The Hunt (The Twisted Kingdoms, #1) (2024)

I saw it today,
I needed it yesterday!
And I want it right now!

Enemies to Lovers? Check!
Assassins? Check!
A fierce heroine? Check!
A war between good and evil? Check!
Sexy villains? Check!
Action and a dark fairy tale vibe? Check!

All that's left to say is this: *grabby hands*

✅ Good pace / Quick read
✅ Captor/captive
✅ Spying/double-crossing
🆗 Characters
🆗 World-building
🆗 Hate-to-love (kind of)
🆗 Action and politics

3.5 stars

Tempest grew up with her mother until she was taken in by the King's Hounds, his warriors, because one of them (we still do not know who) sired her, giving her their unmistakable blue hair.
Tempest has trained every day since then to get ready for her Trial so she could become the first-ever female Hound to serve King Destin. Things only get more complicated for her though once she starts her duties as a Hound because she is tasked with the impossible mission of bringing the heart of the Jester to the king. The Jester is akin to a legend, he is a shifter, leader of the rebels, and impossible to catch, that is, until Tempest falls right into his arms and ends up in his rebel camp. The mission might seem impossible, but this is the only way for Tempest to get away from King Destin and his tentative at wooing her... Or getting her in his bed by force if he stops feeling patient with her.

This book is interesting, and it was a pleasant surprise, but everything is very predictable. There are no twists or mysteries to keep you guessing. It is the traditional spying scheme where the girl has to infiltrate the enemy ranks but is instead captured by them and they try to make her see that they are the good guy and that she is working for the bad guy. As I said, nothing new or super original here, but still a good execution and the pace made it easy to read this book.

"The king sent you to assassinate the Jester?" Pyre repeated. "An inexperienced woman with the acting skills of a potato?"

This story mixes political intrigue (a little bit of it), assassins, and shifters. The world-building is basic and the characters (even the main ones) are not that developed, but it was just enough to keep me entertained and to make me want to continue reading this story. The Jester is an interesting character, he adds a touch of snark and sassiness to the story, but I admit that I am not a fan of the weird relationship between Temp and him.

Tempest forced herself to look at Pyre. The man’s sharp features seemed ever more pronounced in the morning sunlight, making him look less human than normal. It twisted her stomach in a way she could not describe and reminded her of the stark difference between them. A fox and a Hound.

There was potential for a good hate-to-love, but in the end, their whole "relationship" was quite bland and frustrating to read. I was expecting more intensity between them, and hopefully, the next book will deliver something more interesting and intriguing when it comes to them.

It is nothing new or super-original, but despite that, I liked reading this book, it is a nice, easy and quick read, and I will continue with this series.

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3.25 STARS on a hunt for a potent series ★★★✩✩

This book is for you if… a dark fairytale that screams ‘mafia in a medieval magic universe’ is alluring to you. The plot may leave something to be desired, though. TW: sexual assault, abduction and useless cliffhanger.

⤐ Overall.
Mathematically speaking, my scheme forces me to rate this less than 3 STARS but it just doesn't sit well with me. I decided to be lenient and I will nag a lot in this review but let me underline something: This was a good book. I loved the story idea and the universe its set in. The execution lacked a lot of bite, though. I'm honestly shocked I couldn't find a single review that's close to my own rating. There's only ONE rating beside my own that's below 4 stars. I guess I'm the unpopular opinion for once.

Within the frame of 300+ pages, there wasn't enough action and too much stillness. If Frost had continued the story after the official ending of The Hunt with a spicy plot and more adventure, this would have worked so much better. Cliffhangers can be good, but this one simply didn't serve the quality of the book.

Although not obvious from the synopsis on here, the arc was advertised with keywords that sometimes didn't fit. Best example: enemies to lovers. Nope. There was this phase where I was extremely tempted to skip ahead because I couldn't wait to find out who Temp's lover would be. There were 3 options at one point, all of them somewhat unlikely. I was still searching for the romance at around 65% of the plot. At first, I thought this was a good sign, but of course, I was lectured. Minor spoiler here: The heroine is pretty much abducted. Just because the kidnapper / "love interest" is handsome, full of good motives and charismatic doesn't make it less icky, given the kidnapping situation.

Dark fairytale, however, seems to fit very well! Throughout the book, I kinda felt like I was reading a mafia story set in the middle ages.

Characters with potential to make for an interesting series. We meet multiple opposing motives and personalities guiding the plot. If these will be polished smartly in the books to come, we might have a powerful series ahead of us.

World(-building) with real-life criticism. Opening the pages of this book means immersing into a world where racism is just as real and evil as it is today. Shifters are treated condescendingly at best but are villainized and othered on a regular basis, the oppressing party enforces racism and supremacy with all means necessary. The humans are poisoned from day one to think and act according to the king's dogma.

The arch of suspense-ish? That question mark is there on purpose. I honestly don't know how to tackle this aspect. I kinda think I should be appreciating the focus of the heroine's story, but my adventurous side screams: Action, drama, bloodshed, steam? Where is it?

Beware the plotholes. I'm sad I didn't request and manage to read The Hunt before the official publication, I would have loved to work with Frost on the bits of the story that didn't add up.
Spoiler-free example: A side character tells the story of how she dislocated her shoulder as a kid and wasn't able to braid her hair for weeks so her mother had to do it instead. EXCEPT the story continues and it says the mother was killed minutes after that character's shoulder is dislocated. Am I being a nitpicker? I don't care. It's obvious and proofreaders should have discovered this.

⤐ What’s happening.

‘The king sent you to assassinate the Jester?’ Pyre repeated. ‘An inexperienced woman with the acting skills of a potato?’

Although she knew her King was more monster than altruist, she didn't factor in just how far he would go to secure his place at the top of the chain.

Con:
⇢ alone on solo mission
⇢ desperate and willing to give it all
⇢ desire for revenge clouding her perception
Pro:
⇢ kindness from unexpected party
⇢ chance to change her ways of thinking
⇢ change means hope

pace = 3*

plot/story in general = 2*

plot development = 3*

characters = 3*

enjoyability = 3*

insightfulness = 5*
_____________________
Many thanks to the author Frost Kay, who provided me with an e-arc of this book in exchange for an honest review..

A fox and a Hound....

In this story we have our 18 year old h, Tempest. She grew up in the middle of the woods with her single mother until a tragic event took her life. After being orphaned, Tempest realized that she might not be as alone as she thought, and joins a group of men working for the King- called The Hounds.

After training for years with the Hounds to one day take revenge for her mothers death she has to face both the Trials to become a member, as well as the King's...advances.
Along with competing to be the first female Hound, Tempest has to discover the secret of a deadly virus sweeping the Kingdoms. This journey will possibly test her loyalty to her family, and her duty- as well as help her come to grips with her hatred of Shifters- all in the name of unraveling the mystery plaguing her kingdom.

Spoiler review:

Well, I like the premise of the story, and the h's background...but all of the guys in the story pretty much sucked, the guy's POV's really made me kind of want to give them the side eye

I mean I guess kudos for making the King disgusting, because we're meant to hate him- but I'm guessing that Fox/Pyre is meant to be the love interest?

If so, I found myself being grossed out by him as well. I mean yeah, he did the 'nice guy' shtick by showing her around the shifter village with families- but his POVs make me want to punch him.

He was talking about how the village just wanted to live in peace- when I was his men that attacked her first, ran her to ground and threatened to sexually assault her...so yeah, "no intentions of harming anyone" my ass.

I mean if your going to make your 'love interest' as creepy as the villain, then I don't know whats going on...

King:

"Tempest could fight all she’d like. He liked the hunt and with careful planning, she’d be bound to him by the end of the year and fat with his babes."

"Women fell at his feet all the time, for who wouldn’t want to engage in an affair with the king? And if anyone dared to refuse him, well… All it took was a prettily worded threat of imprisonment to change their minds."

Pyre:

Pyre didn’t mind blood, but he did take offense to damaging perfectly good property. And that’s what the city girl was.

“Noted,” he replied. “If she causes problems, I’ll sell her. No one believes anything a slave says.”

and don't forget he hid out of sight, and stood by her window and watched her change her clothes and ogled her naked.

Also, along with the shifters in the forest, the deception with her uncles, and that one guy her age trying to make out with her after being an asshole for years....ya'll all suck!

I also didn't like how Pyre was taking about how he 'saved' her...I mean, Tempest was in danger by your men and you did nothing to stop it- in fact you were gleeful about it. I mean how can you say your saving someone when you're keeping them hostage?

Ugh, so like I said I like the background elements- but really just want Tempest to make her own way through this mess on her terms w/o all the d-bag guys sexually harassing her all the time.

Omg this sounds amaziiiiiiing

A fabulous start to what I believe will be a fabulous new series!

This is the second book and second series from this author that I've read and I'm almost definitive that it is the last.

I never understand why authors say "enemies to lovers" when the two characters are not enemies. Tempest did not know anything about the Jester and yet they were "enemies" when she was told what he was.

Before I read this book I looked at the reviews and one of the gripe was that the author used Tempest name for every sentence. I thought to my self 'hey you can look over that', well I couldn't. Her name was always used even though the author boldly wrote whose story it was at the beginning of each chapter. We still had to read about all the things "Tempest" wanted when she was thinking about herself.

This book really had nothing going for it and I say that in the nicest of ways. Tempest spent almost half the book in a cabin as a prisoner. She did nothing but sit and wonder how she will get to the Jester and kill him. It was really boring.

What a great start to a new series, I was captured by this book from the very first chapter and before I knew what was happening I was finished I will be getting the next book as soon as it comes out but until then I will be looking for more books by this author.

1 star is for the potential enemies to lovers i guess & the other is for effort 💀 i did try but i pretty much knew from the first page that this wasn’t for me lol. oh well

It takes great talent to have me looking like this while reading the first chapter.

I kid you not, I sobbed for young Tempest. It started of so well. I was willing to rally up the troops and go to war for her.

It had all the makings for a 5 star book.

I was bouncing in my seat with excitement, when it started to make a turn for the worse. The author, writing in the third person, kept using Tempest's name too often, instead of replacing it with 'she' or rephrasing the sentence to help with the flow of the story. I kept tripping over "Tempest this," "Tempest that" and "but Tempest."

Soon I was all fed up with poor Tempest.

Other reasons that influenced my low rating:

1) Tempest was rather slow.
I get it she's young, barely 18.

If you give me a character who does not listen to ANYONE (even her mentors) and who makes reckless decisions out of ignorance and arrogance, AT LEAST have her be quick on the up take. In other words, realise that the King (a forty year old) who tries to force her into a sexual relationship (after he failed to kill her) might be a manipulative liar, and the people who are treating her well and nursing her wounds, honest. I know it seems far fetched, bizarre even.

It takes Tempest the WHOLE BOOK to even consider this. There were some scenes were I cringed, her unwavering belief in her king made her unsympathetic to the pain and suffering of her 'so called' enemies.

2) Nothing really happens
I was expecting a quest, danger, awesome fighting scenes and a bad ass heroine who reminds me of Yelena in Poison Study. What I got was a heroine who acts before she thinks, who is slightly over confident in her fighting skills and who is consumed with judgmental prejudice. She's also under house arrest for a long period of the book. So we have a few scenes that goes like this:

In terms of plot, the main focus is not evil schemes and action driven scenes, but Tempest's actions and self realisation (of the latter, I am not entirely convinced).

3) Little to no 'enemies-to-lovers'
Mostly cuz the heroine lives in her own ignorant world and cannot see WHAT IS RIGHT IN FRONT OF HER.

Moving on.

This book has a lot of potential and I am sad that it did not live up to the expectations I had.

"I stand on the side of the innocent."

Well, well wasn't this a pleasant surprise? Tempest has proven to be quite the admirable character. She is pragmatic, non judgemental, and has a warrior spirit. She stands for what she believes in and gives others a chance to explain their views. She doesn't let the swooning of her feelings get in the way of her logical thinking and THAT is refreshing. Now, she does jump into a mission that is obviously way over her head, but she definitely comes to see that her choice was ignorant and brash. I really enjoyed this character.

I also liked Pyre. He is an pendulum of emotion and pairs well with Tempest. Very excited to see where the two of them end up, even though they are still denying their feelings for each other.

The only complaint I have is that the next book isn't out yet!

Cover♥

I don't rate books I haven't read, but I think I can make an exception for the case of plagiarism and plagiarists.

I mean yikes?

source | source | more sauce

... and I don't even get the "I used a ghost-writer" excuse ... if it's true, what the f*ck is the point of using a ghostwriter? Who even are you?? How about write your own book yourself, or go get a day job you actually can do without paying someone else to do it?

Everything about this book sounds amazing! I want it now.

It was a very good book, blending together elements of fantasy, romance and dystopian. We have a very strong and independent main character, and a romance that is really interesting. Really liked it.

Update : Full review with minor spoilers here !! :)
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I SO f*ckIN LOVED EVERY SECOND OF IT !! also : fans of the cruel prince ( except for me it was better than the cruel prince) , enemies to lovers trope , morally grey MCs would enjoy it as well .

What an intensely satisfying and delicious read.

Temperamental Tempest was a fantastic main character with clear-cut goals and morals. And Pyre was a beautiful fox-man.

This was my first Frost Kay read. My first of many. Book 2 please?

3.5 Stars

This is the last series I haven't read from Frost Kay, and I think this is her best work yet.

Yes, it's predictable and follows the same template as her other works but- i really enjoyed this.

This is almost identical to Rebel's Blade but this is like, 10x better

Note: I received this book from the author and I voluntarily give this review, it is my honest opinion.

The Hunt was amazing, I loved it so much. This is a deliciously dark fairytale that I devoured and the best part is, it's the first book in the series.

I try not to be a cover snob, a pretty cover does help and when I saw the cover of The Hunt I was a little dazzled and after reading the book description I was hooked. It's described as a fairytale with mafia undertones and the book delivered in such a perfect way.

While the story is told from multiple point-of-views, the main female character is Tempest and she is the first-ever female hound. A hound was the King's own personal soldiers and they are feared and respected all over the kingdom. I love that Tempest is such a badass and is the first female hound. I love Tempest, she is a complex and flawed character. Not only is she a very capable warrior, smart, sassy, and thoughtful but she is also a liar, has prejudices and isn't great at thinking things through the long term, but all this makes her a more likable character.

Tempest was raised by her "uncles", who are the other hounds, which in terms has made her work hard at becoming a hound, it has also made her fierce and unrelenting. I love the relationship that she has with these big burly men who just turn to putty around her. They have such a good family dynamic and with Tempest they took on what society would define as more female roles with her, all the while training her to be the best.

When court politics goes awry and the king sends Tempest on a mission to find out what is going on in the villages and to kill the leader of the rebellion things go from bad to worse. Tempest is put in so many dangerous situations and learns so many things that could also get her killed, my nerves were on edge. I loved every second of this book and while there was action and danger my heart was safe, I didn't have those scary "my heart can't take it moments" until I got to the last fourth of the book and my heart was about to beat out of my chest. My nerves were on edge and then it ended with a cliffhanger.

The Hunt has everything that I could love in a good fantasy, action, danger, romance, badass chicks, shifters, royal politics, and untrustworthy rulers. All of that kept me on the edge of my seat and had me hooked. I can't wait to see what happens next, Tempest has gotten this far but danger lurks everywhere and it's hard to know who to trust.

Being sired by a Madrid is a curse that leaves Tempest orphaned and penniless and, being too unruly to become a ward of the court, she’s trust into the care of the Hounds, the king’s assassins and warriors. Tempest throws herself into training and finds herself tasked with finding the king’s most fear enemy, the Jester, a deadly shapeshifter.

This was one of those books for me that I SO wanted to love, the cover was gorgeous, and the general idea behind it was truly a good idea. But the execution fell so short. The story started off very strong. I was immediately drawn in - there was a good bit that happened in the first few chapters and it was action packed… then it tapered off and remained slow, dull, and inconsistent throughout the rest.

The inconsistencies consisted of both changing characters and small plot-holes that were too annoying to look past. I’ll be as vague as I can without spoiling; there were male characters that when first introduced were portrayed by their comments and actions as being borderline rapists and thugs and yet later on are supposedly part of the “good guys”? Sorry… what? Are we going to ignore (as you attempt to convince Tempest you’re on the right side of things) that you attacked, attempted to kill, and sexually objectified this woman just because she accidentally trespassed? And I absolutely hated the main male of the story. He was no better: one minute is in a rage, throwing insults and hate at Tempest, and the next talking calming and gently to her.

At first, I really liked Tempest. She was smart, quick on her feet, and a badass when it came to fighting. But then those attributes were not focused on as the story continued. I really wanted to see her be the girl she was in the beginning, but it didn’t happen.

Another issue was the world-building. Again, another thing that started off promising, but as I read on I became more confused with lack of history and explanation for the world and the different types of “creatures” in it, especially the Hounds themselves.

This book was terribly slow, with the majority of it dragging on and on with really nothing of worth happening. I highly disliked one of the MCs, and felt shortchanged with general information. This had so many interesting elements that had me excited, but ended up just flopping in the end.

It's no secret that I love everything Frost writes. But this book? Has to be one of her best series yet. Hands down. Not only is the cover spectacular, the storyline is captivating and makes it difficult to put the book down, and the characters are perfectly fleshed out.
I'd looooove to go into more detail but my lips are sealed. All I'll say is y'all gonna love this book when it comes out next year :D

3.5 Stars

I was going into this book not expecting much, but I was pleasantly surprised. The reading style is very very easy to get into, and I was not once bored!

The dynamics of Pyre and and Tempest kept me enamoured and I can’t wait to read the next book. I love Pyres personality, it’s quite a unique one!

The plot is really intriguing and it’s just a good fun quick read if your bored and looking for something quick to sink your teeth into!

I thoroughly enjoyed this fantasy short. It's a unique take on the origin of the "huntsman" from Snow White...with a twist. I really love someone who can take a well known tale and take a different approach to it and turn it on it's ear. This is what Frost Kay has accomplished. This whole series should be absolutely fascinating.

Not like the other girls girl diary. DNF, if you want a good book with a badass female assassin read Nevernight.

This reads like some bad fanfiction, our heroine acts and thinks like a 13 year old no matter how much the writer wants us to believe she is a badass. Honestly the high rating on this is perplexing

This book did not fully live up to my expectations of it. While it was still an enjoyable read (I finished it in one sitting last night!), it felt like something was missing.

While still enjoyable, the plot was incredibly predictable. Absolutely no twists or intrigue to keep you guessing. Some of the characters were super great, but the main two characters were pretty bland in my opinion. I also was not a big fan of how things ended between them - seemed like a big tease to me. One of my favorite characters so far is actually King Destin - I’m hoping we see more of him in the future books because I think he makes a great villain.

The blurb from the second book gives me strong ACOMAF vibes, so I’ll definitely continue the series when it comes out! I’m hoping things become a little more intense in the next one 😆

Basic but good, I look forward to reading the rest of the series

nope, i literally fell asleep 30% into this book

3.5-4 stars. This has been sitting in my KU cache for at least a month now. The cover, while beautiful, has a really high fantasy vibe and I was just having some commitment issues for a bit. Glad I finally broke the mold and got to it though. The story was definitely engaging and I thought, for the most part, the characters were either depth full or at least on their way. I did have some issues with the heroine. While Tempest is a great bad A fmc, she is also super naive.... or at least gives the illusion that she is, but at the same time it's more like she is in straight denial no matter what. This contradicts her open-mindedness when it comes to most other things in the book, it also contradicts her strict attention to details as well as the fact that she is super smart. Its like if she refuses to acknowledge things they will just go away. Doesn't make sense with her career choice of being a Hound, which seems to be the kings men (or women) at arms. Either way her constant desire to prove herself worthy of her position really takes a toll on her throughout this story. Its like we have this strong FMC with all these weaker characteristics.. I didn't know if I wanted to love her or smack her upside the head for some of her more deliberate denseness.

Some of the "twists" were very obvious from the start. Even if it takes a while for Tempest to get her crap together and in gear. The story did take quite a while to "build up" to the main plot line. I loved the world building and it was definitely ripe with a lot of backstory. All in all I thought it was a good read.. however we are left before anything really hits the fan, I'm just not sure it was enough to get me really invested in the story. I'll probably go ahead and read the rest of the series as it comes out but I'm looking for a lot of action in the upcoming books. Looks like a war is brewing, and Tempest will be on the side of the innocent.. whoever that may be.

This book was epic!! Tempest is a bad ass! And I can’t even get enough of the cover!! Definite must read!!