Review: Hidden Huntress by Danielle L. Jensen

Title: Hidden Huntress
Author: Danielle L. Jensen
Publisher: Angry Robot
Release Date: June 2, 2015

Beneath the mountain, the king's reign of tyranny is absolute; the one troll with the capacity to challenge him is imprisoned for treason. Cecile has escaped the darkness of Trollus, but she learns all too quickly that she is not beyond the reach of the king's power. Or his manipulation. Recovered from her injuries, she now lives with her mother in Trianon and graces the opera stage every night. But by day she searches for the witch who has eluded the trolls for five hundred years. Whether she succeeds or fails, the costs to those she cares about will be high. To find Anushka, she must delve into magic that is both dark and deadly. But the witch is a clever creature. And Cecile might not just be the hunter. She might also be the hunted.

I had a pre-order of this as paperback.  But it's been sitting on my shelves since June since it's kind of thick.  I had so many books on my backlog to read, I just didn't have time for it.  But since I finally decided to give audible a try, I figured this would be a great time to get this one read.  So this review is on the audiobook version, not the paperback version of the book (not that there is much difference except that the funny voices made me laugh randomly at work).

I really loved the first book. I feel like I missed some information by listening to this while at work (especially since I read the first book) where everything is at a constant average of around 80 decibels.  Let's just say it's really loud and I had to turn the volume to its max so I could mostly hear it.  And throughout all of the Tristan chapters, his narrator just kept making me think this:

I know I don't usually use gifs.  I couldn't help it.  I kept singing this song at work while listening and people were looking at me funny (though nothing new there lol).

I liked this book.  It wasn't as good as the first.  But I still liked it.  I wish there hadn't been so much of Cecile wandering around just doing the opera thing, but I suppose it was necessary plot-wise.  As usual, I enjoyed the Tristan chapters over the Cecile ones.  But the Cecile chapters were still plenty interesting.

So let's talk about the characters
At first I didn't like Sabine.  she got on my nerves.  But she grew on me.  She was sweet and loyal and she loved Cecile.  Tristan's father somehow managed to be the lesser of the evils when it cam to the trolls.  And I almost felt sorry for him at times.  We already know plenty about Tristan and Cecile, so I won't say much other than that their reunion was beautiful and things happen that should've in the first book.

So how about that twist?
I have to be honest, I saw the big twist as pretty obvious.  I expected it even while I was reading Stolen Songbird.  And the second twist that comes out slightly later?  I figured that much near the beginning of Hidden Huntress.  So I have to say, this book was kind of predictable.

So that ending
Yeah I didn't quite expect exactly what happened.  But I love the cliffhanger.  And now I'm anxiously awaiting the next book!

So what did I think?
I liked it.  I didn't love it the way I loved Stolen Songbird.  But it was still good if slightly predictable.  Currently anxiously awaiting Warrior Witch.  If you liked the first book, you'll probably enjoy this.