Review: The Hunt by Stacey Kade

The Hunt (Project Paper Doll #2) by Stacey Kade

Ariane Tucker has finally escaped GTX, the research facility that created her. While on the run, Zane Bradshaw is the only person she can trust. He knows who-and what-she is and still wants to be part of her life.
But accepting Zane's help means putting him in danger.
Dr. Jacobs, head of GTX, is not the only one hunting for Ariane. Two rival corporations have their sights set on taking down their competition. Permanently. To protect Zane and herself, Ariane needs allies. She needs the other hybrids. The hybrids who are way more alien and a lot less human. Can Ariane win them over before they turn on her? Or will she be forced to choose sides, to decide who lives and who dies?

Publishes in US: April 22nd 2014 by Disney-Hyperion
Genre: ya scifi
Source: Disney for review
Series? Project Paper Doll #2
my Review: Project Paper Doll: The Rules

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    I wanted to read this one because I enjoyed the premise of the story and wanted more when I finished it. Ariane is a great main character and struggled with what made her different and who I saw a lot of growth in as well as the potential for a lot more. Zane was swoony, the way he treated Ariane like there wasn't anything different about her and respected her. 

   The romance continues in this one, and while the time elapsed is still only about a week, it has been intense and it is the first time that Ariane has ever felt romantic feelings for anyone. I know that lots pegged it as insta-love but that isn't so much one of my pet peeves as long as I feel the emotions, and I did in their case. There were some pretty swoony scenes too, that I very much loved. 

    But for the most part, they are on the run, and they are very scared and paranoid of their next step. I love the dual narrative because I get both of their thoughts on each other as well as what they are planning. It was hard to see the struggle in Ariane about whether or not to leave Zane in order to better protect him since everyone she cares for is threatened.  I get to see the strength of Zane and how much he wants to be there for her especially in the moments where it feels like no one else is there for her. 

    Understandably, there are a lot of arguments between the two about safety. Ariane thinks that Zane would be safer without being with her and Zane wants to be by her side and helping her along the way. Ariane doubts Zane at times that he really accepts the alien part of her, and Zane has a lot of self doubt that maybe he is slowing Ariane down or holding her back. I think that they finally come to an understanding and agreement about how the other feels even though there are some impulsive decisions that have some unfortunate or costly consequences attached. But its a book so you expect that there aren't always going to the best decisions made and it will keep the plot going as well as teach the characters a lot about themselves and those around them, giving them opportunity to grow and discover things about themselves. 

    The world building is good, although I still have a lot of questions about how exactly, and who and under what circumstances did the alien and human DNA mix. What happened to the "parent/donors." We do get to see another competitor for the trials and meet several hybrids in this second book and it looks like according to the ending, we are going to meet the third in the next book. There is a lot of set-up in this one, as with so many second books, but I was okay with it because I enjoyed the romance and the action scenes that we got. 

    The pacing is good and it keeps the story moving along and my attention rapt. Although the ending was pretty cliff-hangerish. Of course, the climax always has events happening in quick succession, but several of these were fairly surprising and then all of the sudden you are at the end, going--did she stop in the middle of a chapter? Surely this arc is missing some pages, because you can't just drop a bomb like that and then end a book and make me wait another year (I'm guessing) to find out how they are going to possibly get themselves out of this pickle and get their HEA. 

Bottom Line: Enjoyable sequel with swoon worthy scenes. Major cliffie though.

My question to you, my lovely readers:
Do you think you could keep dating someone if you found out they had partial alien DNA?