rockchick's review against another edition
3.0
Melanie A. Mason & Anthony Bowling did a great job bringing the characters and the world E.J. Stevens created to life.
Each situation and emotion was beautifully portrayed.
I enjoyed Jenna's character. UF is the best platform to create strong female characters.
looking forward to the next book in the series.
Each situation and emotion was beautifully portrayed.
I enjoyed Jenna's character. UF is the best platform to create strong female characters.
looking forward to the next book in the series.
audiobookmel's review
4.0
Review originally posted at RabidReads.ca.
3.5 stars
I’ve been a fan of the Ivy Granger series for a while. This spinoff series follows a character we meet in the Ivy Granger series. It takes place after book three in Ivy Granger, but can be read as a stand alone series. Jenna is a hunter. She works for the Hunter’s Guild and can see ghosts. She really likes to kill vampires and strings their fangs on a necklace as a trophy.
So, Jenna is shipped off to Bruges, Belgium to help them find out why so many people are turning up dead. Most of the hunters are in Brussels for a big meeting, so the Bruges guild is running on a skeleton crew. The man left in charge is quite the ass. He doesn’t like women and doesn’t think they should be hunters, so him and Jenna get off on the wrong foot right from the start.
I should back up a bit, on the train to Bruges from Brussels, Jenna meets a man named Ash. He shows her around Bruges just a bit before she goes to the guild. During this time, we get a good picture of Bruges. The descriptions are really great. I loved hearing about the architecture of the old buildings.
So, back to the guild, there is Simon Chadwick who is in charge of the guild for right now and he is an ass. There is also Celeste, who is a witch that is also a bit of a junkie. She smokes stuff that would be toxic to a human, but just gets witches high. It can also cause them to lose their memory and not be very good with magic any more. Aleksey Zharkov is a one-handed guy that is the demolitions expert for the team. He likes his job a little too much. Darryl Lambert is a blind librarian who gets around pretty well, even with his handicap. Last, but not least is Benjamin Martens, the doc.
So Jenna has to find out who is killing people in Bruges and just leaving them on the street and with this ragtag group of hunters. And while Ash is trying to sight see and socialize with her.
This is a fun story. There is a lot of action and, as I said, the descriptions of the town are great. It is a bit predictable. There are a few things that I figured out pretty quickly, but I still enjoyed the story. I would love to read more stories about Jenna. She really took control and grew in this story. I didn’t love this story as much as the Ivy Granger stories. While, I enjoyed the secondary characters in this, I didn’t like them as much as Jinx and the gang back in Harborsmouth. I do think this is a great addition for people who are looking to start learning about this world or for people already familiar with Ivy Granger.
Narration
This audiobook is recorded in a format called duet. It features a female and male narrator. In this book, the female does the majority of the narration, because this book is told entirely from the woman’s POV. She does all the narration for the female dialogues and the non-dialogue pieces of the story. The male just read the sentence from the male POVs. This is not my favorite form of audiobook. I find it a bit jarring at first when the male narrator comes in during the middle of a chapter (so far, this is the only series that I listen to that is recorded in this format). The more I listen to the story, the more I’m okay with it, but at the start of each book, it always takes me a bit to get into it. I know people who love this format and prefer it over anything else. So this is a person thing for me. If you haven’t tried this format, I suggest you give it a try sometime and see what you think of it.
I will say that I do like these narrators. I think they both do a really good job. I like the voices that they use for each of the characters. I did think that this sounded a lot like Ivy, though it is hard for me to say for sure because it has been over a year since I listened to my last Ivy Granger book. I would listen to this pair again.
**I like to thank the author for providing me with a copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.
3.5 stars
I’ve been a fan of the Ivy Granger series for a while. This spinoff series follows a character we meet in the Ivy Granger series. It takes place after book three in Ivy Granger, but can be read as a stand alone series. Jenna is a hunter. She works for the Hunter’s Guild and can see ghosts. She really likes to kill vampires and strings their fangs on a necklace as a trophy.
So, Jenna is shipped off to Bruges, Belgium to help them find out why so many people are turning up dead. Most of the hunters are in Brussels for a big meeting, so the Bruges guild is running on a skeleton crew. The man left in charge is quite the ass. He doesn’t like women and doesn’t think they should be hunters, so him and Jenna get off on the wrong foot right from the start.
I should back up a bit, on the train to Bruges from Brussels, Jenna meets a man named Ash. He shows her around Bruges just a bit before she goes to the guild. During this time, we get a good picture of Bruges. The descriptions are really great. I loved hearing about the architecture of the old buildings.
So, back to the guild, there is Simon Chadwick who is in charge of the guild for right now and he is an ass. There is also Celeste, who is a witch that is also a bit of a junkie. She smokes stuff that would be toxic to a human, but just gets witches high. It can also cause them to lose their memory and not be very good with magic any more. Aleksey Zharkov is a one-handed guy that is the demolitions expert for the team. He likes his job a little too much. Darryl Lambert is a blind librarian who gets around pretty well, even with his handicap. Last, but not least is Benjamin Martens, the doc.
So Jenna has to find out who is killing people in Bruges and just leaving them on the street and with this ragtag group of hunters. And while Ash is trying to sight see and socialize with her.
This is a fun story. There is a lot of action and, as I said, the descriptions of the town are great. It is a bit predictable. There are a few things that I figured out pretty quickly, but I still enjoyed the story. I would love to read more stories about Jenna. She really took control and grew in this story. I didn’t love this story as much as the Ivy Granger stories. While, I enjoyed the secondary characters in this, I didn’t like them as much as Jinx and the gang back in Harborsmouth. I do think this is a great addition for people who are looking to start learning about this world or for people already familiar with Ivy Granger.
Narration
This audiobook is recorded in a format called duet. It features a female and male narrator. In this book, the female does the majority of the narration, because this book is told entirely from the woman’s POV. She does all the narration for the female dialogues and the non-dialogue pieces of the story. The male just read the sentence from the male POVs. This is not my favorite form of audiobook. I find it a bit jarring at first when the male narrator comes in during the middle of a chapter (so far, this is the only series that I listen to that is recorded in this format). The more I listen to the story, the more I’m okay with it, but at the start of each book, it always takes me a bit to get into it. I know people who love this format and prefer it over anything else. So this is a person thing for me. If you haven’t tried this format, I suggest you give it a try sometime and see what you think of it.
I will say that I do like these narrators. I think they both do a really good job. I like the voices that they use for each of the characters. I did think that this sounded a lot like Ivy, though it is hard for me to say for sure because it has been over a year since I listened to my last Ivy Granger book. I would listen to this pair again.
**I like to thank the author for providing me with a copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.
stephbookshine's review against another edition
3.0
*I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.*
Hunting in Bruge is an action-packed, fast-paced urban paranormal fantasy book: vampire hunters vs. vampires and other nasties; protecting the innocent; saving the day from evil power-hungry plotters. This is the first in a series spun from the same universe as the Ivy Granger, Psychic Detective, series, so the writing is clearly accomplished and smooth.
My favourite aspect of this book was the accompanying cast: Ash and the other hunters. I liked the relationships and interplay between them and the main character, Jenna, and am looking forward to seeing more from them and how their stories develop in future installments. I really liked that as well as their various talents, each of Jenna’s sidekicks also had their own ‘flaw’ and had to work around or through it, but still contributed their bit to the team as a whole.
I felt somewhat let down by Jenna’s detective skills unfortunately. Not in terms of the main plot, as there wouldn’t be much to any crime story if the main characters were able to suss the whole plot early on, but Jenna’s observational powers seemed sorely lacking for a trained Hunter. I don’t want to spoil any plot twists, but there were quite a few times when I was pulling my hair out as she came up with some far-fetched explanation for something when there was an obvious answer staring her in the face! Horses, not zebras Jenna! Horses!
I was also a bit put off by the quotes from Jenna at the top of many of the chapters. They read like a somewhat pompous Hunter trainee manual out of the context they actually belonged in. I didn’t feel it did the character justice, as in the actual narrative she was anything but pompous and certainly not so dictatorial as the ‘informative statements’ made her sound.
My only other minor gripe was the introduction of ideas/characters that later did not reappear, for example the Swan Maidens seemed to be a plot point on Jenna’s arrival in Bruge, but then swam out of sight and mind. I felt it was a shame to leave such a promising thread hanging, and hope it might be revisited in the future, as I feel Swan Maidens are an underused character-type in urban fantasy and so have plenty of potential.
Speaking of potential, there is a lot of it knocking around in this novel. It has it’s own standalone murder-mystery plot, which quickly leads to some monster hunting, then just when you think the pace is starting to wind down and wrap up, there is a new plot arc which launches into what looks to be a bigger, series-spanning story on a more epic scale. And the references to both the Ivy Granger series and various current pop culture tropes are fun to spot and create a nice juxtaposition between the bloody history of old Bruge, and the modern European city setting.
All-in-all I enjoyed this promising start to a new series, and feel that fans of Kim Harrison’s Rachel Morgan series, Jon McKinney’s Schildmaid saga, and/or Meg Cowley and Victoria DeLuis’ Relic Guardians series (to name but a few!) would enjoy this too.
Hunting in Bruge is an action-packed, fast-paced urban paranormal fantasy book: vampire hunters vs. vampires and other nasties; protecting the innocent; saving the day from evil power-hungry plotters. This is the first in a series spun from the same universe as the Ivy Granger, Psychic Detective, series, so the writing is clearly accomplished and smooth.
My favourite aspect of this book was the accompanying cast: Ash and the other hunters. I liked the relationships and interplay between them and the main character, Jenna, and am looking forward to seeing more from them and how their stories develop in future installments. I really liked that as well as their various talents, each of Jenna’s sidekicks also had their own ‘flaw’ and had to work around or through it, but still contributed their bit to the team as a whole.
I felt somewhat let down by Jenna’s detective skills unfortunately. Not in terms of the main plot, as there wouldn’t be much to any crime story if the main characters were able to suss the whole plot early on, but Jenna’s observational powers seemed sorely lacking for a trained Hunter. I don’t want to spoil any plot twists, but there were quite a few times when I was pulling my hair out as she came up with some far-fetched explanation for something when there was an obvious answer staring her in the face! Horses, not zebras Jenna! Horses!
I was also a bit put off by the quotes from Jenna at the top of many of the chapters. They read like a somewhat pompous Hunter trainee manual out of the context they actually belonged in. I didn’t feel it did the character justice, as in the actual narrative she was anything but pompous and certainly not so dictatorial as the ‘informative statements’ made her sound.
My only other minor gripe was the introduction of ideas/characters that later did not reappear, for example the Swan Maidens seemed to be a plot point on Jenna’s arrival in Bruge, but then swam out of sight and mind. I felt it was a shame to leave such a promising thread hanging, and hope it might be revisited in the future, as I feel Swan Maidens are an underused character-type in urban fantasy and so have plenty of potential.
Speaking of potential, there is a lot of it knocking around in this novel. It has it’s own standalone murder-mystery plot, which quickly leads to some monster hunting, then just when you think the pace is starting to wind down and wrap up, there is a new plot arc which launches into what looks to be a bigger, series-spanning story on a more epic scale. And the references to both the Ivy Granger series and various current pop culture tropes are fun to spot and create a nice juxtaposition between the bloody history of old Bruge, and the modern European city setting.
All-in-all I enjoyed this promising start to a new series, and feel that fans of Kim Harrison’s Rachel Morgan series, Jon McKinney’s Schildmaid saga, and/or Meg Cowley and Victoria DeLuis’ Relic Guardians series (to name but a few!) would enjoy this too.
eline_lovelyaudiobooks's review
3.0
I posted this review on my audiobook blog Lovely Audiobooks.
I received this audiobook for free in exchange for an honest review.
This audiobook production was really outstanding! But sadly, the story disappointed me a bit.
This book is an award-finalist, so obviously I don’t really know what’s good. But let me list the problems I had with the story:
#1 The secret of the protagonist’s new companion, the “mysterious stranger”, is apparent pretty early on. Yet Jenna herself only figures it out in the second half of the book. The reason for that felt very weak to me. I know this is a tool that some people love (knowing something that the protagonist doesn’t), but for me, it just doesn’t work. It made me think she’s a bit daft 🙁
#2 The story didn’t have a very good flow. The pacing was off for me and I found it difficult to figure out where we were going and what the point of everything was.
#3 Jenna is a very serious young lady. Her companions try to banter and flirt but she only gets super annoyed and would seriously prefer to be ambushed. This bothered me because it just made her not very likeable. Of course not every protagonist has to crank out the jokes. But her reaction to her friends flirting and joking felt way too harsh.
On to some positive aspects. A female protagonist, and one male, one female sidekick? That was already awesome in Buffy and it makes for a great slayer.. uhh.. Hunter team! The paranormal concept of vampires using a glamour to appear attractive was creative. Damn bloodsuckers don’t always have to be perfect!
Now that I’m done, I can say that the storyline overall has some good substance. But it took me a long time to finish this and I interrupted it for two other audiobooks because I was bored. “Hunting in Bruges” just didn’t grab me. The pace picked up a bit in the second half though.
As I said initially, the audio production was fantastic. It was a new to me concept and I truly wish everyone would do it like this! Melanie A. Mason is the main narrator. The story is told entirely from Jenna’s point of view so that makes sense. But the bonus is, that Anthony Bowling is narrating all male characters’ lines. Not only are both narrators really great, with very distinct voices, but the editing is done very well, so the men’s lines fit in seamlessly. The narration itself was very captivating.
I so wanted to love this audiobook. Because it’s a great Urban Fantasy concept and the production is so amazing. But I just can’t.
I received this audiobook for free in exchange for an honest review.
This audiobook production was really outstanding! But sadly, the story disappointed me a bit.
This book is an award-finalist, so obviously I don’t really know what’s good. But let me list the problems I had with the story:
#1 The secret of the protagonist’s new companion, the “mysterious stranger”, is apparent pretty early on. Yet Jenna herself only figures it out in the second half of the book. The reason for that felt very weak to me. I know this is a tool that some people love (knowing something that the protagonist doesn’t), but for me, it just doesn’t work. It made me think she’s a bit daft 🙁
#2 The story didn’t have a very good flow. The pacing was off for me and I found it difficult to figure out where we were going and what the point of everything was.
#3 Jenna is a very serious young lady. Her companions try to banter and flirt but she only gets super annoyed and would seriously prefer to be ambushed. This bothered me because it just made her not very likeable. Of course not every protagonist has to crank out the jokes. But her reaction to her friends flirting and joking felt way too harsh.
On to some positive aspects. A female protagonist, and one male, one female sidekick? That was already awesome in Buffy and it makes for a great slayer.. uhh.. Hunter team! The paranormal concept of vampires using a glamour to appear attractive was creative. Damn bloodsuckers don’t always have to be perfect!
Now that I’m done, I can say that the storyline overall has some good substance. But it took me a long time to finish this and I interrupted it for two other audiobooks because I was bored. “Hunting in Bruges” just didn’t grab me. The pace picked up a bit in the second half though.
As I said initially, the audio production was fantastic. It was a new to me concept and I truly wish everyone would do it like this! Melanie A. Mason is the main narrator. The story is told entirely from Jenna’s point of view so that makes sense. But the bonus is, that Anthony Bowling is narrating all male characters’ lines. Not only are both narrators really great, with very distinct voices, but the editing is done very well, so the men’s lines fit in seamlessly. The narration itself was very captivating.
I so wanted to love this audiobook. Because it’s a great Urban Fantasy concept and the production is so amazing. But I just can’t.
laffingkat's review
4.0
This is the first novel in the Hunters’ Guild series by E.J. Stevens, which is a spinoff of the Ivy Granger, Psychic Detective series. This story stands on its own.
Steeped in history, the city of Bruges forms a perfect backdrop for this urban fantasy. I loved the setting, the plot was interesting, and I was delighted with the variety of supernaturals that make an appearance—in addition to vampires, ghosts, and shifters, we have swan maidens, rusalkas, and a grindylow, oh my!
It took me a while to warm up to the brusque heroine, hunter Jenna Lehane. I don’t mind tough women, but it’s hard for me to relate to someone who is so detached from everyone around her. Some of the secondary characters are fun, though—I adored Ash! The drug-addicted witch Celeste, blind librarian Darryl, and bloodthirsty demolitionist Aleksey all provided some laughs. And Jenna becomes more likeable once she starts to trust the people around her and work as part of a team.
I really appreciated the narration by Melanie A. Mason and Anthony Bowling. Their performances were well paced and easy to understand, and I enjoyed the character voices, especially with such a diverse cast of humans and supernatural creatures. I think the narration adds a lot of enjoyment to this story, so I definitely recommend the audiobook.
If you enjoy snarky urban fantasy, I recommend this book and any of Ms. Stevens’ other books in this setting, and I think they are a great choice for listening.
I was given a free copy of this audiobook by the author and volunteered to provide an honest review. I purchased the Kindle version.
Steeped in history, the city of Bruges forms a perfect backdrop for this urban fantasy. I loved the setting, the plot was interesting, and I was delighted with the variety of supernaturals that make an appearance—in addition to vampires, ghosts, and shifters, we have swan maidens, rusalkas, and a grindylow, oh my!
It took me a while to warm up to the brusque heroine, hunter Jenna Lehane. I don’t mind tough women, but it’s hard for me to relate to someone who is so detached from everyone around her. Some of the secondary characters are fun, though—I adored Ash! The drug-addicted witch Celeste, blind librarian Darryl, and bloodthirsty demolitionist Aleksey all provided some laughs. And Jenna becomes more likeable once she starts to trust the people around her and work as part of a team.
I really appreciated the narration by Melanie A. Mason and Anthony Bowling. Their performances were well paced and easy to understand, and I enjoyed the character voices, especially with such a diverse cast of humans and supernatural creatures. I think the narration adds a lot of enjoyment to this story, so I definitely recommend the audiobook.
If you enjoy snarky urban fantasy, I recommend this book and any of Ms. Stevens’ other books in this setting, and I think they are a great choice for listening.
I was given a free copy of this audiobook by the author and volunteered to provide an honest review. I purchased the Kindle version.
stephbookshine's review
3.0
*I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.*
Hunting in Bruge is an action-packed, fast-paced urban paranormal fantasy book: vampire hunters vs. vampires and other nasties; protecting the innocent; saving the day from evil power-hungry plotters. This is the first in a series spun from the same universe as the Ivy Granger, Psychic Detective, series, so the writing is clearly accomplished and smooth.
My favourite aspect of this book was the accompanying cast: Ash and the other hunters. I liked the relationships and interplay between them and the main character, Jenna, and am looking forward to seeing more from them and how their stories develop in future installments. I really liked that as well as their various talents, each of Jenna’s sidekicks also had their own ‘flaw’ and had to work around or through it, but still contributed their bit to the team as a whole.
I felt somewhat let down by Jenna’s detective skills unfortunately. Not in terms of the main plot, as there wouldn’t be much to any crime story if the main characters were able to suss the whole plot early on, but Jenna’s observational powers seemed sorely lacking for a trained Hunter. I don’t want to spoil any plot twists, but there were quite a few times when I was pulling my hair out as she came up with some far-fetched explanation for something when there was an obvious answer staring her in the face! Horses, not zebras Jenna! Horses!
I was also a bit put off by the quotes from Jenna at the top of many of the chapters. They read like a somewhat pompous Hunter trainee manual out of the context they actually belonged in. I didn’t feel it did the character justice, as in the actual narrative she was anything but pompous and certainly not so dictatorial as the ‘informative statements’ made her sound.
My only other minor gripe was the introduction of ideas/characters that later did not reappear, for example the Swan Maidens seemed to be a plot point on Jenna’s arrival in Bruge, but then swam out of sight and mind. I felt it was a shame to leave such a promising thread hanging, and hope it might be revisited in the future, as I feel Swan Maidens are an underused character-type in urban fantasy and so have plenty of potential.
Speaking of potential, there is a lot of it knocking around in this novel. It has it’s own standalone murder-mystery plot, which quickly leads to some monster hunting, then just when you think the pace is starting to wind down and wrap up, there is a new plot arc which launches into what looks to be a bigger, series-spanning story on a more epic scale. And the references to both the Ivy Granger series and various current pop culture tropes are fun to spot and create a nice juxtaposition between the bloody history of old Bruge, and the modern European city setting.
All-in-all I enjoyed this promising start to a new series, and feel that fans of Kim Harrison’s Rachel Morgan series, Jon McKinney’s Schildmaid saga, and/or Meg Cowley and Victoria DeLuis’ Relic Guardians series (to name but a few!) would enjoy this too.
Hunting in Bruge is an action-packed, fast-paced urban paranormal fantasy book: vampire hunters vs. vampires and other nasties; protecting the innocent; saving the day from evil power-hungry plotters. This is the first in a series spun from the same universe as the Ivy Granger, Psychic Detective, series, so the writing is clearly accomplished and smooth.
My favourite aspect of this book was the accompanying cast: Ash and the other hunters. I liked the relationships and interplay between them and the main character, Jenna, and am looking forward to seeing more from them and how their stories develop in future installments. I really liked that as well as their various talents, each of Jenna’s sidekicks also had their own ‘flaw’ and had to work around or through it, but still contributed their bit to the team as a whole.
I felt somewhat let down by Jenna’s detective skills unfortunately. Not in terms of the main plot, as there wouldn’t be much to any crime story if the main characters were able to suss the whole plot early on, but Jenna’s observational powers seemed sorely lacking for a trained Hunter. I don’t want to spoil any plot twists, but there were quite a few times when I was pulling my hair out as she came up with some far-fetched explanation for something when there was an obvious answer staring her in the face! Horses, not zebras Jenna! Horses!
I was also a bit put off by the quotes from Jenna at the top of many of the chapters. They read like a somewhat pompous Hunter trainee manual out of the context they actually belonged in. I didn’t feel it did the character justice, as in the actual narrative she was anything but pompous and certainly not so dictatorial as the ‘informative statements’ made her sound.
My only other minor gripe was the introduction of ideas/characters that later did not reappear, for example the Swan Maidens seemed to be a plot point on Jenna’s arrival in Bruge, but then swam out of sight and mind. I felt it was a shame to leave such a promising thread hanging, and hope it might be revisited in the future, as I feel Swan Maidens are an underused character-type in urban fantasy and so have plenty of potential.
Speaking of potential, there is a lot of it knocking around in this novel. It has it’s own standalone murder-mystery plot, which quickly leads to some monster hunting, then just when you think the pace is starting to wind down and wrap up, there is a new plot arc which launches into what looks to be a bigger, series-spanning story on a more epic scale. And the references to both the Ivy Granger series and various current pop culture tropes are fun to spot and create a nice juxtaposition between the bloody history of old Bruge, and the modern European city setting.
All-in-all I enjoyed this promising start to a new series, and feel that fans of Kim Harrison’s Rachel Morgan series, Jon McKinney’s Schildmaid saga, and/or Meg Cowley and Victoria DeLuis’ Relic Guardians series (to name but a few!) would enjoy this too.
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