Author: Jennifer L. Hart
Series: The Unseelie Court #1
Genre: Urban Fantasy/Retellings/Mythology
Publisher: Self-Published
Publication Date: May 1st, 2018
Edition: Kindle Edition, 398 pages
Source: NetGalley
Purchase/Pre-Order: Amazon US | Kobo | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | iBooks
Synopsis:
A teenage serial killer with a mysterious past.
The deadly hunter sworn to protect her.
Secrets, lies and a shot at redemption.
It all begins with a kiss.
When 16-year-old Nic Rutherford heads out for a night on the town, she brings a full arsenal. Her best weapon? A deadly kiss that can take down the biggest game around—humans. Two-legged predators don’t stand a chance once she makes lip-to-skin contact. But her blessing is also a curse, one that Nic fears will inadvertently harm anyone who gets too close—her aunts, her best friend, or the mysterious new boy who possesses strange abilities of his own.
Aiden Jager has the one thing Nic can’t resist—information. With his help, Nic unearths answers about her own murky past along with the key to a hidden world where magic thrives and the impossible becomes reality if one is willing to pay the ultimate price. Beware, for once the door is open, there’s no turning back.
WARNING MATURE CONTENT: While this story is loosely based on the story of Sleeping Beauty, it is the dark folktale version of the story. Themes include sex, rape, violence, vigilante justice, and cold-blooded murder. Explicit language is an added bonus.
Review:
Technically, this is a YA book because the main character is 16. But, with the content, it's closer to New Adult maybe adult. Not really a problem, in my opinion, the level of violence is the same as other YA books but there's more sexual situations and language. So I don't know what age group would like this book. It is not for younger teens. I would say 16/15 and older. I mean, I guess you could read this if you are 14 but I don't think anyone around 12 should read it.
I really enjoyed this book. A lot more than I had expected to as well. There were a few cliche things, but those things didn't really overshadow the rest of the book.
Nic is a very interesting character. It was kind of annoying, but at the start of the book she talks about herself as a heartless being, but a lot of her actions weren't really heartless. I suppose in contrast to her past, she just seemed far less heartless than she saw herself.
Aiden, for a good chunk of the book, wasn't as interesting as I would have liked him to be. At least he wasn't to me. Though as more of his past was revealed the more interesting he became.
One thing that I do really love about this book, is the introduction of an Asexual character. Nic, our main character, is asexual. It's often forgotten about not only in fiction but in real life. Much like bisexuals, asexuals are treated like they aren't real a lot of the time. And asexuality is also often misunderstood, and I really appreciate that this book portrayed it well, and accurately.
I really love how mythology was woven into the book as well. Mythology from all over. It still stuck to the more common ones in this book (mostly Norse, but Roman and Irish were also mentioned), but I really hope that some of the lesser-known mythology from more Eastern culture makes its way into future books. Heck, even mythologies from the cultures in American continent would be interesting to see.
I wasn't sure how this book was going to play out, as with all new series, book one has the bulk of worldbuilding and setup for the rest of the series. But it never felt like info-dumping, there were batches of info being laid out, but it didn't take away from the plot, it was actually set up to kind of be a "dump" of information for the main character just as much as it is for us. The more she learns about herself, her past, and the Fey realm; was set up in a way that we learned things right alongside Nic, we felt what she did when she learned things. For me, it brought me into the story more.
I am really looking forward to what happens in the next book. I love Urban Fantasy, and I love mythology.
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