The Beast Hunters (The Beast Hunter of Ashbourn #1) by Christer Lende

Rating: 8.5/10

Synopsis

The Witcher meets Sherlock Holmes in the epic beginning of Ara’s new life as a beast hunter apprentice.

When a monster brutally kills her parents, Ara is saved by two beast hunters. Becoming their apprentice, she discovers
serums, secret bestiary knowledge, and remarkable abilities-all to save unsuspecting souls from the same fate her parents suffered. But, terrifying creatures lurk everywhere and Ara must master the art of beast hunting quickly if she is to uncover the elusive beast plaguing the village of Cornstead.

Review

This book follows Ara, a young woman whose life isn’t easy. Things don’t get any easier for her when a beast attack on her home kills her parents, and she’s rescued by two Beast Hunters; Khendric and Topper. She has no choice but to travel with them and make a new life for herself as best she can. What better choice than a Beast Hunter apprentice?

I found this book a quick, easy and super fun read. It’s quite short but the author packs a lot in to the small page count. The world building is fairly light but the detail given to the bestiary and the descriptions we get as the characters go along is wonderful and definitely one of the highlights of the book for me.

Even though the story focuses on some well known concepts I found them all fleshed out really well and the author puts his own spin on things. I’m always a fan of the Master-Apprentice vibe in any story and it’s fun here because Ara is quite an unlikely candidate in my mind for a hunter in the beginning. There’s a great amount of camaraderie and humour too. The characters all stood out on their own and had great backstories. I liked the way Ara’s emotional trauma from her hard upbringing was dealt with too.

The only things I would have liked more of was a bit more depth to Khendric and Topper, but I got the feeling that will be coming in the next book. And the cover made it seem like there might be some bigger beasts. That hopefully is coming too.

If you are looking for a fun read you can devour in a couple of days, then this one is recommended by me!