The Fox Hunt by Caitlin Breeze
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
3.5 star, rounding up to four stars because I think this story concept is excellent, more than acceptable writing for a debut novel and characters have good development arcs. The biggest issue for me was connecting our characters back together in the final chapters.
I felt like I read two or three totally different, yet related, stories. Portal fantasy does tend to do this where you are taken somewhere so different it’s jarring. And yes, you want to create a sense of discomfort for your reader (as your MC is likely having that feeling), it’s still critical to connect the story back to the original pages. And that is where Fox Hunt comes up lacking. There must be a hundred or more pages where the MC’s main ‘enemy’ from the beginning of the book isn’t mentioned directly. It seemed a bit odd for me when we finally circled back around. While the group our boys are members of is mentioned lots they are (seemingly) forgotten for a while and I can’t figure out why. I’d link them back in for part two to help join things up.
Overall, my advice is to go in prepared. A lot happens, it’s not that complex to follow necessarily, but we meet characters early on that we don’t see again (sadly) until the final pages of the story. Our leading gal undergoes a large transformation (in so many ways) from start to finish. And so you must accept that the severity of her circumstances causes her to shift quickly into the person she becomes. I’d definitely pick up another book by debut author, Caitlin Breeze, as I see a lot of promise in her storytelling, especially as her writing style matures.
Please note: I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. This is an honest and unbiased review.
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My rating: 4 of 5 stars
3.5 star, rounding up to four stars because I think this story concept is excellent, more than acceptable writing for a debut novel and characters have good development arcs. The biggest issue for me was connecting our characters back together in the final chapters.
I felt like I read two or three totally different, yet related, stories. Portal fantasy does tend to do this where you are taken somewhere so different it’s jarring. And yes, you want to create a sense of discomfort for your reader (as your MC is likely having that feeling), it’s still critical to connect the story back to the original pages. And that is where Fox Hunt comes up lacking. There must be a hundred or more pages where the MC’s main ‘enemy’ from the beginning of the book isn’t mentioned directly. It seemed a bit odd for me when we finally circled back around. While the group our boys are members of is mentioned lots they are (seemingly) forgotten for a while and I can’t figure out why. I’d link them back in for part two to help join things up.
Overall, my advice is to go in prepared. A lot happens, it’s not that complex to follow necessarily, but we meet characters early on that we don’t see again (sadly) until the final pages of the story. Our leading gal undergoes a large transformation (in so many ways) from start to finish. And so you must accept that the severity of her circumstances causes her to shift quickly into the person she becomes. I’d definitely pick up another book by debut author, Caitlin Breeze, as I see a lot of promise in her storytelling, especially as her writing style matures.
Please note: I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. This is an honest and unbiased review.
Follow me on Goodreads
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