With his dying breath, Elias promises Nessa that he will come back, that he will find her again. After centuries of waiting, Nessa’s grief has driven her to the edge of madness. Though her ancient body is gone, Nessa’s soul inhabits the young body of a witch Nessa recently defeated. Nessa sees the transformation as a curse to continue living when all she wants to do is to die.
Dominic is a young vampire showing signs that he will one day become a master. If he doesn’t go insane first. For as long as he can remember he’s had dreams of a woman in ancient garb. Dreams of a woman who loved him. Dreams of a woman he loved centuries ago, though he’s never seen her nor does he know her name. Recently the dreams have changed. The woman looks different. Modern. But his soul knows her. Loves her. And he must find her before the darkness takes her away from him forever.
Nessa and Dominic are Hunters—supernaturals that hunt witches, vampires and shapeshifters bent on harming humans. Although they hunt for the same organization, Nessa and Dominic have never personally met. At least not in this lifetime.
Tired of living , Nessa abjectly decides to separate from her past. She Elias’s grave and says good-bye. Across the seas, Dominic hears Nessa’s voice and feels a rending of his heart. Unfortunately, he’s in the middle of a fight with a werewolf and is critically injured. He’s sent to Excelsior, a Hunter training facility and sanctuary. There he begins to piece together his past and present connection to Nessa.
When Nessa disappears, Dominic is the only one who can sense her…feel her. He tracks her down in St. Augustine were he finds that Nessa has lost her memory. Nessa now believes that she’s Morgan—the witch whose body Nessa’s soul now inhabits. And Morgan has gotten herself into a lot of trouble. Trouble that threatens to turn her into the evil Nessa once hunted.
Now not only does Dominic have to save Nessa from herself, he has to convince her that he’s her long-lost Elias and that life really is worth living.
Hunter’s Fall opens with a prologue of Nessa and Elias as young lovers. Chapter one opens in present day. Chapter two opens one year later.
I’m not a fan of this style of opening. Each time warp was like a false start. For me, the real story didn’t actually begin for several chapters.
Nessa is in the depths of the deepest despair. Her character is saturated in grief and apathy, of a sort. She has suffered many emotional losses over the centuries and simply doesn’t have the will to go on living.
In the beginning, Dominic doesn’t understand why the woman of his dreams spurs such a longing in him, but he’ll stop at nothing to find her. That includes attacking the oldest surviving vampire in the world in order to obtain information on Nessa.
Early on, the reader understands that Dominic and Nessa are soul mates. She’s trying to leave this world and he’s come back to find her. I connected with the young lovers Nessa and Elias, but my emotional commitment to the pair as Nessa and Dominic waned. Mostly because I felt they relied too heavily on the past to manifest their current relationship. They are now the embodiment of two different people and I would’ve liked to have seen more differences between their past and present emerge.
My favorite thing about this book is the author’s masterful use of descriptive detail. Her vivid imagery transports the reader directly into the setting.
“The water was so blue, it hurt to look at it. Didn’t help that the sun was reflecting off it and causing it to sparkle as though millions of diamonds were scattered on the surface.”
And, I loved how the author pulled me into this scene.
“His thin-lipped mouth curled into a smile.
If a snake could smile, it would look like that, she decided. Sanders was a snake from head to toe.
A snake…idly, she wondered if snakes could smell fear, taste it. Looking into his flat, lifeless gaze, she decided this snake could.”
I could feel Nessa’s skin crawl and her revulsion for this man, even though the author didn’t write that Nessa had those responses.
What I found unique about Hunter’s Fall is that the author steps outside the typical expectation that the hero and heroine must meet in the few couple of chapters.
Although they share dreams in which they interact, Nessa and Dominic don’t actually meet until the end of Chapter Fourteen. The bulk of the book showcases the depths of Nessa’s despair, her descent into Morgan’s life, and Dominic tracking her.
Hunter’s Fall explores a character with depression, suicidal ideations and aspects of addiction. Negative emotions weight this story. Still, there is enough glimmer of hope twinkling through the darkness to keep readers hanging on for the happily-ever-after. After all, true love never dies.
~ Kristal Lee |
