Unraveling: Hunting by Andrea K. Höst

Title: Hunting

Series: N/A

Author: Andrea K. Höst
Genre: Fantasy & Magic

Publication Date: April 5, 2013

Ash Lenthard doesn’t call herself a vigilante. She’s merely prone to random acts of derring-do, and occasional exhibitions of tomfoolery. Her friends, the Huntsmen, have never stepped over the line while patrolling the streets of Luinhall.

That was before the murder of Ash’s beloved guardian, Genevieve.

Now, Ash Lenthard is out for blood and even when the hunt sends her to the palace, on a collision course with a past identity she would do anything to forget, Ash cannot, will not, back down.

  

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My Thoughts

I love love Höst's writing. I just love it. So when I found myself in a reading slump, yet again, I decided to pick up one of her books in the hope that it would help me get out of this slump. And it did.

I adored Ash, just adored. Major girl crush going on. She was just so awesome and kick ass. We aren't told that she is smart and can kick ass, like so many books out there and then just left wondering when this supposed genius and kickassery comes in. No, we are shown steadily throughout the whole book exactly how smart Ash is and how she can kick ass with her knives. She is practical, methodical, a survivor, a fighter and a leader.

She's had a tough life, her parents sucked, and she had to go live in the streets to keep her freedom and sanity, did she ever complain about it? Not really, just pointed out that it sucked. Did she wallow in self pity? Hell no. She moved forward and went on with her life, and life that she recognized suited her much better than the one she would have had.

And she wasn't the only awesome female character, no, this book was filled with girl power. We have Kiri and Talat, who we don't really get to meet till the last 1/3rd of the book or so, but they were great characters. Talat is another girl that fell on really hard times. But she has been making the best of them and doesn't freaking complain about it either. (I wish Höst would give Talat her own book, it would be awesome.) Instead she is looking forward to taking back what's rightfully hers. Kiri was the best friend that Ash left behind and even though Kiri has all the showings of a mean court girl, by being incredibly beautiful and wickedly smart, she isn't. She is loyal to her best friend and when they are rejoined they pick up were they left off with Kiri now helping them out.

The male characters weren't bad either, I specially loved the main guy, Thornaster. Instead of being the broody, mysterious, bad ass, he was a caring,  prone to levity, mysterious badass. He never once treated Ash wrongly, and he wasn't the type either that because he was the older and male, that automatically meant he was smarter and she should listen to him period. He knew when he was in the wrong and when Ash was making more sense, and he accepted it graciously. He might not have always liked her ideas but they were necessary.

The world-building was another awesome aspect. Höst drops you right into the middle of this fantastical world and you have to piece together everything about it. There is no glossary to help you along either. Sure, this meant I was utterly lost at the beginning but you it starts making sense eventually and while I would have liked even more in depth detail about this world and it's gods and the way it was tied to the land and it's people, I got more that enough to form a competent picture.

This books only downfall was the romance and resolution. I liked the plot and how the character went about figuring stuff out. My problem was the ending, and how Ash always seemed to be in the right place and the right time. Now some of that could be because she was actually always trying to position her self in advantageous spots whenever she was in a room, but there were just a little too many coincidences for my liking. Not to mention that the end felt just too anticlimactic. Both how the bad guy died and how they resolved his villainous plans. 

As for the romance, that felt entirely too abrupt as well. While I understand these were different times and different customs, I would have liked a bit more romancing before jumping right into marriage. I guess I wanted more time with their awareness of their feelings than was shown, even though they were in a time constraint.

All in all, Hunting has an amazing cast of characters, intricate world building, and a plot that twists and turns till the every end. The romance left something to be desired and the ending was on the underwhelming side but it was more than worth the read.

So...

Would I Recommend it?

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