ARC Review--Hidden Huntress by Danielle L. Jensen

Sometimes, one must accomplish the impossible.

Beneath the mountain, the king’s reign of tyranny is absolute; the one troll with the capacity to challenge him is imprisoned for treason. Cécile 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 Cécile might not just be the hunter. She might also be the hunted…

I received this ARC from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review, I was in no way compensated for this review.


Hidden Huntress picks up just a little bit of time after Danielle L. Jensen's debut, Stolen Songbird. It was just as magical and amazing as its predecessor. I like it when the books follow one another seamlessly, but I did just read Stolen Songbird prior to this one, so perhaps that why I like that method. But even if it's been a long time since you read the first book, I'd say you'd follow along just as well. There was enough recaps in the beginning to get you on even ground and ready for the next adventure.

And what an adventure it was. We still get both Ceclie and Tristan's point of view, but what I liked about this one was that Tristan received an equal--or close to equal--amount of chapters. Cecile makes a devil's bargain with the troll king and must find the witch who cursed the trolls and bring her back to the king or else Tristan would suffer, and his followers would suffer as well.

Tristan meanwhile must begin anew. He's broken the trust of his followers and everyone is believing the king's lies. His only allies are the few that have been loyal to him since the beginning; Marc, the twins, and even Elise. The gates to Trollus have been closed to humans, business is conducted at the gates where the barrier between Trollus and the above world lies. The king is itching to get out, while Tristan is doing everything possible to keep the king from getting out.

Cecile is on the hunt for the witch and in the meantime dividing her time between practicing her magic--which she has very little time for these days--and performing in operas. She lives with her mother who is a famous opera singer and is basically training Cecile to take her place.

Things are chaotic everywhere, whether below or above ground. Enemies lie in wait, there are too many secrets and lies about. While this creates chaos for our characters, it creates quite the thrilling read for us readers. There were still moments of time where I felt like the pace started dragging. There were just too many steps in getting to the ending. Perhaps it was also because I read this one on my kindle with no idea of its page count and it just took me much longer to read than usual. Little factors like that made it tiring to read at times, but still throughout I was entertained and enjoying myself, so I guess it was an even footing kind of race.

What I missed in this one was the time Cecile and Tristan got to spend together. True, in Stolen Songbird it took a long time before they started to have feelings for one another and express them. This time, the feelings are there, but they are just separated. And when they do find each other again, it's in the middle of chaos, so there's no time for expressing feelings and such, but they make do with what moments they can. And I must say, I did enjoy those moments!

The ending was quite the show. I had my suspicions about particular things, but I never gave them full force. So I can't say I was right about the outcome. But the final part of the ending, was one I did suspect happening. It's basically going to lead us to an epic conclusion in the trilogy to say the least! 

Hidden Huntress was filled with twist and turns and excitement galore! It was one heart-racing kind of read and I will once again be eagerly awaiting its sequel. Or in this case, finale! If Danielle has taught me anything through these first two books, it's that the third one will astound me far greater than its predecessor!


Overall Rating 4.5/5 stars


Hidden Huntress releases June 2, 2015