Hellhound By Kaylie Austen - Top 10 List and Review

Today on the Blog I have Kaylie Austen telling about her Top 10 Books of all time. Without forther ado I give you Kaylie's Top 10:

Top 10 List:
My favorite books:

1. Romeo & Juliet by William Shakespeare. Technically it’s a play, but I’ve been digging Shakespeare since middle school.
2. Grace Grows by Shelle Sumners. This is a 2012 release that completely took me by surprise. I still think about hunky Tyler.
3. Enclave by Ann Aguirre. A fast and easy YA post-apocalyptic about zombies who turn out to really be semi-intelligent mutants.
4. Ours is Just a Little Sorrow by Gwen Hayes. Technically, this is a novella on the longer side. The prose is great and reminiscent of the Victorian era, and I love everything about it from the developing relationships to the romance to the gut-clenching, sort of creepy climax.
5. Scarlet by Marissa Meyer. This is a 2013 sequel to Cinder in the Lunar Chronicles. I’m so impressed with Meyer’s writing, which isn’t simplistic but easy enough to follow. The flow is fabulous and how she integrates so many characters into a multi-threaded storyline but keeps the reader focused and maintains a storyline that we can still follow is mind-blowing.
6. Play With Me by Piper Shelly. This is a very cute coming of age story about a girl and her first kiss with down-to-earth characters with lots of sparks.
7. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. This is a classic with a unique voice and compelling writing style.
8. The Feast of Roses by Indu Sundaresan. This sequel to The Twentieth Wife takes me to Agra during the imperial rule of India when women quietly obeyed their fathers, then husbands, but the new princess makes a bold move by speaking her mind, shaping decisions through men, and changes the events of a dynasty.
9. The Walking Drum by Louis L’Amour. A western plus a smidge of romance made this a fast read.
10. Raptor Red by Robert T. Bakker. This is an older book which I read in high school and it stuck with me through the years. It’s an unique perspective of the world through the eyes of a female raptor.

Summary:

Selene is the Hellhound, a powerful and ruthless descendant of the Greek gods. She is bound by tradition and tied by bloodlines to lead her people against the mortals. Although she is arranged to marry Nathanial, she falls for Demetrius, the self-professed Black Angel, and things take a bitter twist. When she stumbles across the corpses of her father and Nathanial, all eyes move in on Demetrius. Selene must take the assignment to hunt down her accused lover. Facing the untrustworthy cerebral chamber, powerful shape-shifting sentinels, superhuman archers, and a deceitful Council, the Hellhound must work quickly to uncover the truth before she is forced to annihilate her lover.

Review

I have to admit this story was very action packed. Almost too much at times with the myriad of characters you briefly meet. This story focuses on Selene and Demetrius.

Selene is the only child and daughter of a pair of clan Elders. She is destined to take her father's place on the Council once he dies. She has been bethroved to Nathanial, the son of another Elder and council member. Set to ascend and become a great Elder Selene isn't so thrilled with the way of life the current council has the clansmen living.. One night she meets a hunter, Demetrius who challenges her to leave the domicile - the "apartment living" she calls home. He takes her out into the human realm and she sees the kind of life he lives and beings to understand why he likes it living there. Upon returning her family is upset, but somewhat understanding of her "infatuation" with him and his life. However as she beings to spend more and more time away form the domicile and seeing Demetrius hunt and how her powers are valuable, she begins to want a different life - a life with Demetrius.

Back at the domicile, her family and the other council are beginning to suspect something is going on between them. In order for the clan to trust her they force her to step into the cerebral chamber. A father unpleasant experience where the person gives up their memories to the chamber to preserve the integrity of the clan. But is that all the chamber does? Selene doesn't think so. And she has good reason to believe so. her father is disappointed in her choices, but is wiling to let her become a hunter and she is given the nickname of Hellhound.

When She is called into a "ceremony" and in the mele things begin to happen. Her father was murdered and so was her bethroved, Nathanial. With the memories of her friend and witness, her lover is the murdered. She is forced to hunt Demetrius as her prey. She is torn between believing her lover, who is declaring his innocence and following orders to hunt, capture and bring him in to face the council. She takes on her job and hunts for him, but having been taught by him, finds it to be tough to find him.

In her search for answers, she beings to Ascend, much to her dismay. Having taken in her fathers powers she's begin the transition to Elder. She only finds that her help is non-existent and they only lead to more questions than answers. However questions DO get answered, but at what cost. You'll want to read to find out. The ending leaves one to believe there is more here than meets the eye and that there could be a sequel in the works.

I did like this book, but felt the romance between Selene and Demetrius was a bit YA. They fall in love a bit to fast, and being called lovers seemed out of place. There is a lot of action throughout the book. It fits fairly well into the Paranormal Suspense genre, but I left it lacked some substance with characters. We get to see Selene hunt and figure out the true circumstances of her father and fiancee's death. But there are so many other things I would have liked to have seen fron her, maturing and growth for example. It has enough suspense that it make sone wonder what is next.I give it a rating of 3 stars.

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