The Great Pursuit by Wendy Higgins

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Title: The Great Pursuit
Author: Wendy Higgins
Series: Eurona Duology #2
Published by: HarperAudio
Release Date: March 7, 2017
Format: Audiobook
Narrator: Saskia Maarleveld
Length: 12 hours and 30 minutes
Genres: Fairy Tale Retelling, Folklore, Fantasy, Romance
Source: Library
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2019 Audiobook Challenge, Lenoreo's 2019 Read My Name Challenge, Lenoreo's 2019 Retellings Reading Challenge, Lenoreo's COYER Summer Hunt
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon ✩ Google ✩ Kobo ✩ IndieBound ✩ iTunes
My rating:

Blurb:

In The Great Pursuit, the dramatic sequel to the New York Times bestselling The Great Hunt, Wendy Higgins delivers another thrilling fantasy filled with dangerous enemies, political intrigue, searing romance, and a princess who is willing to do everything to protect her kingdom.  

One hunt has ended, but the pursuit for love and justice continues.

The kingdom of Lochlanach has traded the great beast that once terrorized the realm of Eurona for something far more dangerous: the ire of powerful Lashed woman Rosaria Rocato. Rosaria demands that Eurona overturn the laws prohibiting magic, or an innocent will be killed each day.

Despite the king’s resistance, Princess Aerity believes they must make peace with the Lashed, and though she’s accepted a betrothal to the man who took down the beast, she cannot help thinking about Paxton, the Lashed man who stole her heart and disappeared.

Aerity soon discovers that Paxton has joined Rosaria’s army in the war against her family. Though her feelings for him are still strong, her duty to her kingdom and her family is stronger—especially when her parents are kidnapped and she has to step up to the throne and once again put aside what’s best for her in order to do what’s best for her people. Paxton and Princess Aerity must fight to see what is more powerful: their love or the impending war between the magical Lashed and the non-magic humans.

My Review:

4.5 stars — Yet again, the narrator made this book an absolute TREAT to listen to/read.  Honestly, the book itself was a solid 4 stars, but I doubt I would have been as enamoured if I’d read instead of listened.  Her voices were SOOOOO consistent, that I always knew who was talking.  The accents were unbelievable.  The amount of heart and emotional range put into each character, it just kept me on the edge of my seat and feeling EVERYTHING.  I could listen to Saskia Maarleveld narrate the phone book and I’d think it was a masterpiece.

Honestly, my only complaint about the story is that occasionally it felt a bit drawn out and long.  Like I could seriously imagine things tightened up and the pacing a bit faster.  But the bones kept me thoroughly entertained, I loved it!  There were so many pieces that took me by surprise, that kept me on edge, that had me laughing out loud (much to my husband’s amusement), or scrunched up in a ball in anxiousness.  I think I actually said out loud at one point “it’s the Zanderly!!” and got a look.  But it was, in fact, the Zanderly.  Just FYI.

The plot had me on edge at so many points.  I loved that the reader didn’t have to distrust their feelings about Paxton despite the way the blurb makes it sound, but that doesn’t mean that I wasn’t concerned about how far he would go, or whether he would get caught, or all sorts of things.  Honestly, he gave me an ulcer numerous times in this story.  And not just him!  Jesus those princesses just want to give me a heart attack.

I loved that we ended up learning so much more about our characters, and that we got to see them grow and change as they went through adventures, and fear, and war, and all that good stuff.  And it wasn’t just an Aerity and Paxton story!  We got so many little treats from Wyn, Harrison, Vixie, Tiern, and even a little from Lord Alvie.

I developed a soft spot for furball.  He amused me, and I loved the reactions they all had to him.

I ADORED all the little bits of romance in this story.  It definitely wasn’t the focus of the story by any means, but there was a lot more to satisfy my romance loving heart in this one.

And I loved the way the ending played out…I felt like it was realistic.  Some of it felt convenient, but others were hard fought for.  In the end I was just happy and satisfied, and that’s really all you can ask for.

So yeah.  I will definitely be looking for more books by Ms. Higgins, more audiobooks by Ms. Maarleveld, and I feel like a genre of books has been opened up to me through audiobooks, b/c I don’t have the patience to read through older language, but listening is much easier.  Woop woop!

COYER Summer Hunt: Read a book with person/people running on the cover — 4 points.