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?
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