Review – Hollowfell Huntress (Spellwood Academy, Vol 3) by Kate Avery Ellison (4/5 stars)

Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Length: 254 pages
Publisher: Self-Published
Release Date: July 23, 2020
ASIN : B083N7YSZP
Stand Alone or Series: 3rd book in the Spellwood Academy series
Source: Borrowed through Kindle Unlimited
Rating: 4/5 stars

“Half-human, half-fae Kyra Solschild still doesn’t know who wants her dead, but she’s getting closer to the truth. With a clue in hand, she is determined to uncover the identity of the enemy sending assassins after her.

Lucien pretends he feels nothing for Kyra after cutting things off without explanation, but the fiery kisses they exchange in shadowed corners suggest that he still wants her. Can the dark prince of Spellwood be trusted?

And as the days grow colder and the autumnal fae holiday of Hollowfell approaches, something disastrous is happening on Spellwood Academy’s campus.

Something… someone… has come hunting.”

Series Info/Source: This is the third book in the Spellwood Academy series. I borrowed this for my Kindle through Kindle Unlimited.

Story (4/5): This continues the story of Kyra as she tries to figure out who is trying to kill her. When other students are shot with arrows and hunted on school grounds, the consensus is that this person is hunting Kyra. Spellwood Academy might not be safe for her anymore. Things are escalating with the spring court and half bloods are no longer safe in the fae courts. As a results many are being sent to Spellwood Academy for their safety. Meanwhile, Lucien has his own issues and has been recruited for a secret mission that has him literally under a spell. Lucien and Kyra continue to be on the outs, but in addition to everything else they are dealing with they are supposed to play opposite leads in the annual school play.

This was a lot better than the second book in the series. The story about Kyra and her mysterious background and her mysterious assassins makes a lot of progress. Lucien has a lot of interesting things going on as well. The whole school play thing was the main “academy” event in the story but it tied in well with the broader story. All of the attacks happening at the academy also make things a lot more interesting and exciting. I thought this was well paced and enjoyed the progress that was made. It does end on a total cliffhanger though and is still a fairly brief story.

Characters (4/5): I liked Kyra better in this book, I am getting a better feel for her as a character. I liked seeing her grow as a character and learn to stand up for herself better. Learning more about her background and her family’s background was great too. Lucien is also filled out a lot more and featured in the story more. We spend more time with a number of other students as well. Also Joras is developed a lot more as a character too. I liked all of the characters, they aren’t amazing, but they are fun to read about and entertaining.

Setting (4/5): I continue to enjoy the creative and magical setting of Spellwood Academy. We are introduced to a few new secret and magical places on campus and some more of the traditions there. The story was expanded some to include the fae realm as a whole, I hope we eventually get to journey outside of Spellwood more.

Writing Style (3/5): The book is generally well written, easy to read, and entertaining. The story changes POV between Lucien and Kyra again…many times within the same chapter. A couple of times I had trouble remembering whose viewpoint I was reading from, but most of the time their voices are unique enough that I didn’t have that issue. This is another fairly short book and ends on a cliffhanger (which I hate…you don’t need to torture your readers in order to keep them coming back for more if you are a good writer). There were also a couple small typos throughout. Aside from those issues this was an entertaining read.

My Summary (4/5): Overall I am continuing to enjoy this series. It is a fun urban fantasy YA read, featuring fae characters. I like the characters and the setting. This is one of those fun, light, easy reads…definitely a guilty pleasure sort of read. I do hate how short these are and absolutely abhor the fact that all of these books end on a massive cliffhanger. I am caught up on the series now but plan to continue it because it’s easy and short and I am curious as to what will happen. In the future though I will probably only start a series by Avery Ellison that is already finished. I would recommend this if you have Kindle Unlimited and are looking for a light, fun, easy YA urban fantasy read that features fae. I don’t think I would flat out buy these books because they are expensive for how short they are.