Review copy was received from Publisher. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Ruby and the Huntsman of Midnight by Susan Ee Narrator: Caitlin Davies
Series: Midnight Tales #2
Published by Tantor Audio on April 21, 2020
Genres: Young Adult, Fantasy
Length: 4 hours, 51 minutes
Format: Audiobook
Source: Publisher
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A monster hunter in a castle. Werewolves in a dark forest. And a young woman trapped between the two.
Ruby will do anything to escape the infamous dungeons of Midnight Castle. She dares to dream of reaching the safety of her grandmother’s house. But in order to get there, she’ll need to outrun hunters and monsters alike through the deadly forest.
As the Dark King’s Huntsman, Tyler will do whatever it takes to complete his mission, even if it means using an innocent girl as prey for the savage creatures he hunts.
In the dark and twisted Kingdom of Midnight, an unnatural howling fills the night…
Don’t miss this fierce fairy tale!
Ruby and the Huntsman of Midnight is the second book in the series, Midnight Tales by Susan Ee. The Midnight Tales takes well known characters from fairytales and gives their story a twist. Ruby and the Huntsman of Midnight is a reimagining of Little Red Riding Hood. All of the stories in this series are pretty self-contained and while you could read them independently there is enough of a crossover of plots that I think it is better to read them in order to get the full effect.
Ruby has been held captive in the Midnight Castle for a while. She was trained well by her Grandmother who fought in war with the Fae and that has kept her alive. When the Huntsman sees Ruby, he is amazed that a slip of a girl has survived in the dungeons for so long and takes her to use as bait in a different kind of hunt. Hopefully the girl with the beautiful red hair and way with animals will survive the challenges he is going to make her face.
This is an interesting dark world where the Fae and Humans seem to be in a holding pattern after a war. The humans are currently losing though as nights become longer as the years go by. Much longer and the entire land will be trapped in darkness. The King is just as dark and twisted as the land and the last person you want to notice you. Soon the Huntsman will need to pick between the King and the job his family has done for centuries or Ruby.
I liked the first book in this series just a little more. I liked Ruby and wanted her to find a way back to her grandmother. But some of the story needed a little more fleshing out for my tastes and the romance between Ruby and Tyler (the Huntsman) happened rather quickly. I’m also a little confused as to where the arc with the King is going. Is he evil or is he training his people for the war to come with the monthly hunts? Still the reimagining was interesting and I did like how the Wolf posing as Grandma played out.
If you like your fairytales a little darker and are a big fan of re-imaginings this could work for you.
“I’m not a child anymore.”“Every child thinks that. The way to tell if your childhood is over is if you start to miss it instead of being smug about having outgrown it. When that happens, then you’ll know it’s over.”
Narration:
Caitlin Davies narrated all of the Penryn & the End of Days books. I’ve enjoyed her performances and this was no exception. She brought the characters to life and made it easy to get drawn into the story.
Listen to a clip: HERE
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Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
- Robin Audio20
great cover and i do like to take walks on the dark side
It’s a little dark, the covers for the series are so pretty and fitting.
Nice cover and a nice review. Thank you for sharing.
I love the covers for this series. They are really pretty.
Maybe but it’s too bad it wasn’t a bit more
I enjoyed Cinder a little more. These are rather short and so there isn’t a lot of time to really build up the characters a lot.
I’m glad you like these fairytale retellings and do such a great job with reviewing them. I’m not sure they are my thing although my Mom tells me I loved fairy tales growing up. Maybe it’s like historical fiction – I like the originals?
Ha! Yeah I could see that. If you need your fairytales to follow the original then it is harder to look past that to anything else.
I have had luck with a couple of fairytale retellings but I am drawn to very few of them so it’s not something that I often read. This does sound like an interesting premise and I have had luck with this narrator but it sounds like it was lacking a bit. Great review!
The stories are pretty short, so there isn’t a lot of time for character development. I think that there could have been some fleshing out of the story but it is geared more for a YA audience.
This definitely sounds interesting. Nice review!
Thanks Bea, I like the concept of this series a lot.