Kia Carrington-Russell

Esmore is one of the best; a Token in her Hunter Guild. After leading her team into the rubble remains of San Francisco and into an ambush, Esmore admitted her own sacrifice and defeat to protect her people.Esmore went from being Token Huntress and leading her team to a life captured and hidden within the Vampire Council by a Vampire, Chase who claimed that she was his familiar.In the year of 2,341, Esmore fights for her survival and the goal to maintain humanity from being entirely destroyed by the vampires who overpowered them those many years ago.Dark. Romantic. Dangerous. Action Packed. Your tainted obsession starts today....

Token Huntress

Mehrin Rahman 

*I received a copy of this book for free from the author in exchange for a fair and honest review.
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Token Huntress is a novel that is set about two or three centuries into a post-apocalyptic future. Vampires now reign the land, preying on humans that are left.
Esmore, a Hunter, belongs to a special class of mutated humans who have superior physical strength and paranormal talents. The Hunters’ one mission, other than protecting humans, is to kill all vampires.
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I have to admit that the beginning of the story was a bit drawn out, but I can't say it was all that boring. The story has a got a unique concept but I feel like some details were unnecessarily repeated in each chapter.
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I also agree with other readers when they say it needs an edit cause it does. Too many grammatical weird words and phrases going on which really impacted my opinion of the book. Don't get me wrong, the story is pretty great- with a dystopian set up, erotic paranormal romance and a really fast paced writing. This fast paced plot kept me captivated until the last page.
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I felt the romance was a bit rushed. If you know me then you know how much I love slow burn romances. But I'm glad that I did press on because the overall story is good, just needs more polish, I'd love to read a newer released version with more flow, deception and emotional connection built in for the characters.
A 3.5 star read for me. 
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Jo H

*Free copy was given by the author in exchange for an honest review.*

I read this trilogy back to back and finished a short while ago. I've had time to think since then and must say that the world had similarities to but better done than the Darkness Falls duology that I read a few months ago. It's been a long time since I read a true vampire book, and this one was great. I loved that the vampires were wild and savage and were true to their nature, whilst some of them still managing to creep just on the right side of "humanity".

I loved the aspect of The Hunters and their unique abilities and thought that was really interesting and wish that could have been explored more in the narrative. Same as Esmore's strong friendship with Dillain which seemed very genuine and honest. She takes on such a responsibility of keeping him and his girlfriend safe, but I wanted to know more about why she felt she had to do that. 

Overall I enjoyed the world and some of the things that happened along the way, but the world building, in general, was a little underdeveloped for me I think. I just wanted to know more in general. Like how vampires came to be, the different vampire groups - the councils and the covens, about the sabers and how they came to be different physically to the vampires, and the Hunter Guilds... how did they rise to power over the humans? 

Esmore was a strong and confident female, she had no problem with her leadership role in the world of this book and that is refreshing, and I quite liked the bordering on barbaric side of her however on the flip side I always find it difficult to suspend my belief that a person with so little life experience, ie so young, would be given a position of such power as Esmore had. Also, her strength aside, where were the other strong females? Whitney, bless her and her condition, was a wet blanket until she stepped up in such a shocking way, and Julia despite her gift made to appear the same.

But there were some niggles that I had, some of these because it is a self/indie pubbed novel geared towards an NA/YA (?) audience, some not. 

Why was the continued mention of Esmore's gorgeous long flowing blond mane necessary to the narrative? Chase was a bit of a laugh, but as a love interest, he bored me and I couldn't help but wonder why he refused to wear a shirt. The sex was also a tad eye-rolling. I find it hard to believe that an 18-year-old girl would relish a rough "pounding" from her new over 400-year-old vampire boyfriend. Which leads me on to James. Given that Esmore knew she was unhappy with his treatment of her, why was she still with him at the beginning of the story? It would have made more sense for them to have already been broken up before the start. The eternal love triangle, sigh.

I also had some issues with the editing throughout. Examples are what purpose the prologue played given it was part of the main narrative taken from a later chapter? The words mum and mom were interchangeable and I know that the author is Australian. However, the world is set in the decimated future USA so the word mom is more likely the norm? As far as I'm concerned the language used should match that of it's setting, ie the USA. Also, what was Teary's accent and what was the point of it? Surely she would have sounded the same as everyone else she was brought up within the Guild? And the lack of contractions in the dialogue, which just feels so very stilted.

Also, I do think that much of what happened was predictable, based on the early foreshadowing the author placed in the book. There are at least three seperate plot points I knew were going to happen, and I'm not usually quick off the mark in that way.

Lastly, I have to mention the title of the book. Gender defining is a pet hate of mine ie adding the "ess" to the end of words. Especially in a far future world, I firmly hold the belief that Esmore would have been a Token Hunter, not Huntress. But this is a pet peeve of mine in general not just in this book, and despite a lot of what I've said, the outline of this story was enjoyable to read.

Token Huntress

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