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?
Date Published: September 9, 2014
Pages: 326
Genres: Paranormal romance
Content Advisory: This book is intended for mature audiences and contains explicit sexual activity.The first time I read about the wild hunt was in the Merry Gentry series by Laurell K. Hamilton and I undeniably enjoyed it. When I heard about this book my interest was naturally piqued.
Cassandra Bookman is a twenty-eight year old woman still
trying to find her place in the world. She is working hard and saving up money
for school. She decided to take a shortcut home one night and ends up being
kidnapped from the human world by the Erlking.
The Erlking, Cadeyrn is the leader of the Wild Hunt. The
Wild Hunt or Wild Horde is the boogeyman of the Fairie. They are the last
resort to call on if vengeance is needed and this way no one can avoid justice
not a peasant nor royalty. Cadeyrn left Fairie on the Hunt to search for a
criminal that had killed a pixie child when he sees Cassie. Cassie turns out to
be Cadeyrn’s Siorghra which means eternal love. It is a sacred bond between the
Fae and their Anamchara or soul mate.
Taken by the Huntsman
focuses on the relationship between Cassandra and Cadeyrn. They are both likeable
characters. Cassie is naïve, independent, and a stubborn woman with a calling
to help others. She takes great joy in assisting people and that made her a
great match for Cadeyrn. Cadeyrn is over hundreds of thousands of years old and
not only is he noble in heart, but he’s steadfast and fiercely protective of
his subjects. He’s a great leader that hands out fair punishments.
There is instant chemistry between the two due to the
Siorghra, but does that mean instant love? In my opinion both characters were a
little dull and the relationship didn’t have that spark. I didn’t care for the
characters. Cassie spent maybe three days with Cadeyrn in the entire book and
the rest of the time either he’s on the Hunt or she is angry at him and they
are spending time apart. Yet somehow they still fell in love with each other by
the end of the book. Also I felt like Cadeyrn age didn’t show true most of the
time. Yes, when they spoke about the Yestin’s sentence he gave the right feel
but otherwise he seemed well simply too human and not more ancient.
The writing was good, it wasn’t dialogue heavy and I liked
the way the characters appearances were conveyed in the writing. Especially Toiseach
the Goblin King and the Anthropophagi, these headless, furless gorillas that
can fly. The world building was creative and it’s always interesting to see how
imaginative an author can get and it’s even better when an author can
accurately transfer their image to the reader.
The pace of the story slowed down quite a bit in middle to maturate
not only the main characters but their relationship as well. Cassie finds out
more about the people in the castle, as well as the Fairie world. There was
good amount of information about the history, different races, deities, dangers
of the world, and the courts. The beginning and end of the book were perfect, but
the middle needed more substance. The steamy scenes were not obnoxious and fit
well with the flow of the plot. One thing I wish there was maybe a little more
action. I know it’s a romance novel, but it needed something additional. I
would have liked to see more about the hunt and the participants. The scenes
that were shown presented the hunt as something very controlled, is that always
true? I would imagine it to be more violent, more brutal even, maybe more wild?
The Fairie world is always interesting to read since it makes
a great foundation to build on. This was an easy, pleasant, and smutty read.
