I didn't like this one and had to force myself to finish it. ( )

I really liked this book, which felt spiritually similar to Ash as it is set in the same world. The magic system and culture are more closely inspired by Chinese culture; the book summary says Huntress is "overflowing with lush Chinese influences and details inspired by the I Ching". I've never read a fairytale-inspired book with the traditional fae and changelings etc. with a Chinese influence, and it felt fresh and interesting. The fae stuff in the forest was really creepy to the point of being horror, and also fascinating to read. Some of the magical creatures preying on humans were Chinese-inspired, such as the fox-lady best known to me as a kitsune.
I liked reading about Kaede learning to fight with different weapons and Taisin learning to use her magic. I liked the other members of their party as well, and was saddened when bad stuff happened to them. There was this weird thing throughout the book where we'd switch from the perspective of the main 2 girls to another character, and it was jarring and felt like telling rather than showing. I wish Lo had kept the omniscient third person narrator to just the 2 girls.
I read this book in the JFK airport as my flight kept being pushed back and my gate kept being changed, and reading Huntress really helped keep me sane. Thanks Malinda!

Read the full review, including trigger warnings, at https://fileundermichellaneous.blogspot.com/2023/05/book-review-huntress-by-mali... ( )

Compared to Ash, this was disappointing. The writing and pacing was so slow, even though it gave me a chance to get to know the characters really well. The story felt really drawn out in some places and really rushed in others especially towards the end. And in all honesty, the ending just...didn't do much for me. ( )

This book is about some people that go on an adventure to figure out what is going on with the weather. For that they must meet the Fairy Queen to find a solution for that problem and to know why it's happening. The sole focus of the story isn't the romance. An adventure with a little bit of romance was exactly what I was looking for. Unfortunately, the characters weren't complex enough for me to care about them or what was happening.

The characters' lack of personality was an obvious problem concerning the romance. The romance is very quiet and the main characters say it is very intense, even though I can't see why it would be. I couldn't understand how they loved each other as much as they claimed when they seldom spoke to each other. I thought that they just found each other hot, but they said it was more than that and acted as if it was more than that (even though there is no explanation for it to be that way).

There was a lot of telling how a character was feeling instead of letting me know why they were feeling that way.
The main characters often mentioned people that were barely in the book but seemed important. So important that they influenced some of the decisions of the main characters, even though I didn't see any interactions between these people and I couldn't understand why the main characters valued their opinion.

The adventure was filled with the characters encountering a problem and finding a quick solution. A solution with no explanation most of the time. The characters just had a very good intuition about how to solve the problem, I guess.
Even if some characters died I never felt like there was any real danger for the main ones and the deaths didn't have any impact on me since I didn't know much about the characters to care.
Some of the magical beings they had to face were interesting, but since they were defeated so quickly I always ended up disappointed.

The abrupt and frequent change in character perspective inside the same chapter was sometimes a bit confusing and distracting. The villain perspective in 5 sentences was really unnecessary.

The magic remains mysterious until the end and there isn't much information about what it can and cannot do.
The unicorn chapter didn't make sense because... how come Kaede was an innocent? I thought the story was finished, but I guess I still needed one more magical being to be easily defeated before saying goodbye. ( )

The normal change of seasons has been disturbed and harvests have failed, so when the Faery Queen invites the king to visit her, he sends his son, accompanied by two young women learning to become sages, one of whom has had visions, and the other is somehow involved in the visions. They face a long and dangerous journey before they can defeat Elowen, whose fortress of ice has played a part in messing up the seasons. ( )