Back-to-back blog tours this week - today I'm hosting a stop for Nikki Jefford's Hunting Season, the fourth book in the Aurora Sky: Vampire Hunter series. This is a young adult, urban fantasy series set in Anchorage, Alaska, which I think is pretty darn awesome.
Check out the rest of the book tour stops at Xpresso Book Tours.
Blurb:
Better to be a hunter, not prey.
In order to have a snowball’s chance at success, she’ll have to team up with her most loyal friends—including a certain vampire in black with a provoking talent for distraction.
Old cravings aren’t easily quenched, nor past passions. With knowledge comes danger and Aurora is at risk on all sides.
Hunting Season is available now!
Amazon | B&N | iTunes | Kobo | Goodreads
Moment of honesty: I haven't read the entire series. Jumping into a series in the fourth book is generally not something I would do - mostly because even if I fall in love with book four, I'm not inclined to go back to the start and catch up. I'll gladly read forwards from there, but I hate to essentially have glossed over so much of the story!
So, that basically encapsulates the problem that I had with Hunting Season. This book very clearly comes out of whatever events ended the third in the series. I was overwhelmed by the details in the first few pages - so many characters and references to past events or relationships and connections that I had no understanding of at this point.
Now, within the first twenty or thirty pages, I felt caught up on some of the more important details, but I still wasn't clear on all of the dynamics that existed. One of the big pieces seems to be the tension between Aurora, Fane and Dante - Aurora's making some big decisions here, but because Dante is absent for so much of the book, I wasn't as invested as I might have been (also, you know, if I'd read the previous three books).
Fortunately, we get a lot of background on resident swoonworthy guy, Fane. Again, I felt like I was in the big reveal moment, but without all the build-up to it, but it was nice to get a sense of the layers beneath his surface.
The plot of this book is very much about Aurora being in transition, in addition to needing to rescue her partner. I liked that she's undergoing this personal evolution, wrestling with some of the complications and freedoms of being a vampire. There's some optimism in worrying about some of these issues - optimism that she's going to survive all the action involved in the rescue scheme - but that's okay too. I think there's a sense of hope buried in Aurora's fretting about the distant future, and that makes for an important contrast with the anxieties of the more immediate drama.
3 stars
For fans of vampires, young adult
Book one is currently FREE at all major online ebook retailers. And available for the reduced price of $1.99 in audiobook with Amazon’s Whispersync for Voice.
My Review:
Moment of honesty: I haven't read the entire series. Jumping into a series in the fourth book is generally not something I would do - mostly because even if I fall in love with book four, I'm not inclined to go back to the start and catch up. I'll gladly read forwards from there, but I hate to essentially have glossed over so much of the story!
So, that basically encapsulates the problem that I had with Hunting Season. This book very clearly comes out of whatever events ended the third in the series. I was overwhelmed by the details in the first few pages - so many characters and references to past events or relationships and connections that I had no understanding of at this point.
Now, within the first twenty or thirty pages, I felt caught up on some of the more important details, but I still wasn't clear on all of the dynamics that existed. One of the big pieces seems to be the tension between Aurora, Fane and Dante - Aurora's making some big decisions here, but because Dante is absent for so much of the book, I wasn't as invested as I might have been (also, you know, if I'd read the previous three books).
Fortunately, we get a lot of background on resident swoonworthy guy, Fane. Again, I felt like I was in the big reveal moment, but without all the build-up to it, but it was nice to get a sense of the layers beneath his surface.
The plot of this book is very much about Aurora being in transition, in addition to needing to rescue her partner. I liked that she's undergoing this personal evolution, wrestling with some of the complications and freedoms of being a vampire. There's some optimism in worrying about some of these issues - optimism that she's going to survive all the action involved in the rescue scheme - but that's okay too. I think there's a sense of hope buried in Aurora's fretting about the distant future, and that makes for an important contrast with the anxieties of the more immediate drama.
Bottom Line:
I think this book had a lot of potential, but it was hard for me to connect with the story already so much in progress. Definitely not a standalone story, I strongly recommend going back to the beginning. What Hunting Season was most successful at, for me, was letting me know that there's a rich story unfolding here, and it's important to hop on board earlier on!
I think this book had a lot of potential, but it was hard for me to connect with the story already so much in progress. Definitely not a standalone story, I strongly recommend going back to the beginning. What Hunting Season was most successful at, for me, was letting me know that there's a rich story unfolding here, and it's important to hop on board earlier on!
3 stars
For fans of vampires, young adult
Nikki Jefford is a third generation Alaskan who found paradise in the not-so-tropical San Juan Islands (WA) where she is, once more, neighbors with Canada in a town without a single traffic light.
She married the love of her life, Sebastien, while working as a teaching assistant in France. They reside with their Westie, Cosmo in Friday Harbor.
Loves fictional bad boys and heroines who kick butt.
Author Links:
Giveaway:
Hosted by the author, don't miss this opportunity to pick up one of the Aurora Sky books!
I once started a series at like book 14 by mistake haha. Usually you get good recaps for what you need to know. This sounds like a fun series overall! :)
ReplyDelete