I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy from the Publisher. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.The Last Huntress by Lenore Borja is an excellent beginning to a fantastical series.

Will Alice Daniels get to keep the man that the Gods are trying to keep away from her?
Alice Daniels and her mom, Judy, moved from Colorado to Phoenix, Arizona, where they took over Judy's parents' house. They were meant to be there five years earlier, but they didn't until now when she is a senior in high school. Alice is thrown into a world full of different possibilities when she has her 18th birthday and becomes a huntress.

What I like about this story is that Ms. Borja took a story from Greek Mythology that isn't widely popular and made a great book from it. All the characters were awesome, from Alice to the three other Huntress to their protector to all the evil characters. Each one was vastly different from the others, but they all seemed to fit together—especially the four huntresses.



Five Stars
I am giving five stars to The Last Huntress by Lenore Borja and recommending it to anyone interested in mythology retellings. Ms. Borja is a remarkable writer, and I can't wait to read the next book in this series. She floored me with the way that this one was written. I was sucked in immediately and felt like I was experiencing everything with the characters.

Thank you for dropping by! I hope you enjoyed this review of The Last Huntress by Lenore Borja.

Until the next time,
Karen the Baroness


Happy Reading!This review was originally posted on Baroness' Book Trove 

Inspired by Greek Mythology, The Last Huntress follows Alice through a magical realm behind mirrors as she hunts demons with her newfound sisters.

Okay, so there were things I liked and disliked about the book. Let’s start with what I did like, shall we?

The Greek mythology was done very well here. As someone who has studied Greek mythology almost all my life, I love seeing a more profound development into the more obscure tales in Greek mythology. For example, the Last Huntress follows the story of Tisiphone, one of the Erinyes (Furies). Tisiphone fell in love with the mortal man, Cithaeron, only to have him betray her and kill her when her true identity was revealed.

Forever cursed, Cithaeron is reincarnated every generation to guide and train the new set of furies to hunt the demons his daughter unintentionally let loose behind her mirror realm.

I liked that Borja was able to spin this new take, to take something so obscure and flush out the mythology into something unique.

The sisterly love was also something new and unique in the storytelling. Alice has found her own family here, her own sisters who understand her deeply and emotionally. Even when Persephone came into the mix, it was fun and heartwarming.

However, not everything worked out this way.

One of my biggest pet peeves is the insta-love trope. Yes, Alice and Cithaeron have a deep connection; they’re soulmates. But it was slightly cringe because he was a dick to her when they first met and Alice was so caught up in him.

The pacing in developing their relationship was also way too fast. As readers, we don’t see these two fall in love. We see them attracted to one another and then declaring their love, but it lacks substance. You can use the insta-love trope but still build the relationship.

As the relationship “develops,” there is this toxicity behind it. Both characters do incredibly questionable things to protect the other one. This includes drugging and kidnapping on both parties. It is cringeworthy and takes away what should be a loving relationship.

I also hate it when male or female characters say “baby” as a term of endearment. It sounded facetious and condescending, especially given their highly inappropriate and questionable behavior.

The Last Huntress left a lot to be desired. I didn’t hate it, but I also didn’t love it, finding many problems with the pacing and development of the romance. 

 A dark fantasy mix of Greek myths and Alice in Wonderland vibes.

This one has a lot of good things going for it, but the destined-soulmates/instalove romance and all-around unlikable love interest kind of killed it for me.

THE GOOD:

The main character is headstrong, brave, the practical kind of smart, quick on her feet, and kind. She’s bold without being arrogant. She stands up for herself. She’s loyal and hardy enough to make morally gray decisions when no option is black or white. But, the romance eroded my respect for her. She’s not perfect. She can also be petty, hold grudges, and has truly terrible taste in men.

The rest of the main characters are some a**kicking women, each with their own personality and flavor of awesome, that I just loved and a male love interest I just didn’t love.

It’s got great dark fantasy world-building, with a Greek-mythology-inspired magic system and plenty of fresh twists on familiar myths. The Mirror Realm is creative, strange, fun, and dangerous. It’s the kind of world beyond the looking glass that you can’t help but want to visit and be scared to step foot in. It’s full of demons and wonders and the world turning itself upside down with every turn, drop, and jump (literally). 

The author rides the line between dark fantasy and horror with skill. There’s serious creepy and eerie vibes, but no excessively graphic violence. The descriptive style captured the beauty and scariness of this tale. The story has good pacing that keeps you swept up in suspense, intrigue, or action from start to finish. The plot kept my interest with mysteries of Alice’s family’s past and the present world of Greek myths and mirrors that comes to her. The plot wasn’t rushed. The story was nothing if not unpredictable.

No cliffhanger ending. The ending was clearly meant to be happy, but I didn’t love it because by the end, I was hoping for was the male love interest’s messy and permanent demise.

THE BAD (READ: THE ROMANCE):

The romance was definitely instalove. Even for a story with the magical, fated soulmates trope, this romance felt very instant, very rushed, and never successfully made up for lost development later in the book. Since the leading romantic pair trying to save each other was a central part of the book’s plot, this really held the story back.

The love interest, Colin, was the worst part of the book. Even after finishing the book, I never felt a genuine spark between Alice and Colin or a reason for Alice to even like Colin. The way Colin treated Alice alternated between him being mean, controlling, patronizing, protective (in a creepy, patronizing, or stalkerey way), guilt-tripping, and just a jerk. He would kiss her, make physical advances, call her baby, and make general declarations of love. All the while, he would withhold information, continue to treat her badly, and treat her as a subordinate instead of an equal or a team member. He didn’t act like he trusted her. He used physical advances to avoid honesty or emotional talks. But, it’s all dreamy because Colin and Alice are soul mates, they find each other to be really hot, and apparently Colin’s more willing to risk his life for Alice than treat her with respect (or treat her as an equal). 

His behavior is presumably all to push her away, protect her from everything (including herself), or protect himself from his intense love for her. He’s only patronizing because he wants to protect her and obviously knows better because he’s older and she’s sooo reckless and sooo ignorant of the magical world that she only just discovered. (Never mind that she’d be a lot less ignorant if he spent more time sharing info. Or that her bold actions are calculated risks in dangerous situations where you can’t win or survive by playing it safe. Or that her strategies could be a lot more calculated and a lot less risky with more information and training.)

The romance came off as toxic and Colin came off as both creepy and unlikeable. By the end, I was rooting against the couple ending up together.

THE VERDICT:

Mixed feelings. I loved the world and the characters (with the exception of the male love interest). The plot and mysteries kept me hooked until the end. I disliked the romance and the love interest. The romance even eroded away some of my respect for the protagonist. My dislike of the romance kept me from really loving the book. But, the story’s strengths made this a memorable read.

WARNINGS: mentions of attempted suicide (not the main character), violence, death, kidnapping, drugging

I received a free eARC of this book via NetGalley. I am writing this review completely honestly and voluntarily.

 

The Last Huntress is the book that made me rethink my NetGalley hiatus. When I got the invite, I didn’t notice that it was from the publisher (I thought it was from the author). I also didn’t see the address of the link that was in the email. So after reading the blurb, I was very interested in this book, made up my mind to read it, and clicked the link—which brought me to my deactivated NetGalley account. So, I decided to reactivate it and start my NetGalley journey again. I am glad I did because this was a fascinating book.

The Last Huntress is book one in the Mirror Realm series. Any of the usual stuff I write in this section doesn’t apply.

The Last Huntress had an exciting storyline. Alice has just moved to Arizona after her parent’s divorce. Living in her mother’s childhood house, Alice is convinced that she will hate it there. Around the same time, Alice notices that her reflection is acting up. Thinking nothing of it, Alice ignores it until she can’t anymore. When things start to implode around her, Alice meets Soxie, Olivia, and Hadley.

Along with Colin, they tell her that what she is experiencing is real because she is a Huntress. She is supposed to hunt demons in the Mirror Realm. But Alice soon discovers more at stake than being a Huntress. What she finds out sets off a series of events that holds grave consequences for her and her loved ones. What is Alice? Can she stop whoever is manipulating her? And can she stay one step ahead of the person she loves the most?

I liked Alice for about 90% of the book. She was headstrong and wasn’t afraid to stand up to anyone. She did have her moments of weakness, though, centered around Colin. There were points where I wanted to shake her and say, “Dude, just leave him be.” Her storyline did get a bit convoluted when the author introduced Greek mythology. I figured it was going in that direction when the girls explained Colin’s/The Mirror Realms backstory, and there was an abundance of Greek mythological figures being named. But I wasn’t expecting it to get as messy as it did. Honestly, I wasn’t a fan of it and wished that the author had just stuck to her being a Huntress and left out the other stuff (but then again, those scenes with Hades and Persephone wouldn’t have happened).

I didn’t like Colin. Even with knowing his backstory, I felt that he was a bully. He refused to acknowledge his feelings for Alice, and when he did, he turned into a psycho. But, in the end, he did prove himself when he tried to save Alice by going into the Mirror Realm (he was forbidden too).

I loved Olivia, Soxie, and Hadley. They were everything that Colin wasn’t, and they weren’t afraid to tell him where to go. They took Alice under their wings and taught her everything they knew about the Mirror Realm and defeating demons. They even helped when Colin turned psycho. They were the besties that every girl wished they had in high school.

The storyline with Alice, Colin, the girls, and the Mirror Realm was exciting. I loved the lore behind how the Mirror Realm came to be. I also liked the twist thrown in that storyline about Alice being a Huntress. Also, Colin’s relationship with the goddess is interesting. I wish the author had expanded a little bit on it.

The storyline with Alice and Colin was interesting but disturbed me at the same time. I will come right out and say it; there was Instalove. It was immediately with both, but Colin, the d-tickle, refused to acknowledge it. The disturbing part was what happened after Colin admitted his feelings and discovered what would happen to Alice. I was horrified to read about the drugging and keeping her sequestered from everyone else. All because of a prophecy.

The author amazingly wrote the storyline with Alice and the Greek Gods. I couldn’t get enough of reading about that. The author extensively researched everything, and it showed. The main gods showcased were Hades and Persephone. The Fates were also talked about (and man, were they scary!!). Zeus also makes a very brief appearance toward the end of the book. I was enthralled with what I was reading.

The author very well wrote the young adult angle. I did feel, though, that teenagers went one of two ways. They were super immature and did stupid things or acted like mini adults (everyone else). There was no in-between with them. Still, I found that the teenagers written about were well-written and had depth.

As I mentioned above, the author did a fantastic job incorporating Greek mythology into the storyline. The fantasy angle was also well-written. I liked that the darker the fantasy angle got (and it got pretty dark toward the end of the book), the more well-written it was.

The romance angle was meh. As I mentioned above, I wasn’t a fan of it because of the Instalove bit and the fact that Colin was a tool for 90% of the book. Of course, that storyline did take an unexpected turn at the end of the book.

The end of The Last Huntress was exciting and a little twisty. I wasn’t expecting the twists thrown in about Persephone toward the end of the book. I also wasn’t expecting the twist about Colin and what happened to him. That last chapter messed with my mind.

I would recommend The Last Huntress to anyone over 16. There are non-graphic sexual situations, language, and mild violence. There are also scenes of kidnapping and drugging. 

Alice doesn't think there's anything that makes her special, but after meeting new friends and becoming part of their group, she finds out she's a huntress designed to hunt demons. She and her friends have an adventure hunting demons and trying to figure out a way to save the world. This book had great relationships between its characters and had the added bonus of being steeped in Greek mythology, which we all love. The Last Huntress was a wild ride of a story and I can't wait to read the next one!

I couldn’t even make it through the first chapter of this without skimming. I wanted to make it far enough to see some of the premise unfold but the writing was just so grating to me, and it made me hate Alice almost right off the bat.
Strange vibes and stuff start happening pretty much *immediately* but there’s no sense of atmosphere so it reads like confused nonsense.
At the end of the first chapter some sort of bizarre Insta love and I just am not interested.

I thought about trying to give this a chance but seems like a waste of effort when I already hate it so much