Review--Hunterland by Dana Claire

Grab your stakes and your rock salt. Monster hunting class is in session. Liam Hunter has warded off hungry vampires, slayed monstrous beasts, and put agonized spirits to rest since he could hold a stake. When trouble comes through the Hunterland message board, alerting them that nurses are dying at high schools across Wisconsin in a string of fishy “suicides,” the Hunter family hits the road to save the day. The trail leads to Falkville Falls, where Liam clashes with Olivia Davis, whose maddening family seems inexplicably embroiled in this haunting mess. Olivia has always mothered her little sister, Pepper. But when the Hunter family opens her eyes to the hidden underworld of real monsters prowling the dark, she realizes she can’t protect Pepper from this newest threat by herself. Can the two families work together to uncover who or what is responsible before the next murder, or will this vicious death cycle have no end?

Calling all Supernatural fans! Have I got the read for you! Dana Claire's Hunterland is a Supernatural fangirl's dream book! This book very much evokes all the things I love about the show and yet, it's still its own entity. Is it perfect? Not exactly, there were some things that had me raising my eyebrows but it was still a delightful read and I really enjoyed the paranormal elements.

Olivia is having a rough senior year, just as she comes back from winter break, she and her friends see one of their teachers dead; hanging from the gym rafters and he was not the first. Her father is the sheriff of their small town of Falkville Falls and even he is stumped by this, for the so-called suicides just don't seem to add up to the character of the teachers. 

Then in rolls Liam, his father, and sister. They are a family of Hunters and they suspect something supernatural is going on and they plan to investigate and "take care" of the problem. So very much in the manner of the Supernatural TV show. Is this book fan fiction? I guess you could call it that, there is no Sam and Dean, instead we get Liam and his sister Jac and their father is very much present. So call it what you will.

It's not long before Liam and his family are working with Liv and her family. Liv's sister, Pepper, is what you would call the "troubled teen" of the bunch as she has been going down a dangerous path lately, but she takes to Liam like a moth to flame. Liv isn't sure if this is preferrable to Pepper's usual delinquent friends or not. Time will only tell.

Soon we are deep into an investigation involving ghosts, nurses, and events of the past. Liv and Liam are pretty alike despite their different backgrounds. They have more in common than they would think and both keep their secrets and feelings closely guarded. I feel like Liam is a straight up Dean guy! He likes the girls and he doesn't mind breaking hearts as he moves from town to town. He figures Liv could be fun, but then as he continues to spend time with her, he starts to feel differently in that aspect.

The mystery aspects of the book were pretty good too, although, I did feel like the first mystery of the killing of the teachers kind of got wrapped up too fast. I mean, first we had a theory, a possible solution, then acting on that and not much follow up after that as we focused on newly sprouted mysteries and problems. I mean I guess I just wanted a little follow up on if their "solution" truly worked. I guess we were just to assume it did and that it wasn't so much of a "let's give this a try" after all, that it was in fact THE solution. I feel like I might have missed something in that area, but as the story moved on, clearly what they did worked.

The book was quick to put in a new set of problems and secrets for the future and I am definitely curious about where those roads will lead. Not only was there a new case per se, but there was also a whole new conflict that would be coming between Liv and Liam.

Speaking of which, I did enjoy their banted. Liv wasn't suspect to Liam's charms. Sure he's cute and all, but she didn't sigh or sway in his presence like some of the other girls did. She challenged him and there was a good repertoire going between these two! It was a riot!

I again noticed a bit of some sort of miscommunication between writer and reader when events get brought up towards the end. I kind of felt like we didn't really get the right idea that something happened that apparently did happen. When it comes to romance I feel like when you do want to do closed door, you kind of need to indicate that a door is closing. Apparently something that came off as platonic to me was actually something much more that faded into the darkness. Again, I don't mind the fade to black, but give me some kind of clear cut sign that that is what's happening. As I assumed it to be something much more simple or whatever. It's weird. I just feel like maybe some things were left out to really give you the idea of what was going to happen off page.

Anyway, despite a few mishaps I did still really enjoy the story. I am a big fan of Supernatural, so this book was right up my alley. It had all the right notes of the show but took things in its own direction and I appreciated that. I feel like it's not exactly fan fiction since, again, we have a whole different world and such and there's no Sam and Dean. But it definitely rocks the same vibe of the show from character types to banter to action to supernatural lore! It was amazing and I cannot wait for the sequel!

Overall Rating 4/5 stars