Book Review: Ever the Hunted by Erin Summerhill

12/4/2017

SYNPOSIS

Seventeen-year-old Britta Flannery is at ease only in the woods with her dagger and bow. She spends her days tracking criminals alongside her father, a legendary bounty hunter -- that is, until her father is murdered. The alleged killer is none other than Cohen Mackay, her father's former apprentice. The only friend she's ever known. The boy she once loved who broke her heart...

She must go on a treacherous quest in a world of warring kingdoms, mad kings, and dark magic to find the real killer. But Britta wields more power than she knows. And soon she will learn what has always made her different will make her a daunting and dangerous force.

Synopsis from Chapters.Indigo.ca

PERSONAL REVIEW

I picked up Ever the Hunted because it sounded like it had the potential to be the beginning of cool new series. Unfortunately, I didn't find it to be that great once I actually started reading. It's an easy book to get through, but I didn't find it to be as original as I had hoped...

My Thoughts About the Book:

Predictable (and kind of annoying) Characters: We are introduced to Britta, the classic "unattractive but there's something that makes her different" character who is mourning the loss of his father. With his death, she has lost all protection, especially since Cohen, the classic "best friend who left unexpectedly before the book began but she secretly loves", is also gone. Britta is quickly captured, forced to work for the king's advisor to find her father's killer, who is.....COHEN! Britta is distressingly naive and just assumes this to be the truth. I hated that she just blindly trusts anyone who seems like they could be speaking the truth.

Cohen is also pretty annoying and I know that we're going to see a lot of jealousy from him in the future. He left Britta a year ago, but somehow feels like it's ok to be jealous of any interactions she has with other men... and Britta DOESN'T THINK THIS IS A PROBLEM. Ughhh, this is definitely going to come up in the sequel and I'm sure be just as annoying.
Predictable Storyline: Nothing in this story was shocking to me. Every "plot twist" was predictable and not incredibly original. There's the guard who becomes the friend, the girl who learns that she has secret powers that make her dangerous, the boy who loves her but leaves her...and then returns, and at the end we are given a taste of the king who will probably become a romanic interest to create a love triangle. None of this is surprising and I was pretty saddened by the lack of real cliffhangers we get.

The closest we have to a "surprise" is that the King is being controlled by someone...and the scene where Britta frees him goes by so quickly that we barely have time to appreciate her heroics! If this was meant to be the climax of the book, it took too long to get there and then went by way too quickly. But at least we know that there's an evil character waiting to be found in the next book...

Overall, I found this book pretty predictable (in case that wasn't already clear). While I liked some of the characters (basically just Leif), I wasn't surprised by anything and often found the main characters to be pretty annoying. I'll definitely still continue reading the series, but right now this book is not at the top of my favourites list. I'm really just hoping that the sequel brings in some real surprises then what we've seen so far.

FINAL RATING: 3/5