*Spoiler free*
The Huntresses of Artemis must obey two rules: never disobey the goddess, and never fall in love. After being rescued from a harrowing life as an Oracle of Delphi, Kahina is glad to be a part of the Hunt; living among a group of female warriors gives her a chance to reclaim her strength, even while her prophetic powers linger. But when a routine mission goes awry, Kahina breaks the first rule in order to save the legendary huntress Atalanta. To earn back Artemis’s favor, Kahina must complete a dangerous task in the kingdom of Arkadia— where the king’s daughter is revealed to be none other than Atalanta. Still reeling from her disastrous quest and her father’s insistence on marriage, Atalanta isn’t sure what to make of Kahina. As her connection to Atalanta deepens, Kahina finds herself in danger of breaking Artemis’ second rule. She helps Atalanta devise a dangerous game to avoid marriage, and word spreads throughout Greece, attracting suitors willing to tempt fate to go up against Atalanta in a race for her hand. But when the men responsible for both the girls’ dark pasts arrive, the game turns deadly.
This book sounded queer and I wanted to read it. Two huntresses falling in love? Yeah, I wanted to read the heck out of that. And on top of that, the rest of the story sounded really good; one of strength and perseverance.
To some extent, this book assumes you know the story of Atalanta. The story doesn’t waste a word jumping into the plot and it caught me off balance. This off kilter feeling followed me into the rest of the story and left me confused for a lot of it. There wasn’t enough buildup or background information at the start. It is sprinkled throughout the story, but I felt that even that wasn’t enough. I think the story would have been a lot more well rounded and fleshed out if the beginning slowed down a bit.
There was also a lot of character relationships that I found confusing and kind of unrealistic. I was honestly left kind of baffled at some points when some of them were interacting. There was no development and some instances felt downright unrealistic.
While there is a f/f, a very solid one, I can’t help thinking that it could be gayer haha. The relationship progressed solidly, but I felt it could have been front and center just a tad more. Also, fleshed out a little more. I had a lot of development problems with this book.
I’m not sure if this is because I didn’t know this was a Greek Mythology retelling or because of the writing, but it didn’t feel like a Greek Mythology retelling. It just felt like that those were the gods that these people worshiped and that was that. It caught me by surprise when I realized that it was actually a retelling.
Despite all the things I saw to be downfalls, I really, really enjoyed this book. The plot kept me thoroughly entertained and made me want to keep reading. I loved Atalanta and Kahina and their relationship. It was so complex and how everything unfolded and progressed was really well done.
The writing was also fantastic. There were lines that stayed with me throughout the book and even after I finished. It was just really good, the whole book, all of it.
Outrun the Wind comes out November 27th, 2018! You can add it on Goodreads and pre-order a copy in the meantime!
Thank you for reading!
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