Tome Thursday: Hunted by the Undead

 

Hello everyone!

 

Welcome to tonight's book of choice for the blog.

 

And dare I say, it's yet another banger?

 

To be honest though, I tend to only post the good ones on here, rather than ones I sometimes stumble upon that I either don't finish, or barely make myself finish (yes, they are the rarest of gems as I'm basically a black hole for reading, but they DO exist, I promise).

 

I think I might have only really posted a bad book review on here maybe once or twice, but that's about it.

 

As far as things go, it's only positives, bby!

 

Now without further ado, let's hop right into it, shall we?

 

We're revisiting one of my absolute favourite authors with her newest release that just hit the shelves this month, and it's time to brush off our knowledge of elemental magic for this.

 

Ladies and gentlemen: C. L. Carhart's Hunted by the Undead.

 

Links to previous related posts can be found at the bottom of the page, as per usual!

 

So for the briefest of recaps: this is heavily based off Beauty and the Beast, which is how we meet our protagonists, Konstantin and Helena, in Gift of Light. But there's more to the story than just Beast getting this Beauty, and that's where This Earthen Cage comes in.

 

In the first book, Claimed by the Undead, we saw what happens when one of the Black Priests of Carhart's universe forges a heart bond with his soulmate.

 

Now, in Hunted by the Undead, we're seeing the consequences of that.

 

Konstantin has been tortured and threatened by the demon lord he serves, and Helena's hometown has been annihilated, which leads our hero to break the heart bond he formed with her to begin this journey. It's not an easy process, nor is it a decision made lightly, and Helena bargains that, if she doesn't meet someone else of Teuton heritage within five years, she'll be back to claim Konstantin and the life they should have had together.

 

Mostly, Konstantin is doing this to protect her, because not only is Woutan hell-bent on destroying them, but also his own anger issues could very easily kill her, though there are hints dropped throughout this book that there IS a chance for control, we just have to be patient and keep reading.

 

Helena returns to the forest witch where she'd initially been training before she ran back to her priest, but her heart is absolutely broken and she's not really into the matchmaking the older woman is putting before her to try and heal it.

 

Things are cruising along, not good, but just okay, when she's basically assaulted - yep, you read this right, because I firmly believe what the stupid milkman who's trying to get her does is assault in their magical community, since he bleeds her to see her memories, and then leaves her to bleed out in his outrage that she's pining for a Black Priest.

 

Her standing in the community is ruined, however, so the forest witch kicks her out, at which point Helena travels in spirit form to try and get to Konstantin and alert him ... only to find herself captured by Nemo.

 

Now, Nemo's the OTHER Black Priest in the world (there can always be only two, where have I heard this before ...) and he's the one who gutted her village, but also he's just plain obsessed with her and holds her captive for his torment and pleasure and for conducting some weird ass experiments I'm sure we'll circle back to later at some point.

 

Point right now is, Konstantin has no idea of this for two weeks, until Helena's friend arrives to alert him she's apparently astral travelled but hasn't returned to her body, so he learns everything that happened, and oh boy, is he PISSED.

 

He finds her - of course - and brings her back, but Nemo's tracking the crystal her soul was caught in, so they gotta hightail it outta there, which doesn't end well for the forest witch, though Konstantin doesn't much care to be honest.

 

He leaves Helena in the care of his mentor Ludolf, who basically swears he'll do everything in his power to help her (with a few minor caveats as to what he ISN'T supposed to do), while her erstwhile love goes to deal with the milkman.

 

Oh and while he's been at it, Konstantin has warned the Teuton community about Nemo, since he's not so keen on his reputation being all that wronged about.

 

Still, they can't be together because by this point, the dangers are too great, Konstantin has to figure out how to make a deal that'll keep Helena out of the crosshairs forever, and he learns that there seems to be a prophecy about him with a forest witch that he's never heard about before.

 

Also, it's about a Konstantin BRAUN, which just so happens to be Helena's family name. Intrigued yet?

 

Helena and Ludolf travel to the middle of nowhere Adriatic, a lighthouse owned by a buddy of Ludolf's named Mal, who opens up an intriguing new concept for us: Satan's High Wizards.

 

That's right, there are MORE magical communities out there than just the Teutons serving Woutan, and we're finally getting to see them! I'm so excited, I was laying there kicking my feet into the air, looking like a maniac LOL, but this is such a huge expansion to this rich world that I can't WAIT to hear more about it.

 

Especially as, while Ludolf heals Helena of the atrocities Nemo committed (and they form a heart-bond which leads to some ... er, well, read for yourself and tell me there isn't some sort of triangle-circle-knot thing forming LOL), we learn that he himself has a past that's really just not for the faint of hearts.

 

Also that he has more sway than Konstantin because of it.

 

Second also, that he's got a slight personality disorder because of his trauma, the dissociation that happened, and that at least one of them is very trigger-happy, which Helena learns much to her terror for Ludolf (this all sounds a hell of a lot like a John Cusack movie I was once persuaded to watch on NYE, and to be honest I'm here for it).

 

But with Konstantin working to prove himself he's deserving of the prophecy (and needing to restore his living quarters since Nemo threw a tantrum and wrecked them), and Helena and Ludolf reaching some sort of neutral ground, Helena still believes her only chance is to also be cursed the way her beloved was, to join him in servitude to Woutan, but for that she needs a living male relative.

 

Well, Ludolf says, we can always try your dad. I've talked to him quite a few times since all of this started.

 

And that's a happy little cliffhanger where we leave this book!

 

10 out of 10 stars!

I've loved Helena and Konstantin from the moment I first read Gift of Light - to now be following their own series is SUCH a blessing. Thank you so much to the author for my advance copy, I have no clue what I ever did to deserve this gift but, I will cherish it forever.

As for the story - oh we are GETTING somewhere.

The pace has now definitely quickened, the plot is unfolding faster, and new twists and turns await.

The fact that we're delving even deeper into this magical world is endlessly fascinating to me and I AM HERE FOR IT. Like I said, other demons besides Woutan coming out to play is everything I ever wanted.

Konstantin and Helena remain firm favourites, but their love story is currently more convoluted and tangled than ever before, but everything is still done in such a respectful way that you can't help but be sucked into it.

Also somebody please hug Ludolf. And give Caesar some good scritchies!

The author's writing gets better with every book she writes, continuously and effortlessly drawing you in.

I'm here for all the angst and secret societies and warnings and cliffhangers. We're seeing this through!

1000/10 recommend! 

 

xx

*image not mine

 

Gift of Light - Claimed by the Undead