fights it, drives it off, but he does not hate it. No one hates the bear, the wolf. They don't hate the wind or the snow. They don't hate death.
They hate each other.”

When it comes to Beauty and the Beast retellings I will always be excited to read them. I grew up with Beauty and the Beast as my favourite Disney movie and to this day I know all the words to every single song. (Test me I dare you!)

So is it a surprise that I picked Hunted up as soon as it was released? Well it shouldn’t be.
This was the first book by Meagan Spooner I have read so I was looking forward to looking at her writing style and how she develops her characters, as well as how she paces her stories.

The first thing I wasn’t to talk about is the dedication.
“To the girl
who reads by flashlight
who sees dragons in the clouds
who feels most alive in worlds that never were
who knows magic is real
who dreams
This is for you.”
I don’t normally talk about the dedications in a book but this one just took my breath away, I have never had one hit me as much as this one did, it was such a beautiful dedication and I think this will make many readers smile even if this book isn’t one they enjoy.

I loved Meagan’s writing style, it was creative, magical and it only took me a chapter to get into. It’s very rare for me to get into a book so fast, but after the first chapter I was already in the story and loving the main character Yeva.

During the story we alternate chapters between Yeva and Beast. This was a great element to the story and I found myself wanting a chapter to end just so I could get Beast’s point of view. The pacing of the story was really well done, and as it is a standalone novel it is really important not to dwell on anything too long, Meagan did an amazing job at making the story run smooth and not get dull.

I did find myself a little confused towards the end of the book and this required a bit of rereading to make sure I didn’t miss anything, this could be off putting to some readers, but by the end I had gotten my bearings and knew exactly what was happening.

The characters were well developed and I loved the relationships between Yeva and her sisters, Asenka and Lena. Their relationship just had my heart swelling and made me feel so happy.

I loved Yeva, she was such a smart, strong character and even though she struggled to decide what she wanted, I found it really relatable, which is probably why I liked her so much.

Beast I found really interesting, I had no idea what to expect from him and it took me a little to actually look at him as anything else but the Beast of the story, but once I actually got to know him I got really attached to him and this left me open for crying at any moments during his chapters.

I will admit when I first started reading I did laugh to myself at the fact that Beast reminded me of Smeagol from Lord of the Rings. (It was the whole talking to himself, I’m sorry it just made me laugh!)

The whole story was such a magical read and so different from other retellings I have read, Meagan has done an amazing job and has gotten me so excited to read more of her work.

Rating: 4 Stars- Really good, I would recommend reading it

Even though this book wasn’t a 5 star read for me I still loved it. The emotions I felt while reading were striking, it stole my heart and had me in tears at times but I loved it.

This is a book I would pick up again, maybe not for a while, but I will always want it on my shelf to go back to, even if it is just to read certain lines or chapters.

I would recommend this book to any fantasy lovers, or even anyone who loves a good fairytale retelling.

Happy reading everyone!
Jess