Overall: 🐢🐢🐢🐢
Storyline:
Writing Style:
Character Development:
Enjoyment:
“Monsters did not deserve love.”
Fae Hunted by Rose Garcia
The Story:
A human girl with fae blood. A broody fae protector with too many secrets. A devious witch thirsty for revenge.
Gabriela is the descendant of a fae princess and a human witch. But her life is earth-bound, and she knows little about her fae heritage. That all changes when she discovers someone from the fae realm wants to wipe out her bloodline—someone who’s wanted to destroy her name for a long time.
She soon learns firsthand of the perils of the fae realm when she’s attacked. And when she’s told of the deadly foe hunting her, she finds herself whisked to faerie with a broody fae protector at her side. He’s mysterious and quiet, and she senses he’s carrying his own secrets. Even so, she can’t deny the undeniable pull she feels toward him, and she’s sure he’s feeling it too.
With her life at risk, Gabriela must embrace who she is as a fae and a witch before it’s too late and she loses everyone she loves.
Key Elements:
Fantasy, Young Adult, Fae, War, Princess, Modern Fantasy, Magic, Slow Burn Romance, Revenge
Others in Series:
Book 2: Fae Rising (releasing spring ’22)
Why This Rating?
This was a pretty good book that was full of magic, attitude, and relationships – with both the good and the bad moments shinning through. I enjoyed the way the author, Rose Garcia, portrayed Fae in this world. She stayed true with a lot of the original folklore that these beings have attached to them already. The biggest one that I love is that the Fae cannot tell lies. This doesn’t mean they aren’t really good at going around the truth in a confusing way. Even the truths they tell you make you second guess this very fact. This little fact can be easily overlooked the more one is with Fae, but in reality I think it is the most compelling nature they have. Garcia manages to use this in some very key moments that are both gut-punching and heart-racing in this book! I loved those moments!
What a fast pace book! Things happening one after another after another. Bam! this happens. Okay, breathe for just a second…. Bam! moving on, nothing to see here. I felt like I was having to slow down reading at moments because there was very little break to take in everything that just happened. But hey, the fast pace made me keep reading to figure out what was going to turn up next. I don’t know if everyone will like that kind of pacing in book though. There were moments I had to stop myself in reading, go back a little, and reread a section to catch what I missed from a scene because of the pace. My heads up is get ready to dive in strong once the action kicks up!
I did have some beef towards Leaf though. I thought he was going to swing in and become on of those dark knight with a joy deep down turned love interest showing more smiles all around. But this mood swing he kept going through during the story was a bit much for me. I think the character development and exposure was attempted with him as a whole and could have worked. However, because there was no gradual breaking of the “ice” that grumpy characters have and it was a full 180 mood swings, this really hurt the possibilities he could have had to the readers. I was more annoyed with him where I know I was supposed to be sympathetic to him/the situation. Since he is a main character, there was no true break from him either.
There are a few moments that I feel like should be in as a warning to those reading. There is death in this story and moments where there is interaction with those who have passed on. I don’t find this as a turn off in a book, but there are some individuals who are not a fan of this included in the story – so yes, death is quite a frequent thing. Also, this book has a couple of fade-to-black sex scenes. Not going to lie, did not think we were going to get anything like that in the first novel at all. A few stolen kisses, sure! Professing of interest, absolutely. But more than that, no clue. Especially since it is something that can be a good way to keep the readers coming back for that second story. Readers would want to see what would happen with the building tension the first book built, but I think this is way more about the writing than the scenes. I digress.
I think that you guys would enjoy this book, especially those of you who enjoy both the YA fantasy and Fae. I will admit, there were a few writing choices that put me off for some of the scenes; however, the story helped save some of those from worse critiques. I am looking forward to the next book that will round out this duology. It will be interesting to see what will happen to Gabriela in the fae realms and Leaf. Have fun with this one you guys!
Time to get lost in the next story!
