Master of the Hunt

Huntress vs Huntsman #1

by Lisa Blackwood

alternate cover edition of ASIN B07VVN28YK

In a land of three warring kingdoms, a centaur huntsman and a warrior priestess might be the only hope for peace. If the two enemies don’t kill each other first, they might even find love.

Seira of High Ridge has fought in many border skirmishes against the centaurs of the lowlands, but when she comes upon a massacre, it’s soon apparent the centaur and human dead weren’t fighting each other. They were fighting together against a third, unknown foe.

Toryin, a centaur huntsman, is following the trail of a group of raiders when he encounters the most exquisite female he’s ever beheld. She’s majestic, battle-hardened, strong-willed, and her sharp tongue fires his blood more than any other female he’s ever met.

While Seira’s natural instinct is to kill the horseman, she’s also swift to see they have a better chance of success if they work together.

But there is more danger than just an unknown enemy. As they come to depend on each other, Seira secretly admits she has growing feelings for her centaur partner.

That’s a problem.

As a warrior-priestess of the Moon Goddess, Seira has sworn vows of obedience, loyalty, and chastity in exchange for her magic. As such, her body, heart, and soul can never be shared with another. Not even a noble centaur with equal parts desire and tender longing in his eyes.

But centaurs are renowned for their stubborn natures, and Toryin plans to claim Seira’s heart even if he risks having the warrior-priestess bury one of her blades in his chest for his troubles.

A steamy fantasy romance.

Genres: Fantasy, Romance, Paranormal, Magic, Paranormal Romance, Shapeshifters, Monster Romance

164 pages, ebook

First published October 30, 2019

About the author

Lisa Blackwood is the USA Today bestselling author of the Gargoyle and Sorceress Urban Fantasy series. She and her new co-author, S.M. Schmitz, are also embarking upon a new Space Opera Romance series. Book one is titled, Vengeance: Warships of the Spire. It can be found in the Dominion Rising boxset anthology.

As well as writing, Lisa is also an avid gardener, horse enthusiast, and dog lover. She grudgingly lives in a small town in Southern Ontario, though she would much rather live deep in a dark forest, surrounded by majestic old-growth trees. Since she cannot live her fantasy, she decided to write fantasy instead. Freya, her ever faithful and beloved hellhound, ensures Lisa takes breaks from the computer so they can rid the garden of cats with delusions of conquest.

Reviews

[angela · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good shorter story

This was an enjoyable shorter story. It’s book one of a trilogy, all of which are short. It follows the goddess Seira and huntsman Toryn. They got to know each other, because she guarded her side of the land, while he guarded his across the water. They often saw each other and with time began playing harmless tricks on one another.
Then danger strikes, lives are lost and they pair up on a dangerous quest.
Their characters are very likable, they have a great connection and are attracted to each other.
As the book ends, another tragedy sends them off on another quest for vengeance.

[Bex (Beckie Bookworm) · Rating 2 out of 5]

imaginative endeavour and I did appreciate the story and the fact it had a centaur as the hero but there was also something missing for me as well. It’s of novella length and the story is concluded in two other parts.

It didn’t quite capture my attention in the way I was hoping the chemistry for me was slightly off and Seira seemed to change tack very swiftly from she didn’t really want Toryn to wanting to have his babies. Still, the writing was fine and it definitely was different.

I don’t think if I’m going to be continuing with this series there was nothing really wrong with this I just found myself heavily skimming with this mostly because I was bored and not very invested Overall though this was a sweet beginning to the series.



Reviewed By Beckie Bookworm
https://www.facebook.com/beckiebookworm/
www.beckiebookworm.com

[Glen · Rating 3 out of 5]

In a fantasy world where there is a shortage of mates, Male Centaurs, and female humans have an uneasy truce, bolstered by a tradition of raiding each other for mates.

A noble priestess and a Centaur guard the border, and prank one another, stealing items from each other's camps. It seems raiding time is coming soon, and neither wants the other to be captured.

Then, the unthinkable happens, evil soul stealers ambush both populations, and the two have to pursue them, while fighting off their mutual attraction.

First book in a series.

[Gigi ✨ · Rating 1 out of 5]

One word: regret.

[вікта обабок · Rating 5 out of 5]

пам пам. Ніка мене спокусила, і так як мені не було що робити вночі (а до цього я спала 14 годин) мені явно треба було себе чимось зайняти. і я придумала🤩

звісно я не прочитала її за дві години, як Ніка, але це досі дуже швидка і коротка книга.

він реально дуже милий штрих, і головна героїня не дурна. те що він принц було дуже очікувано, бо так завжди, ахпхпх

якщо вам нема що робити вечером, то реально раджу. там ні разу так в не було сексу😳, що робить цю історію ще милішою, хоча і трошки жаль. авторка так заставляє нас прочитати наступні частини, а я не впевнена чи буду🤔

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fantasy romance is one of my favorite genres, so when I read the synopsis of the book, I immediately picked it up. Unfortunately, I couldn't connect with the story, which is sad because it had the potential to be so much more.

In the beginning, I enjoyed Seira and Toryn's friendly banter. Even though they were supposed to be enemies, they understood where the other person was coming from and did not resort to hate. I enjoyed their interactions; they were funny and sexy.

But right from the time the action was supposed to begin, it lacked the urgency that comes with a conflict. They both banded together to go on a quest, but it wasn't given proper importance. It felt like the author was so caught up in exploring the characters' desires for each other that the rest of the parts were an afterthought.

The romance was mostly good, but I was disappointed that very little happened after the huge build-up. Some character backstories would have been helpful in giving them depth.

The thing I liked about the book apart from the banter was that the male protagonist was a centaur. I've rarely come across books that have centaurs as the main character. The physical aspects, their culture, and Toryn's personality were explored a little; due to this, I found him very appealing.

Since this is a series, I hope the next book focuses more on their feelings and has a strong plot. After that cliffhanger, I'd be disappointed if the new problem got sidelined. Despite not connecting with this book, I'd still like to give the sequel a try and hope for the best.

I recommend it to fantasy romance readers who enjoy the enemies-to-lovers trope, a little spice, and centaurs.

[Dragana · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is why I still give a chance to Kindle freebies Because I discover hidden gems and new authors.
Nicely written. Strong heroine, likable hero. Slow burn romance.
Recommended.

[ladybreww · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm really upset because after all that they didn't bone.

And I could have lived without the thought of hoof picking a hot centaur.

Other than that this was a cute story. A little random but fun.

[ReadingDiva Book Reviews · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun read - I am looking forward to book #2.

[Andrea · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

I had fun with this one! So quick review-- we have a slow burn enemies to partners to potential lovers Romeo/Juliette kind of storyline where I liked both the mains.



Bullet points of the story:

Centaur x Human couple
Huntsman x Warrior Priestess both pressured by families over years to settle down
Warring species & lack of mates on both sides
Giving into their feelings would take something from each side if they were to fall for each other-not to mention they would be considered captives
Both come together to fight an old enemy and realize their feelings might be inevitable

Liked the short and sweet story and may read on for some schmexy time in the next book?

[Juju ♡ ～('▽^人) · Rating 3 out of 5]

[15/77]
⤷ this is book 15 of 77 books i have downloaded for free on amazon kindle, so it may be time to finally go through them all. oh god, wish me luck.

this is really underdeveloped, yet i still had fun reading it! i could believe that the seira and toryn would become a couple, and while i do believe some chemistry, it was somewhat fast for me. but then again, it's a novella, so making it a slow-burn is kind of hard. in any way, despite it being objectively "not enough" for anything above a 3, it was still quite enjoyable.

[Aizlynne · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is recommended for readers 18+ due to sexual content.

This is an interesting world. I am wondering how or if it ties into one of her other series. The interplay between Toryn and Seira is cute with a slice of danger thrown in. I enjoyed it and am curious to see where it goes.

[Dena · Rating 5 out of 5]

Overwhelmed

I so enjoyed a confident and aggressive heroine that feeds off of diversity. I thought they were good together with hunting the people who killed her sisters. I loved the story

[shannon Stubbs · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked it until the end. It ends with a cliff hanger.

[Kaylee]

DNF 17%

[Trisha Lynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great beginning

I loved this shortish story and the beginning of Seira and Toryn's adventures together. I like the magic systems and creatures. You don't find many stories about centaurs as main characters so this was a delight in that respect. This book leaves me wanting more but also delivered a great story in a short amount of time. I have to hand it Blackwood 👌🏼

[Rachael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Toryn and Seira are officially one of my new favorite couples. Despite their clashing cultures, the amount of respect and camaraderie between them was beautiful (and fun!) to read. Plus the innovative world and storyline immediately grabbed my attention. I highly recommend this work and can't wait to read more by this author!

[Jess Gehlke · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn’t realize that this book was part of a series and could not be read as a stand-alone. It ended on a cliffhanger, I had a hard enough time finishing this book and will not be continuing on.

[R · Rating 5 out of 5]

**MINOR SPOILERS**
This novella is part of the Huntress vs Huntsman series and the first two novellas feature Seira and Toryn. The last two novellas feature other characters. The characters appear in another universe.
Seira and Toryn have circled around each other for years. She guards a section of the border between their countries, and he guards the other side. They have not spoken but play games with each other by stealing items from each other’s camps. These items are stolen back and then something else is taken. They have developed mutual respect for each other.
Toryn seems very sweet. I liked him. He is a centaur but can shapeshift into human form. There is a surprise about Toryn at the end of the novella and I wondered why he had been allowed to be a border guard.
Seira is expected to return to her family at some point and take over her duties which includes having children. Her people try to capture the centaurs and if they do, they make a spell to keep them in human form and force them to have children with them. Seira has pledged herself to temporary celibacy as part of her role as huntress.
Conversely, Toryn’s people, the centaurs, capture Seira’s people and force them to have children with them. It seemed self defeating on both sides as there is a low fertility rate. Since both sides want children, it seemed unnecessary for it to be a forced issue. At one point in the novella, the author writes that both sides had years of cross breeding. Why wouldn’t Seira’s people have centaur children sometimes? Or why wouldn’t the centaurs have children who were huntresses?
Seira and Toryn begin working as a team when people from their countries are attacked by Soul-Mages. The Soul-Mages steal people’s souls in order to live longer. They grow closer as the hunt goes on. Seira and Toryn begin to develop trust for each other. They successfully conclude one part of the hunt.
I liked this book. It was not a strong 5 but I decided to go with that because I liked the main characters.

[Mary Kirkland · Rating 5 out of 5]

Seira and Toryn have been hunting and avoiding each other for years and while they can appreciate each other, neither really wants to give up their lives in order to settle down. So they keep playing games with each other by raiding each others camp and stealing small things from each other. Toryn is a Centaur and Seira is a witch/warrior priestess.

Seira's family expects her to capture or be captured by Toryn or another Centaur so she can have children and carry on the traditions on her people. Toryn's people also expect him to capture a woman and bring her back to the clan in order to carry on their traditions and have children. Which ever one captures the other means the one captured has to give up their way of life and live with the other's people. Neither want to do that even though this is the way it's always been done for both of their people. So they play these games in the mean time until one of them gives in.

Toryn is attracted to Seira but doesn't have the heart to capture her and bring her back to his clan and Seira feels the same way about him. But things change when an old foe comes forward and puts both of their peoples in danger. Now they have to find a way to work together all the while stopping each others people from capturing the other and making them submit to the traditions of the clans.

In order for this to work they have to trust each other, which isn't easy but there's no other way to make sure they can defeat the ones who have come to kill them all.

Watching these two come to grips with how much they actually like each other while they are out hunting a foe who is coming to kill both of their peoples, was a lot of fun. The ending was so great and I loved how they decided they were going to start new traditions and not give in to what everyone else wanted. This was such a fun read. The banter between these two just made their interactions so much more fun.

[Christine Rains · Rating 3 out of 5]

In a world scarred by soul-mages, human women and male centaurs have a tentative truce. They need each other to reproduce. Seira has chosen to guard her clan's border and loves nothing more than the freedom of being in the wilderness. Toryin wanted to escape his harsh father and enjoy life as a hunter. Though enemies, they have a great admiration for one another, and when soul-mages attack both their people, they develop a partnership which blooms into something more. Both of them strive to stay focused on their goal, but can they resist the allure each has for the other?

This fantasy romance has some great world building. It's interesting to get a peek into a world which cruel mages have gained power by stealing people's souls. When the people fought back, the soul-mages punished the humans by killing off all the males and punished the centaurs by killing the females. Yet as years went on, the humans and centaurs had found a way to continue on through each other, even if that means raiding each other's villages and taking mates hostage. Seira is a strong and tough warrior, and I loved seeing a female match the male hero in that manner. There was nice tension between them, but the slow burn never got very steamy. The tension didn't grab me as I'd hoped it would.

[SelkieReader · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unexpected!!! Worth the download!

I won’t lie, I download a lot of the random free flash, Kindle books.
Most I can barely even get through the first chapter without just deleting and moving on.
This was different from page one.
It sucks you in, spits you out and you come back asking for more!

It’s really easy to read and because it’s shorter I think most people could probably read it in a day, I’m insane and did it in a few hours 😂
Once I started I couldn’t stop.

The world is interesting, there is underlying grief and desperation that leaves the inhabitants in a stalemate.
The centaur females have died, and the male mountain men have died all things to the soul mages.
Which has the world, balancing on a knife edge of trying to find mates, having to share mates, and once year old enough, having to resign to the fact of living in a gilded cage, with your own harem, trying to keep your people alive.

I can’t wait to read the next books and to see what happens !

[Alejandra Guerrero · Rating 2 out of 5]

I know I read it, but somehow it doesn´t show in any of my reading apps. Anyway, it was Okayish, the characters are meh, and I didn't like the priestesses at all. They all come off as sexual predators, surprising for a group of people who pledge celibacy to their goddess. All except our fMC, of course, because she's not like other girls, obviously. The centaurs aren't much better, since they kidnap priestesses to breed them. The women seemed content, but again, the moment they have sex they lose their powers and any rank they held in their society, so what else were they going to do but stay with their kids, huh? The prestesses also keep the centaurs magically bound and use them as sex slaves for those women who want to have children (they still lose their status, and powers, and at some point they're expected to do it anyway). It ends on a cliffhanger and continues in the next book, but I'm not going to read that.

[Mark J. McArthur · Rating 4 out of 5]

Priestess huntswoman vs centaur huntsman vs soulmage a terrible conflict.

A human priestess and centaur huntsman have sparred for years between their neighboring territories. Suddenly, an ancient evil, once thought to be eradicated, has returned. The pair discovers two parties of their compatriots slaughtered. Instead of falling by the hand of their historical rivals, they died fighting side by side. Worse still, they discover that soul mages, an evil, previously thought to have been eradicated, has returned. They form an avenging team, bonded by oaths, to eradicate the soul mages and return the trapped souls to their respective peoples to be released to the afterlife, or die in the attempt.
I received a no cost copy of this book and am voluntarily leaving this review.

[Izzy SM · Rating 1 out of 5]

Warning: third person POV

DNF past half so I'm rating.

Authors need to learn that they can't write a novella the same way they write a big ass book. Otherwise, we have pages and pages of introduction and then the whole book happens in 10%.

I left this book at it's long introduction. Don't have time or patience.

AFTER I had already wrote this review, I was made aware that this book ends in a cliffhanger and continues for 2 more books. That explains the loooooong intro but it causes a new problem: why isn't that in the blurb? I picked this up because it was a quick read, I wasn't at all committed to read two more books!

[FRANCES COOPER · Rating 5 out of 5]

They have watched each other for years from afar. Now to save their peoples they need to work together. Toryn is an honorable centaur and not so hard on the eyes. Seira the Moon Goddess warrior with strength and beauty. They have played and admired each other from a safe distance but it all changes now. Not only has Siera come to think of Toryn as a constant in her life albeit from afar, he too has definitely noticed her attributes. Will proximity initiate more? Can opponents work together for mutual good? Well mount up and prepare for an adventure you won't soon forget! I am off to start the next in the series!

[Jana Lind · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of my many free E-books that I'm slowly working my way through.

I almost put this away in the beginning, but it picked up after a few chapters. When our MCs embark on their journey I enjoyed their banter and how their relationship developed.
The language was fast paced but I didn't mind.

What I liked less:
-I gave a hard time understanding how these different cultures ended up taking sexual slaves to ensure their survival, instead of finding ways to work together. Had this been a bigger part of the story the rating of the book would have been lower.

- Why was this one ~150 pages book with a cliffhanger when book two is ~200 pages. Now it just felt like I read half a book.

[Cassy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent story, I was really sucked in in the beginning, but I found myself more skimming than reading toward the end. The magic wasn't well defined and it made staying engaged kind of hard. I definitely like the characters, though the love thing comes from out of nowhere imo. They're talking, getting friendly and then all of a sudden in the last few pages, she's all "make babies with me" it feels very forced, I don't know if that's just me cause I'm used to a more slow burn, or what but it was sort of jarring for me.

[Erin · Rating 1 out of 5]

1. The “final boss battle” was short, easy & unsatisfying

2. The relationship was complete BS. Shit just miraculously switched around at the end for no apparent reason that felt natural

3. The End… WAS A FREAKING CLIFF EDGE!! BECAUSE THERE’s A BOOK TWO TO CONTINUE THE TALE!!! I find this kind of ending deceiving and annoying and had hoped this book would wrap up Seira and Toryn’s story and move on the a new couple, which it kind of dose but not until book 3. This just ruins the whole thing for me.

[MGB · Rating 4 out of 5]

The soul mages have wrecked havoc with the Centaurs and the Warrior priestesses. That results in an uneasy truce between Seria and Toryn. This truce is complicated by the devastation that still exists between their two peoples. The author brings these difficulties front and center. Turns out that a whole lot of sex hormones are involved in the interactions between these groups. It is an interesting story and turn of events as Seria and Toryn learn to trust each other and pursue a common goal.