The Secret Circle: The Hunt (Secret Circle, 5)

I guess this installment of the Secret Circle series is to be the penultimate in plot holes, lapses in logic, and deus ex machinas.

For so long, Cassie's mother had been next to useless when it comes to magic. But miraculously, in this book, not only is she chanting spells, she conveniently helps the Circle with not one, but two key things they need - Black John's Book of Shadows and the secret room in her house. And this secret room just happens to have fairly modern conveniences like a kitchen, bathroom, and be large enough to accommodate more than one occupant. And then of course, despite her "forgetting" almost all her kin's magic and history, here Cassie's mom just happens to remember some things Black John told her about being marked by hunters and how to break a death mark. Where was all this knowledge when the Circle was battling Black John in the previous series?

But, the plot hole and deus ex machina doesn't end there. We find out Scarlett is Suzan's cousin (their mothers were sisters). Huh? Really? Not one single person in their community knew that Suzan's mom had a sister? According to this book, Suzan and her father were in the dark about her mother's family. Yeah, like that's not at all unrealistic. Oh yes, and Cousin Scarlett just so happens to be able to read Black John's Book of Shadows. ====== eye roll ====== So if this Book was secreted away in Cassie's grandmother's house for years, how was Scarlett able to learn how to read the secret writings and code/symbols in the book? The author doesn't even bother attempting to explain this. We're supposed to go with it, just because.

Yes, in the previous series, we're told that Circle members get privileges other students aren't accorded. However, it just beggars belief that Cassie could lie to the school secretary (and by extension, school principal) and not face any consequences whatsoever! This occurred when Cassie lied about a fight in the school gym as a pretext to get Principal Boylan out of his office, and away from Laurel. By this time, the Circle knew the principal was one of the witch hunters (no one else in the community has knowledge of this) so yes, Cassie did a good thing in preventing Boylan from using magic or coercion to get Laurel to spill everything she knows about witches, but logic dictates in "real life", a student wouldn't have gotten away with such a blatant lie scot-free.

I wrote in my previous review (The Secret Circle: The Divide) it's just so tedious having a love triangle in a YA novel. What makes it more egregious in "The Hunt" is Cassie and her back and forth conviction regarding her relationship with Adam. One minute she's questioning their bond, then the next, she's so totally in love that nothing can shake her faith. Then another incident will cause her to re-examine their relationship until kisses and sweet words from Adam restores her equilibrium. And back and forth ad nauseum.

I said it before and I'll say it again, they really should have set this series years after the events in the preceding series. In the first series, because the kids were teens, you actually had high school stuff (tests, class attendance, school library goings-on) sprinkled within the series. But in this one, the kids might as well no longer be in high school for all the dearth of "normal" HS events that take place.

The one good thing about reading this dreck is that it's an easy read. I didn't feel as though I were swimming in molasses, treading dense, incomprehensible prose. I guess what I'm saying is the writing is fairly simple. Thus, it wasn't a chore getting to the end of the novel. I'll read the final book so as to be a completest, but I'm not expecting much given how the two other books in this series were pretty subpar.

THIS TRILOGY IS NOT WRITTEN BY THE ORIGINAL AUTHOR! I sent them all back once I realized this.

I've tried to read this book, but the ghostwriter has basically destroyed the strength, passion, and internal "power" of all of these characters; and everything in it feels completely inaccurate to who the characters are personality and everything else-wise. She's taken their 3-d lives, and pretty much flattened them and made them all about the teenage melodrama. Aubrey Clark wrote it so inaccurate to the original books and the general vibe, since they were written about 20-25 years later - it seems like they disappeared from the 80's and magically appeared in the current day, which makes no sense at all. All of the inaccuracies keeps stopping me from getting invested at all in these books, practically every sentence. All of the characters are inaccurate to who they are, and the new characters are just unrealistic. I was protesting reading them at all at first, but was mildly curious, and I was wrong to even try. Whoever thought this was a good idea to destroy the amazing, epicness of the Original Trilogy should be fired. They are so bad that they deserve a zero.

I don't normally write reviews on books but if you are a fan of supernatural books you have to read this series! It is so good! I read the first 3 books in about a month, could not put them down! Cannot wait for the 4th one to be available!!!!

good read

Good read!

was in perfect Condition

Loved this book...loved the whole series, in fact...couldn't wait til the next book came in!!!

Perfect....:)

This book follows up the the story well and seamless. I enjoyed the plot and it hooked me enough to buy the next book right away.