Audio Book Review: Hunted by Meagan Spooner

I was impressed by this creative Beauty and the Beast retelling!

Hunted
By Meagan Spooner
Narrated by Saskia Maarleveld, Will Damron

Publisher: HarperCollins
Date: March 2017
Duration: 9 hours 20 minutes
Genre: Action & Adventure, Fairy Tales & Folklore, Romance
My Rating: 4.5 of 5.0 Overall; Story 4.5; Narration 4.5.

Summary:
New York Times bestselling author Meagan Spooner spins a thoroughly thrilling Beauty and the Beast story for the modern age, expertly woven with spellbinding romance, intrigue, and suspense that readers won’t soon be able to forget.
Beauty knows the Beast's forest in her bones—and in her blood. After all, her father is the only hunter who’s ever come close to discovering its secrets. So when her father loses his fortune and moves Yeva and her sisters out of their comfortable home among the aristocracy and back to the outskirts of town, Yeva is secretly relieved. Out in the wilderness, there’s no pressure to make idle chatter with vapid baronessas . . . or to submit to marrying a wealthy gentleman. But Yeva’s father’s misfortune may have cost him his mind, and when he goes missing in the woods, Yeva sets her sights on one prey: the creature he’d been obsessively tracking just before his disappearance. The Beast.
Deaf to her sisters’ protests, Yeva hunts this strange creature back into his own territory—a cursed valley, a ruined castle, and a world of magical creatures that Yeva’s only heard about in fairy tales. A world that can bring her ruin, or salvation. Who will survive: the Beauty, or the Beast?

Review:
Yeva, nicknamed Beauty, has always loved the forest and hunting since her father taught her how to hunt as a child. But over the years he became a wealthy merchant and his daughters had to behave properly for society and hopefully to secure a favorable marriage. When her father is told that he has lost his fortune he moves the family back to their cottage in the forest.

Yeva is happy to be back in the forest but frustrated that her father won’t allow her to go out hunting with him. He has become obsessed with finding the rumored monster known as “The Beast”. When her father fails to come home Yeva finally sets out to find him. She goes deeper and deeper in the woods, stumbling through the snow. At the point of exhaustion, she comes to face with The Beast. The Beast believes that Beauty can save him from the curse that he can’t speak of. He shows her his cursed valley, crumbling castle and a world of creatures in the magical realm. Beauty is drawn to a magical creature from her childhood fairy tale stories. She realizes that creature has a crucial role in freeing The Beast or maybe freeing Beauty from the Beast.

I found this story wonderfully creative. It has basic similarities but is distinct from the well-known fairy-tale version. The story builds slowly but is worth getting into the depths. The tone is dark which fits the strong character of The Beast. Beauty is a strong-minded character too although there are times she is young and foolish. I enjoyed the twists and I really liked the views of The Beast that are interspersed between the story following Beauty. I will be looking to read/listen to more retellings from Ms. Spooner. I recommend this to anyone who enjoys fairy tale retellings.

Audio Notes: Saskia Maarleveld and Will Damron do a wonderful job on the narration. Saskia delivers the majority of the story with energy and emotion. Then Will steps in with the dark, growling nature of The Beast. Very well done and I found it all entertaining. I’m glad that I listened to this.

Source: March 2019 TWO FOR ONE Fairy Tale Fantasies with my February Audiobooks.com credit. This qualifies for 2020TBR and 2020Audiobook goals.