Sunday 13 December 2015

A satisfying sequel full of magic and mystery | Hidden Huntress

Title: Hidden Huntress (The Malediction Trilogy #2)
Author: Danielle L. Jensen
Published: June 2nd 2015 by Angry Robot

Goodreads summary: Sometimes, one must accomplish the impossible.

Beneath the mountain, the king's reign of tyranny is absolute; the one troll with the capacity to challenge him is imprisoned for treason. Cécile has escaped the darkness of Trollus, but she learns all too quickly that she is not beyond the reach of the king's power. Or his manipulation.

Recovered from her injuries, she now lives with her mother in Trianon and graces the opera stage every night. But by day she searches for the witch who has eluded the trolls for five hundred years. Whether she succeed or fails, the cost to those she cares about will be high.

To find Anushka, she must delve into magic that is both dark and deadly. But the witch is a clever creature. And Cécile might not just be the hunter. She might also be the hunted...

REVIEW

Hidden Huntress makes the readers discover another aspect of this world, the human world; I really liked that aspect of the book. This world’s French vibe is as strong as ever. For example, La Voisin was supposedly a witch in the 1680s that helped Madame de Montespan, one of Louis XIV’s mistresses, poisoning another mistress, and so on. In this book, we’re introduced to Trianon, where Cécile’s mother lives as a famous opera singer. This city reminded me a lot of 17th-18th centuries, it had the higher neighbourhoods and places for darkness – like Pigalle (once again, French name! J).


I really enjoyed that, even though she wasn’t doing it by passion, we got to see Cécile’s life as a singer, because it showed behind the scenes of artistic companies. The idea of the masquerade was something I really appreciated, because it meant getting into the Regent’s castle and I knew this event would be important to the plot. If we didn’t see much of the human world in the first book, it had a big place in this one, it made me fully appreciate the implication the humans had with the trolls. For example, the fact the ruler is called “regent” is because he’s supposed to be holding the place for the troll king.

Like in the first book, we had Tristan’s and Cécile’s points of views, it was really useful in this book, because they weren’t at the same place. Two different storylines were going on, I was invested in both. If Cécile had to find Anushka and keep her life together to avoid suspicions, Tristan was imprisoned in Trollus. However, he got released fast enough and understood there were more politics than ever playing in the city. I really enjoyed that aspect and how he was able to reconnect with his people, who had lost faith in him because of what happened at the end of the first book.

I have to admit I felt less connected to the characters in this book, they irritated me at some point. I liked than Cécile’s childhood friends were involved, it showed that humans were as important as trolls, even if the trolls are stronger and everything. I got that they hated the trolls but I didn’t like when they tried to make Cécile forget about them. I understood, but still. However, Cécile and Tristan were as great together as they were in the first book. I hope they’ll get to have a happy ending, because THE FEELS.


There was a lot of world-building in this book, even if it was the middle book in the series, because we learnt a lot about witches. To find Anushka, Cécile tried to find help for witches and I liked learning about them. Still, doing blood magic is always going to be a bad idea, because of the name, duh. The main reason we got to learn about witches was Anushka. At some point, her backstory was revealed, it was really interesting and it totally makes me understand what she had cursed the trolls. What she did after, I’m not agreeing with, but for that aspect, I understand.

Throughout the book, Danielle put hints for the plot twist and I figured it out but I felt there were just some lines that gave it away. At some point something happened, it was weird, and then it wasn’t mentioned. It confused me for some time, but I totally figured out what was going on. However, it was SO. CLEVER. I can’t deal. Even if I knew.


The ending was really fast-paced and it ended on a bad situation for our characters. It totally shows what will be going on in the next book and oh my, I can’t wait. I’m so excited for Warrior Witch, you have no idea guys!

Final Thoughts:

I loved discovering about Trianon in this book, because this way, it wasn’t all about the trolls. We, humans, are also important. The romance was as good as in the first book, but the characters irritated me the slightest. The plot was interesting – but I love books with witches, tbh – and the ending made me so eager for the next book. I highly recommend you to read this trilogy!


Have you read this series? What did you think of it?

No comments:

Post a Comment