Hunted

***4.5 STARS***PLOTHunted is the story of Yeva aka Beauty and her love for the hunt & desire for more than court life (reminds me of one of my fave protogs Freya from Long May She Reign). Yeva has only known the wealthy aristocratic life keeping the baronessa company which she finds boring & constricting. She is the youngest of 3 girls and lives with her father who is known as a wealthy business merchant. It is a business deal with good intentions-gone wrong that throws Yeva and her family into poverty. Forced to sell their home & live in their father’s cabin in the forest, their lives drastically changed. The shame & disappointment of it all proves to be too much for Yeva’s father. The Goodreads synopsis sums up the events that transpire following their misfortune. On the surface Hunted is a re-telling that runs parallel with the original classic Beauty & the Beast. However, besides the similarities this story is also about want & greed and the consequences of never being sated. Starting with a father who wanting more for his village, went as far as staking his entire mass fortune. We see Yeva abandon her home where her sisters depend on her hunting skills for their livelihood, in search of their father who’s gone missing. The thrill of the hunt has always called to Yeva who like her father, has a natural skill for it. The Beast also has his story but revealing that here would be a spoiler so i’ll keep that one to myself lol. Just as in the original, the Beast is cursed and is in need of rescuing…I think this is what I love most of this tale, that the Beauty or princess isn’t in need of rescuing.CHARACTERSI love seeing YA Fantasy turn the tables on the outdated trope of the princess needs saving & so it’s no wonder why I end up loving the Yeva’s & Freya’s of YA Fantasy. I enjoyed Yeva as a character because of her flaws, she isn’t Belle from BATB although they do share similarities. We see Yeva make questionable decisions and ultimately also be affected by her unquenchable desire for more. When I got to thinking about Yeva, I realized this made her all the more human to me. We also meet her two older sisters Lena and Asenka, & I liked them alright as supporting characters. Asenka has a physical disability that she hides and like Lena focuses on keeping the house maintained. Asenka is a giver she will sacrifice it all for her family & I rooted for hers all through the end. Lena wasn’t all too fleshed out but what I saw of her, I liked enough. Now, the real show stopper award goes to Doe-Eyes, Yeva’s hunting dog who previously hunted with her father. From what I could gather, Doe-Eyes is a female dog (I may be wrong but this is what i’m going with lol) & very loyal. Wherever Yeva went, Doe-Eyes would follow no matter how impossible this feat may have seemed. To say that I fell in love with this dog is an understatement, Doe-Eyes was spunky & lively, she wasn’t getting left behind from all the action. I couldn’t get enough of her whenever she showed up unexpectedly (Yay for dogs in YA!). Last but not least we have the Beast (I promise I did not intend for that to rhyme -_-) who just as in the original, we get brief glimpses of. What I loved about Beast? the fact that we see him warring with the human nature he carries within. We also get to know his backstory of how he came to be cursed which unlike the original, actually has some meat to it. Besides his backstory, everything else about Beast is pretty similar to the original & I appreciated Spooner staying close to the original while still making him her own.WRITING & FINAL THOUGHTSHunted is my very first read by Meagan Spooner & I’m officially a fan! this book gave me such Bear and the Nightingale (LOVED!) feels with its use of Russian Folklore. The story telling was on point. I’m always weary when picking up a re-telling of a childhood favorite but Spooner pulled it off with Hunted. Maybe it was the mixture of similarities to the original & her own take on it but…I felt like I got a piece of my childhood back, a very nostalgic reading experience. I especially enjoyed the chapter “enders” (made this word up) where we were given the Beast’s inner monologue as the human inside him wars against the beast he’s become. The pacing is a bit on the slower side but I’m the type of bookworm that doesn’t mind the slow build-up. I don’t however think that it’s so slow that it drags or bores, it felt like I was being read a fairy tale which is what I wanted. To date, this is my favorite Beauty and the Beast re-telling. It has me listening to the original soundtrack & watching the original just to stay a little longer with this tale as old as time…*Thank you HarperTeen, Edelweiss, and Meagan Spooner for the eGalley of Hunted in exchange for an honest review, all opinions are my own.

Hunted is my first Meagan Spooner book and I must say I quite loved it! Winding down on the Beauty and the Beast readathon I was happy to be able to squeeze this new release in. I’ve been seeing some mixed reviews over this one which started to make me worry, so I kind of stopped reading them. And I will say that I am one of the ones who truly enjoyed this one!There’s a different sort of air to this story, perhaps because our Beauty is living somewhere in Russia and has a different personality than all the Beautys who came before her. But she’s definitely one you will enjoy. She’s fond of the hunt though lately she’s been learning to be more ladylike. And that’s when her father loses everything. The family must sell all their worthy possessions and move to this small hunting cabin the woods where her father hopes to be able to hunt and sell pelts to pay off his investors whom he failed. But soon her father slowly begins to lose his mind it seems, as he starts raving about a beast in the woods who scared off all the animals and he was determined to hunt it down. But he never came back, so Yeva, our Beauty, brushes off her old hunting bow and starts to hunt around the cabin to take care of her sisters and then sets off into the woods to find her father after a long period of time has passed.And it is then that Yeva encounters the Beast. But he’s not like any Beast we’ve seen before either. Every other chapter in this book is an excerpt from the Beast’s point of view. Almost like a journal entry and we can see how he fights with the animal and human side. Where one is always trying to take over the other. It was kind of insightful in some ways. After Yeva’s encounter with the Beast she is taken prisoner and befriends a young man on the other side of the door and she shares stories with him. Soon we meet the Beast in full and he has a certain task that only Yeva can perform, he wants her to go hunting.While we do see trends in this book with the story that we all know and love, we can also see how this one stands out from the other. The location and culture are among those things! The stories Yeva indulges in were fairy tales from her childhood and it’s no surprise how big of a role they will play in the story as well.Yeva definitely has more anger than any of the Beautys before her as well. She believes the Beast has killed her father and she swears to herself vengeance and that she will kill the Beast one day. She warns him of this too. The two basically don’t have that love connection going on like we slowly see revealed in the Disney movie. Here we definitely have something new and different. The romance itself isn’t really all that clear either. One moment the two hate each other and then in the next we see kindness. It almost makes your head spin, but yet I couldn’t help but like it.One thing that was sort of unclear throughout was the curse itself. How the Beast became cursed really isn’t something that’s explored until the very end and even then, I wasn’t really positive that that was the curse itself. But I guess I was supposed to take that as fact. If anything that was the only issue I had in the book.I liked how Meagan kept quite a bit from the original fairy tale and even the Disney movie as well and incorporated it into Hunted. We had a wealthy merchant lose everything and move to the woods. We had our Beauty with siblings, granted just two sisters, but they were a heck of a lot nicer than the original Beauty’s sister. Yeva’s sisterly bond was one thing I truly enjoyed about the story, though as to be expected, her sisters weren’t in the story too much. Yeva has a suitor who has eyes only for her. And he likes to hunt as well and Yeva really has no love for him, but this too was even different because he’s basically the opposite of Gaston! And even one of her dogs, Pelei kind of reminded me of Phillipe! Mostly in the moment she’s asking it “where’s father?”!Hunted was truly a remarkable read! I quite enjoyed myself and loved seeing a fresh new take on The Beauty and the Beast story! Meagan really out did herself with this one! There was such a good balance of keeping true to the story that we all know and with adding in her own twists! And rumor has it that Meagan plans to write more fairy tale retellings! Truly hoping to see more of these that stick with the original fairy tale and of course with the Disney tidbits that we all know by heart! Be sure to add Hunted to your list for amazing fairy tale retellings because it’s truly not one to be missed!Overall Rating 4.5/5 stars

Such a wonderful take on a classic story. Fabulous story that moves quickly.

ARC copy provided by Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.This is a mash up of Beauty and the Beast and The Firebird, set in a fantasy Russia. I think if you're looking for a straight forward romance this is probably not hoing to tick all the boxes for you. However I loved this a piece of coming of age fiction. Yeva is a dynamic character worth far more than the some of her parts and certainly more than her personal beauty. Torn between the comfort of her loving family and a growing disquiet that something is missing from her life, Yeva is already searching for personal significance before the ruin of her father's wealth. As a hunter like her father - an unsuitable occupation for a woman - Yeva is most at home with the wilderness. In this the Beast becomes an excellent foil for her - they are equally intractable and untamed. Be warned this is not a tale of kindness and gentle wooing. This is two strong personalities wearing the sharp edges off each other and finding some wisdom. If you've ever read any Russian folklore you'll know that kindness is not a greatly lauded virtue - unlike cleverness, cunning and the will to succeed. Hunted is very inkeeping with this view and the world reflects the cold, deadly but incredibly beautiful landscape of Russia.A few minor points that did irritate me; the father lost himself just a bit too quickly in my opinion. The beast had a chain of reasoning that didn't ressemble out earth logic at all. The story seems to try to both address the concept of unnatural or coerced sympathy with your captor whilst at the same time forging an actual kinship by stating that Yeva and Beast were both prisoners. Not sure it came off. Despite that this would definitely go on my list of recommended Beauty and the Beast retellings.

Fairytale retellings are always a joy to read, based on the classics we know but it takes something special to really touch your heart like those first fairytales you heard as a child did.Hunted is a Beauty and the Beast retelling with a beautiful story about love and the want for something more from life. Yeva (Beauty) is a hunter and is overjoyed to move back to the woods where her heart is, but when she is taken by a Beast, revenge fills her heart as she bides her time to destroy her captor.There's always a desire for something else - something more, from Beauty and it takes right until the ending for her to discover herself and what she wants from life.It's just written so elegantly with the short passages from the Beast as we see him become more human with each one, and Yeva's life alongside the Beast taking on a more descriptive fashion. It's so reminiscent of the classic Beauty and the Beast with a different slant taken on the message of the tale.But it's the dedication at the end that does it from the author. This book is definitely one to read if you feel full of life yet empty; like you've found what you're looking for but still searching and have yet to discover what it is you want from life but you only knows it's something more...Astounding.

The snow is a canvas, her father would say, upon which the beast paints his past, his home, his intentions, his future. Learn to see the picture and you will know him as you know yourself.This is the Beauty & the Beast retelling everyone has been waiting for. I tried dozens of Beauty & the Beast retellings. Okay, maybe not dozens, but enough to know it's one of those fairytales (like Alice in Wonderland which, by the way, I still haven't found a good enough retelling of) that is hard to get just right.I have never had the pleasure to read anything by Meagan Spooner, but that is definitely going to change if Hunted is anything to go by. She's a fantastic author, capable of weaving magic and reality seamlessly, and capable of making even the most strong-willed people fall head over heels in love with folklore.My reactions whilst reading Hunted were visceral. I felt the cold in my bones; the ice seeping into invisible boots and chilling my toes. I felt the dampness of the cell at my back, the hairs standing on end at the back of my neck as the Beast stalked his prey through the woods. I felt the magic, I heard the animals as they fled. It was an experience like no other, and it was impossible to put the book down long enough to even grab a glass of water.Hunted follows Yeva, youngest child out of three, the apple of her father's eye, as she goes from lady in waiting to the sole caregiver of her family. When her father loses their fortune, and the family has to pack up and move to his old hunting cabin in the woods, Yeva isn't worried. She knew they'd be okay. It isn't until her father's hunting trips become longer and longer, less staggered, and he brings home less game, that Yeva begins to worry. She knows he's no longer hunting for survival -- he's hunting the mythical Beast, convinced that if he brings home the Beast's head, their fortune will fall into their lap.The hunt drives him to madness.He stopped, looking up from his pack to meet her gaze, though he seemed to be saying through her at a distant memory. "It is a Beast," he said. "A monster unlike anything in any story. It was there twenty years ago. When your mother ask me to give up hunting, it was the one thing I had not, could not catch. And it is there still. When I kill it, it's head will bring such a price that we will be able to return home."Yea heard one of her sisters, she could not tell which, stifle a gasp behind her. There was madness in her father's faceAnd so, one day, Yeva decides to follow her father into the woods. There, she meets the Beast in all his horrifying glory, and in order to survive, Yeva strikes a bargain. The Beast needs her (for what, she doesn't know), and Yeva promises the Beast a story in exchange for comfort and, secretly, she begins to hatch a plan: murder the beast, escape the fortress, and bring home his head.Hunted is a fairytale in its own right. Spooner knew exactly what she was doing (which is a comfort when it comes to retellings) and managed to create something wholly original whilst also managing to stick to the original tale.I've read Beauty & the Beast retellings before. I enjoyed A Court of Thorns & Roses, I put Cruel Beauty on hold and never finished Uprooted. They were all good, but they weren't enough. Although I adore Maas' ACOTAR series, I wouldn't recommend it as a B&B retelling. From now on, if anyone ever asks me, I'll always recommend Hunted.Slow burn romance, legends and myths, storytelling and a family relationship that I've been, personally, dying to read about (there is no competition between the sisters: they all love each other, and they will do absolutely anything for their father, and in the name of family), Hunted is the retelling I've been waiting for.I cried, I laughed, I felt. I felt so much that it's a wonder my heart beats at all any more.

A different take on retelling the story of Beauty and the Beast which at first I wasn't too sure on but heard good things so thought I would give it a read.I did find the story a bit slow at first but once I got through the first 5 chapters it definitely picked up and I became enthralled in the world of Beauty and the Beast. The story became quite violent and touched on subjects of anger, sorrow and, vengeance.Yeva the main character was a favourite, she was depicted as a strong woman and even though she is essentially a prisoner she doesn't lose who she is. I would have liked more back story to the Beast as felt that this needed to have been developed further.I loved that there wasn't much romance in the story and that it was assigned to the lesser characters and didn't cloud the actual telling of Yeva and the Beasts story.A definite must read if you haven't already as not only have you got fantasy and realism you have some action/violence as well.

I've read a lot of beauty and the beast retellings, and this is up there with Robin McKinley's Beauty, which I've loved since I was a teenager. The growing characterisation of Beauty and her sisters, and the beast, and even the part that Doe-Eyes plays- all build up a kind of magical symphony of imagery and emotion that leads up and up to a final purity of an end that isn't even an en, it's an explanation of your awareness of life. The concept of happiness, of wanting, of seeking: a purely human trait and one we don't acknowledge often enough. The author's words and explanation of where the book came from at the end really resonated with me, deeply enough that I think I'll be re-reading this one for years to come to remind myself of this first read feeling. Thank you Meagan for sharing yourself with us.