The Most Dangerous Game & Werewolves: Reading "Hunting Human" by Amanda Alvarez

Book:                    Hunting Human

Author:                 Amanda Alvarez

Publisher:            Carina Press

ISBN/ASIN:          9781426891434

Rating:                  3.95 Stars

Release Date:    March 28, 2011

Be sure to check out more of Amanda Alvarez

Witness to her friend’s murder after being hunted down in the woods like prey, Hunting Human gives new meaning to The Most Dangerous Game in this sexy romance by Amanda Alvarez. Upon her return from Eastern Europe, shell-shocked and on the run, Elizabeth Williams tries to evade the predator on her tail after that horrifying night in the woods. Markko Bolvek is after revenge for Beth killing his brother-he wants her blood and he plans on making her suffer…painfully.

Finally able to settle down at least for few months at a job at a coffee shop in Portland, Oregon puts her in the path of Braden Edwards who very much wants to get closer to her. But he doesn’t tell her who and what he his. And the tenuous relationship they have begun, becomes complicated because being involved with Braden puts her in between a centuries-old rift between the Bolveks and the Edwards, two werewolf clans. Who are at war.

Hunting Human was an incredibly romantic read and there are points in the book that Alvarez puts a double spit-shine on her craft…when Beth and Rachel are hunted down…her eventual metamorphosis into a werewolf, her kidnapping by Braden (the trunk scene is great), and her turning away from Braden. It’s these outliers, these bits of intensity that show that Alvarez knows her romance, and what it will take to elicit thrills and suspense in her audience. I’d like to see more of this. We also have keen insight into who Beth and Braden are thanks to Alvarez’s easy dialogue, interspersed with a cast of great supporting characters.

Who intrigued me more was Chase, who was rescued as a boy by the Edward’s clan. There is a restless feel to his character, an understated violence that Alvarez wrests back…we see glimpses when he trains Beth…hints in his behavior, a self-destructiveness and also a yearning. And there is the muted attraction that Lucy and he have that I would like to see in the next Alvarez book.

Hunting Human might not reveal anything new in paranormal romance, but its focus was strictly set on  delivering every drop of romance possible, and it succeeded. There is something to be said about the sultry unfolding of a romantic piece like Alvarez’s, seductive, intoxicating, getting just a bit tipsy before you realize it. It was an intensely satisfying read, full of passion, suspense, riddled with surprises, and just enough of a plot to keep the reader desiring more. I would like a second serving of Chase please!

A Fiendishly Bookish Review (and one grumpy cat)