Monday, January 19, 2015

Review: Taken By The Huntsman by Mistral Dawn


Book Description:
Discarded and ignored by those around her for most of her life, Cassie is a lonely human woman struggling to find her place in the world and meaning in her life. Cadeyrn is the Erlking, the leader of the Wild Hunt, a hundreds of thousands of years old Fae who has always known his purpose. He has spent his entire long existence tracking the criminals of Fairie and punishing them for their crimes. 

While hunting for the murderer of a child who has escaped to Earth Cadeyrn comes across Cassie and realizes that she is the one that the great mother goddess has designated as his soul mate. He kidnaps her and takes her to his fortress in Fairie to protect her from his many enemies. 

He knows she will be angry and that he'll have to work to earn her trust, but he finds his task to be even more challenging than he had thought it would be due to Cassie's difficulty in opening her heart. 

Will Cadeyrn be able to convince Cassie that the bond between them is real and earn her love?

My Review:
I don't read a lot of fantasy romance or romance with a fae theme but I'm glad I went with my gut with this one and decided to get it to read. 

Cassie just wants to help others and she thought she found a way to do that with her recent job but her boss let her know that she isn't there to help others. No, she's there to get the people calling, on and off the phone as fast as possible without making them mad. Not really what she was wanting to do, so we find out that Cassie is a very caring person right from the very beginning of the book. 

Cadeyrn is the Erlking and leader of the wild hunt. He's very old but doesn't look it and has waited hundreds of thousands of years to find his destined mate. So when he spots Cassie and just knows that she is his destined mate, he does the only thing he can to keep her safe. He kidnaps her and brings her to his home in Fairie. 

Cadeyrn is on the hunt for a fae that killed a child so he can't stop to take his time with Cassie right now. So he puts a sleep spell on her and hopes that she will sleep until he can come back to explain why he felt the need to bring her to his home in order to keep her safe. Right away we find out that Cassie is in danger from Cadeyrn's enemies and he had a good reason to make sure she is safe but she is kidnapped by one of his enemies and subsequently rescued by an interesting character. 

I really liked how Cassie took all of her new surroundings so well. Some of the people she met would have scared most anyone who came face to face with them but she handled it all pretty well. 

Cadeyrn had me on his side as soon as he went to Cassie's home and gathered her belongings as well as her cat and brought them back to his home so she would feel more comfortable. He is such a perfect hero. He wanted nothing more than to give her whatever she wanted and when they finally got together and he brought about the idea of a little D/s fun as well as a little bondage...well he won me over for sure. I have nothing at all bad to say about this hero. 

The author did a fantastic job of giving us enough back story, history and a look around Fairie that I was easily able to follow the story and it made sense to me. I was pleasantly surprised by this book and even more surprised after reading it to find out that this is the author's very first book. 

My only complaint is that the beginning of the book was a little slow to start but it picked up quickly and I had no problem reading this book in one sitting as it kept my attention the rest of the way through. I also have to make a mention of this terrific cover. It fits this book perfectly and I love that Cassie's cat is prominent because he was a large part of the story and I loved that. 

If you like fairies, fae, goblins, harpies, a fantastic romance with a little D/s thrown in for fun then this is a book for you. 

If this sounds good to you and you'd like to read it for yourself, you can purchase it here

I give this book 4 out of 5 stars

23 comments:

  1. That is a lovely cover! The story sounds quite complex and original. I like stories where the hero and heroine have animals. Characters with pets are great.

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    1. Shelly, thank you so much for your kind words!! :-) Erin Dameron-Hill, the artist, is very talented, I love her work! Yes, Sir Fuzzalot is an important character, he's a very friendly kitty and gets along with just about everyone. :-)

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  2. Some times books can start slow, but good to know they pick up indeed

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    1. Pat, thank you for reading the review of my book! Mary was very sweet, and I'm so glad she liked it! :-)

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  3. It's cool that the author incorporated so many supernatural beasties into this book, that's a surefire way to pique my interest, and excellent world-building is a good way to keep it.

    Carmel @ Rabid Reads

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    1. Carmel, thank you so much for your interest! When I started writing this story I'd been doing a lot of research into the history of European mythology. Somehow a lot of those legends made it into the book. ;-)

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  4. Mary, thank you so much for reading and reviewing my book!!! Your kind words mean a lot to me, and I will definitely keep your critique in mind. The beginnings of stories are so important!! Thank you again, you are awesome!! :-)

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  5. Well, this sounds alright, but it's no Taken by the T-Rex.

    Kidding. I don't mind a slow start as long as it builds to something. If it's intentional. And yes, that's a great cover.

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    1. Thank you A Beer!! If you, or any of these other kind people, decide to read it I hope you'll let me know what you think! :-)

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  6. I've read this book and I totally agree it's great fun! Also agree the beginning is kind of slow, but the rest move along quickly. Very insightful review!

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  7. I loved this book. It was a great story. The set up was well done. I couldn't wait for the two to actually meet. I very much enjoyed Taken by the Huntsman.

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    1. Thank you Lalo!!! :-) I really appreciate that! I wanted to build that anticipation, I'm so glad it worked! :-)

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  8. Shelley- I love that cover too and it fits so well with the book. Pets and animals in books can be so much fun.

    Pat- Yeah it happens. That's why my policy is to always finish a book. You never know what is coming.

    Carmel- You know how much I love PNR, so to have so many monsters that I hadn't come across in other books was a real treat for me.

    Mistral- Thank you for pointing me in the right direction with your tweet. I'm so glad you liked my review. :)

    A Beer For The Shower- You're so funny. Very true and this one picked up very well.

    Lyn- Thanks for visiting. Glad to hear that you enjoyed this book too. So glad you liked my review.

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  9. Lalo- I agree. I was really looking forward to when the two characters met too.

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  10. Sounds like an interesting story, thanks for the great review!

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    1. Thank you E.L.F., I appreciate that! :-)

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  11. Oh this is great. Braine was just talking about fae books and I admitted in a comment that I hadn't read one in a while. This does look good. Glad you liked it with the winning characters, her cat and the exciting and hot story.

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    1. Sophia, you're very kind, thank you!! :-) If you read it you'll find no shortage of Fae. ;-)

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  12. ELF- Thank you and thanks for stopping by.

    Sophia- Yeah if you haven't read one in a while and are looking for a good one, this would be it. This was fun.

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  13. Well that so sounds like one I would like. I'm with Sophia. Been a while since I've read a Fae and used to read them all the time. Might be time to get back in.

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    1. Thank you so much Anna!! I'd love to hear your opinion too! :-)

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  14. Anna- I hope you do read it. I would love to read what you think.

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