Review: An exciting story and intriguing story told in an original format
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 07 25, 2012
"Love is death."What a fascinating way to bring a story to life. Through episodes. This first episode in the tale of King Solomon's Wives is so completely different from any I'd read before. It is a story of women who have been gifted with a powerful touch and cursed with a life that keeps them forever on the run, always without meaningful relationships outside of those they have with the other Wives and one that ends with the birth of their daughter when they are in their mid-twenties.Their curse is so powerful, in fact, that it has stayed with them throughout the years, generations, millennia. A curse whose origin is still somewhat of a mystery in this first episode.Hunted introduces readers to the world - both past and present - that these women exist in from the points of view of Sumarra and Dilara. It takes readers back in time to two different points in the Wives' history to give them a peek at just what type of person Sumarra is, and was, and to show just how these women became Wives to King Solomon.Both Sumarra and Dilara are two very different, but equally strong and interesting women. And their plight is one that is also completely captivating. If having shortened and lonely lives wasn't enough, being hunted and killed simply because of who they are makes their story that much more tragic but also that much more gripping.It took me a few pages to catch up with what was going on. I was dropped right into a story with a quick pace and introduced to a situation that I didn't immediately understand. But once I got my bearing I was easily ensnared.I loved going back in time to meet Sumarra's earlier incarnations. I loved getting to know her in the present and to see that her character hadn't changed at all with time - that she was just as independent and smart and brave as her ancestors.And the bits and pieces about the Wives' past that the author did reveal throughout the story were among my favorites. But it was the Hunters and their obsession with catching the Wives that kept me glued to the story. They brought suspense and tension to this already action-packed episode.At around one hundred pages, King Solomon's Wives: Hunted is a very quick read that ends with not one but two cliffhangers. It's a story whose premise and characters are intriguing, whose plot is engrossing and at times tantalizing, and whose writing has a unique cadence to it that is wonderfully appealing.While it might take some time to get comfortable with the pace and flow and the transitions between past and present, once the style becomes familiar it will be just so easy to become enchanted by this exciting world author Holly McDowell has created.And as it is such a short story whose endings leave you hanging, you will definitely want to get your hands on the next episode immediately.