ARC Review: The Hunt (Project Paper Doll #2) by Stacey Kade

The sound effects you'll hear if you were sitting beside me while I was writing this review was the sound of me bashing up the keys on my laptop.

I haven't been this affected of a cliffhanger in a long while, and then The Hunt came.

Title: The Hunt (Project Paper Doll #2) by Stacey Kade
Release Date: April 22nd 2014
Published by: Disney-Hyperion
Source: Publisher (Thanks Hyperion peeps!)
Buy: Amazon | Book Depository

Summary:

Ariane Tucker has finally escaped GTX, the research facility that created her. While on the run, Zane Bradshaw is the only person she can trust. He knows who-and what-she is and still wants to be part of her life.

But accepting Zane's help means putting him in danger.

Dr. Jacobs, head of GTX, is not the only one hunting for Ariane. Two rival corporations have their sights set on taking down their competition. Permanently. To protect Zane and herself, Ariane needs allies. She needs the other hybrids. The hybrids who are way more alien and a lot less human. Can Ariane win them over before they turn on her? Or will she be forced to choose sides, to decide who lives and who dies?

The events in The Hunt immediately follows what happened after Ariane and Zane escaped GTX. Now they're on the run, trying to get as far away as they could from the company that made Ariane who she is: half-human and half-extra terrestrial. With the rival corporations hot on her heels to eliminate a "superior specimen", was running enough for Ariane to gain the freedom she wants to have and be normal? Or can she stand up and fight for herself once and for all?

There were so many things going on at once that I felt like I was in over my head even at the start of the book.The dynamics in Zane and Ariane's relationship were shifting wildly while they were on the run. While Ariane is torn between leaving Zane behind for his safety, Zane was mulling over the potential repercussions of him being there. Ariane was, in all ways superior than he will ever be. That struggle in Zane's part was what made his interactions with Ariane so enjoyable for me. Oftentimes you'll see the guy always taking charge, always the one with the solution, but Zane finds himself powerless more times than he can count, and he knows it. The gap that the fact that he's human and Ariane was partially not was bigger than what I expected, what with the way Ariane was treated and seen in the eyes of outsiders. At one point I felt as frustrated as Zane with everyone, seeing Ariane treated the way she was: an experiment, an abomination, inhuman. Why can't she be treated better?

The story was pushed forward in a good pace with the actions Ariane took in solving her current dilemma. Her persistence to end the sick kind of competition the tech corporations were having was admirable, though a bit irritating at times, but it just goes to show that she too was human. She makes mistakes, is rash and sometimes ruled over by her emotions. She was "more" in this novel, more responsive, more emotional, stronger, more in conflict with herself. You get the sense that something was happening, that she was trying to do something. The addition of Ford, Carter and Nixon to the story is an interesting twist that moved the story further. Ford is an interesting character. Her motives were questionable, but she was someone worth taking a closer look at, so much like Ariane and not like her at the same time. Just a piece of advice: never get attached to any new character you come across.

The Hunt has a wonderful combination of being a thriller with romance and all the sci-fi elements that had all the action packed, catch your breath type of scenes that was lacking in the first book. I loved how I get more out of this novel than the first one! Peppered with scenes alternating from cute to hot, giving us more answers, and more amazing developments in the story that made this such an occupying read that will make you realize you're near the end and you still wish there are twenty more pages just so it doesn't end at once. But it did, and the cliffhanger was the killer moment of this book. Just when you thought there was more to it, that you have more seconds to enjoy it and soak in the adrenaline rush, there was none. It ends there, and the rush of feelings catches up with you and you sit there stunned, trying to process what happened and wonder why it ended there.

Stacey Kade masterfully captures a reader's attention with this amazing follow up to The Rule, and you wouldn't want to let go even when you reach the last page. What an intense, roller coaster ride! And what a clever, evil way to end it! But then the realization comes that there at least is a third book to look forward to. If you're looking for a fast paced read which you can breeze through in a flourish, pick up a copy of this book, will you? With the way The Hunt ended, I am desperate more than ever to find out how this deadly game of hide and seek ends, and what's left to look forward to in Ariane's story.

Content (plot, story flow, character):

Zane! The one star removal was my frustration for the rest of the characters in the story. I often find myself saying "WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?" and "Are you seriously human!?". With Zane's mom, the doctors, Zane's dad and sometimes even Ford, Nixon and Carter. Can't Ariane catch a break? Can't Zane catch a break?

Shining: Worthy of a Goddess' Love!

Book Cover:
It's creepy and eerie, but that best describes what the book is really about.

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Review: The Trap (The Hunt #3) by Andrew Fukuda

If there's such a thing as  emotional carnage, where every single strand of my emotions were ripped apart and stomped on, then that's what I have just experienced while reading this book.

I feel so tired, it's like my emotions were a tangible thing that was tossed around and just disintegrated after I flipped to the last page.

Title: The Trap (The Hunt #3) by Andrew Fukuda
Release Date: November 5th 2013
Published by: St. Martin's Griffin
Source: Publisher
Buy: Amazon | Book Depository

Summary:

After barely escaping the Mission alive, Gene and Sissy face an impossible task: staying alive long enough to stop an entire world bent on their destruction. Bound on a train heading into the unknown with the surviving Mission girls, Gene, Sissy, David, and Epap must stick together and use everything they have to protect each other and their only hope: the cure that will turn the blood-thirsty creatures around them into humans again. Now that they know how to reverse the virus, Gene and Sissy have one final chance to save those they love and create a better life for themselves. But as they struggle to get there, Gene's mission sets him on a crash course with Ashley June, his first love . . . and his deadliest enemy.

It was not easy reading this book, let me tell you that now. It was not easy getting through The Hunt and The Prey as well, but there's something really fascinating in the way this cruel, cruel world was presented through Andrew Fukuda's writing. By the time I was reading The Hunt, I felt the way Gene and Sissy did. I am tired. I wanted to give up. It's like the wariness, the deaths, the setbacks and countless heartbreaks suddenly weighed down on me. When will it end? Will it ever end? But you know what? I wouldn't trade the reading experience I had with this book with anything right now.

You think I'd have enough because of the dire situations and each and every seemingly hopeless moments that Gene and Sissy encounters in almost every page and chapter, but no, it was like some sort of drug that feeds my hunger to find out how it all ends.

In terms of the characters, I liked Sissy in this book better than Gene. I've always thought that she was fierce, stronger than anyone, maybe even Ashley June and Gene, but she just became that rock Gene needs to lean on to, to not give up. "We fight to the end.", she would always say, and every single time those words just bring tears to my eyes. At some level, I can understand Gene's feelings, and he was the person who was the most affected by everything that had happened, every single piece of the puzzle revealed, every challenge they face, but I felt his hopelessness more, like he really was at the end of his rope, and he was more unstable and emotional in this book than I would have liked.

I'd like to argue with what was said in the summary, that Gene's deadliest enemy is Ashley June herself. I don't think so. Gene's deadliest enemy was himself. The doubts that began to creep in, when he was starting to lose himself in the fear and the direness of it all. Who else does he have to fight with him? It was just him and Sissy and if they don't become a lot tougher than they were, how will they survive? Gene and Sissy were enough source of agony for me, that kind of bittersweet, doomed love and Ashley June just had to come in and present us flashbacks of what really happened to her, what it was like for her. She loved Gene, that I was sure of, and they were both connected by the grim events that transpired between their families, it's just that Ashley June chose to express that love in a way that Gene couldn't understand, not at first.

What happens when the Prey becomes the Hunter? I'm glad that amidst all that was going on in the story, Andrew Fukuda was able to show that side of the story, though briefly. It gave Gene's and Sissy's character a bit of an edge, a darker tinge to it.

I had to stop and pause for a little while when the truth surfaced. It felt like a bomb exploded and I had no idea how to deal with the aftermath. It was safe to say that those moments rearranged the whole story for me and gave me a whole new perspective to think about, and evaluate the story in a different angle, with a different approach. What a way to blindside people, Andrew Fukuda. By that moment I didn't care what else was there left for Gene and Sissy to discover, but when that twist finally came into light, I was speechless. I was so caught up trying to see if Gene and Sissy will survive for another minute, another hour, another day, that I didn't notice the possibility for something of that magnitude to happen was plausible. And as if it wasn't enough, Gene and Sissy had to face the reality of what lies ahead for them, what it means when they discovered who they are. What was normal for them after all that has happened? I felt so exhausted, but it turns out it wasn't the end.

I felt like my emotions were painfully wrung out of me by the time I got through the end. I can't say I'm happy, but I felt so proud by the time the story ended. I felt so proud of Gene and Sissy. They came out of it with a determination stronger and fiercer than before. They found a purpose. They were each other's hope. And that was good enough of an ending for me.

Stunned and stunning. Shocked and shocking. I couldn't ask for a better way for The Hunt series to end. The Trap couldn't have ended in a better way than it did. Kudos, Andrew Fukuda! What a ride, what a read! This series will forever stay with me as one of the most memorable series I have ever read.

My rating:

Content (plot, story flow, character):

I can't say enough praises and give enough accolades for this book. I have nothing but respect for Andrew Fukuda. The guy knows how to write dystopia, and he writes really well. Just give it a try, will you?

Stunning: Worthy of a Goddess' Praise!

Book Cover:
The Prey's cover is still my most favorite cover, but this one is also good!

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