HUNTED: Book Five of the House of Night Series.
AUTHOR(s): P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast.
Read Review for Book 1 Marked Here.
Read Review for Book 2 Betrayed Here.
Read Review for Book 3 Chosen Here.
Read Review for Book 4 Untamed Here.
SYNOPSIS: Finally getting her senses, friends and confidence to fight the evils anew, back; Zoey Redbird decides to chill out a little. However, what is a life without surprises? The fallen dark angel Kalona (Yeah, you got that right - Tall, bronze and HOT! :P ) has erupted from the Earth after some billion years and who he decides to go after?? Yes, our beautiful Zoey Redbird - referred to as A-Ya [Pronounced as UH-YA]. Apparently, Kalona believes that Zoey is his ancient lover (though he definitely has ulterior motives...) reincarnated. Zoey has her friends' back again, the mystery of Red Fledglings is solved - though there may be some hiding a deep dark side within them. Erik is back with Zoey again and yes, everything is all right. But, Aphrodite, as she knows, that Zoey is being Hunted and needs to be saved...will she be able to escape the Hunt or Perish?
MSM Speaks: After Untamed, which had successfully raised my hopes, I am very pleased with Hunted. In this one, Zoey here has very BIG and very SCARY adventures to face, which also includes an *NDE when a Raven Mocker (Yeah, the mockery of a Raven) attacks her mistakenly. I love (Okay, the scene is grisly) the Action part. So, the book starts when Zoey realizes that Kalona is using her dreams to seduce her (Cliche' Alert!). Zoey realizes that Stevie Rae has survived but Stark (The Uber Hot Archer Guy - New to House Of Night) is now real bad, which again breaks Zoey's heart. But this time (Thank the Goddess Nyx) she realizes that since Erik is finally with her, she better be good. However, the Blonde Jock Heath enters (why??!!) and as Erik tries to stop her (He is such a possessive Jerk I tell you), Zoey gets pissed and speaks that dialogue which I have given in the summary. She then walks out with Heath who has to talk to her.
From here the real (and okay, a bit dramatic) action starts. Outside, Zoey receives a deadly scar. Elements are unable to heal her and Heath's blood barely keeps her conscious. It all ends when all of them have to eventually return to the House of Night as Zoey cannot survive for long, away from the grown up vampyres. Here Zoey learns that Stark can be Changed and that Kalona and Neferet are planning something large. Zoey has also acquired a way to make Kalona flee with the help of her new Poet Laureate Kramisha (A Red Fledgling), who's poems are Prophetic. One such poem says that Earth leads to Spirit leads to Humanity leads to Blood and Night binds them all and together they can make the Immortal flee. Hopefully, the human-vampyre apocalypse is avoided for a while. Whoa!!!! I loved this part of the Series...mostly because there are more poetic stanzas and verses like a puzzle and it was fun to guess.
Hunted was a better book than the first three ones. It was good to find that the Authors' finally found a pace which keeps you hooked till the last page. However, initial few pages where Zoey reminisces about what all she did in Untamed becomes slightly boring, but is necessary to lay down the plot. A sure read to learn a few historical facts and more so that Darkness does not always equate to evil just as Light always does not bring good.
My Rating - 4/5.
*NDE - Near Death Experience
House of Night (Book 5): Hunted @ St. Martin's 2009 ISBN 10 0312577990
"As your girlfriend, you've just pissed me off. As your High Priestess, you've just insulted me. And as someone with a working brain, you've made me wonder if you've lost every bit of your sense."
Eventually Zoey will discover that Love has different forms - Possessive, True love, Ancient Love and Love for Eternity and she will realize (like always) that it is not easy to choose one if you really have to make a choice that can Change the world we live in.
EXCERPT: "Bare legs? Naked shoulders? I looked down and let out a little yip of surprise. I was wearing a seriously short buckskin minidress. The top of it was cut in a wide V, front and back, so that it hung off my shoulders, leaving lots of skin visible. The dress itself was amazing. It was white and decorated with fringe, feathers, and shells and seemed to glow in the moonlight. All over it was beaded with intricate designs that were impossibly beautiful. My imagination is so darn cool!"
MSM Speaks: After Untamed, which had successfully raised my hopes, I am very pleased with Hunted. In this one, Zoey here has very BIG and very SCARY adventures to face, which also includes an *NDE when a Raven Mocker (Yeah, the mockery of a Raven) attacks her mistakenly. I love (Okay, the scene is grisly) the Action part. So, the book starts when Zoey realizes that Kalona is using her dreams to seduce her (Cliche' Alert!). Zoey realizes that Stevie Rae has survived but Stark (The Uber Hot Archer Guy - New to House Of Night) is now real bad, which again breaks Zoey's heart. But this time (Thank the Goddess Nyx) she realizes that since Erik is finally with her, she better be good. However, the Blonde Jock Heath enters (why??!!) and as Erik tries to stop her (He is such a possessive Jerk I tell you), Zoey gets pissed and speaks that dialogue which I have given in the summary. She then walks out with Heath who has to talk to her.
From here the real (and okay, a bit dramatic) action starts. Outside, Zoey receives a deadly scar. Elements are unable to heal her and Heath's blood barely keeps her conscious. It all ends when all of them have to eventually return to the House of Night as Zoey cannot survive for long, away from the grown up vampyres. Here Zoey learns that Stark can be Changed and that Kalona and Neferet are planning something large. Zoey has also acquired a way to make Kalona flee with the help of her new Poet Laureate Kramisha (A Red Fledgling), who's poems are Prophetic. One such poem says that Earth leads to Spirit leads to Humanity leads to Blood and Night binds them all and together they can make the Immortal flee. Hopefully, the human-vampyre apocalypse is avoided for a while. Whoa!!!! I loved this part of the Series...mostly because there are more poetic stanzas and verses like a puzzle and it was fun to guess.
Hunted was a better book than the first three ones. It was good to find that the Authors' finally found a pace which keeps you hooked till the last page. However, initial few pages where Zoey reminisces about what all she did in Untamed becomes slightly boring, but is necessary to lay down the plot. A sure read to learn a few historical facts and more so that Darkness does not always equate to evil just as Light always does not bring good.
My Rating - 4/5.
*NDE - Near Death Experience
House of Night (Book 5): Hunted @ St. Martin's 2009 ISBN 10 0312577990
Landmark Bookstore in Bangalore: ISBN 13 9780312577995, Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
List Price: 472/- INR.
*bangs head in the wall*
ReplyDeleteDear God, when will this series end??? Let her choose one guy... *sigh* what has happened to fantasy?? nooooo....
Okay so it seems all you chicks hit this stuff and by the look of it, this blog has only 2 male writers, so i better not say anythn bad.
just 2 male authors! damn!!!
I got so irritated with Heath! What does he think of himself?? turning out to fight with vampires! It just got too much when Zoey tries to keep him out of it and he still walks right into it.. I never liked Eric much but The archer is hot stuff :)
ReplyDeleteAlso the tales of Zoey's grandma and the past of Kalona, the nun factor all make this book much interesting than the previous parts!
oh god, you too!!!!
ReplyDeletetrue !! this was totally interesting part .. more coz every one got their part to play and they did all justice to it .. Darius is becoming a real fav for me. He is wise , brave , handles every one of these teenagers well and still has a charm left to ru on aphrodite ! And then the nuns and grandma .. perfecto !! old and young , human and vampyres [ all sort ] .. this one was a good part indeed .. one kick to Heath plz .. why the hell has he to act so heroic ?? and end up being a pain to rest ! but I am loving Stark a lot more than i ever liked Erik !
ReplyDeletePS : yes FL .. you soon need to find ones who do not like this stuff :P
@MSM : you should not have explained who the person is that will represent the elements that banish Kolona .. for some one who reads the review before reading the book, that ruins the unfolding of the puzzle .. :)
ReplyDeletesince I will be out of town for almost a week, part 6 will take time to b read .. you can do the review if you like :)
@FL: Remember how I had mentioned I dislike chick lits? :P This is not that bad...and this series apparently has 12 books :P Just kidding...9 books. ;)
ReplyDeletePS: We girls won't hit you FL. :P
@Maithili: I knowww, Okay, Erik, I hated. And Heath is proving himself to be a dumb blonde guy! Sad...but Sister Mary Angela! Awesome!
@Nimue: I like Darius too...more so because he understands and loves Aphrodite as she is... :D
PS: I will delete the names, then. Thanks for the correction! :D
loved the review!! it's such a relief to finally find people who don't like eric either!! :P
ReplyDelete@Nimue n MSM:
i love darius the best! but yeah, stark is my favourite among zoey's guys.
@MSM: r u sure there r only 9 books?? i had been wondering when on earth they're plannin to end d saga but now i feel like it wud b rele upsetting having it come to an end! :( n is d latest book out yet?!!
@maithili: i totally shared ur views about heath, he can been so annoying!! i dnt wanna spoil ur fun so i wnt go into details but believe me, he's goin to turn out to be a real hero! (never thought i'd hear myself say this.) just wait to u read tempted!! :D
@FL: ur comments r making this all da more entertaining! hahahaha. :D
@Arpita : yes as of now only 9 books reported ... though i read 12 too at some site .. and 9th book is to be out in Oct 2011.
ReplyDeleteHaving read tempted , i know Heath did good .. but still he was responsible in a way to be where he was :)
Stark rocks !! have to start book 8 soon ...