ARC provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Ever the Hunted surrounds Britta and her search to find her father’s murderer. Unfortunately, she is not on this quest because of her own free will; she made a deal with the King’s regent. The King of Britta’s land is sick, but the King’s regent is making some questionable choices that are starting a war with a neighboring kingdom, who are already shunned because a small percentage of the population can use magic.

This book wasn’t bad by any stretch of the imagination, but it read like every basic YA fantasy book I’ve read in the past ten years:

> Girl’s father dies.
> Girl ends up in cahoots with her childhood love.
> Girl pines over the childhood love constantly, even though it really unnecessary because it’s painfully obvious he feels the same, but… YA angst.
> Girl finds out about her hidden past and family.
> Girl ends up being a special snowflake with magical powers, but only the rarest magical power, duh.
> Girl proves she will sacrifice herself for the greater good.
> All seems right in the world.
> Queue the cliffhanger…

I also want to state that this book did use rape as a plot device/scare tactic a lot, even though there is no actual rape in this book. I wouldn’t normally bring this up, but I felt it was important, because the threat of rape was extremely abundant in this book. And as predictable as this book was, I was actually surprised that Britta, the main protagonist, was never raped, because it was brought up so much.

I know I sound harsh, and I’m sorry, but I’m just sick of reading this same story. I want uniqueness, I want diversity, I want ground-shaking twists that I would never see coming, I want a world that feels like I’ve never read about it before. Yet, this is painfully predictable and reads like everything else mediocre.

I think you should still give this book a chance, especially if these YA tropes and clichés don’t bother you too much. Also, as hard for me as this is to say, there isn’t a love triangle even though there should be (Leif was doing way more for me than Cohen was, throughout the entire book). Overall, I just can’t see this winning any “Best of 2016” lists in its current state.

I am completely willing to read the second installment of this series, in hopes that the author can pull something out of her hat. Ever the Hunted has a very simplistic writing style, but I can see the author’s potential. Like I said, this isn’t bad; it’s just basic and feels repetitive, which ends up feeling disappointing. She really could make some changes and completely captivate me in book two.

And low-key, I want to know everything there is to know about Lirra.