Title - Asendant
Author - Diana Peterfreund
Genre - Young Adult/Unicorns
Series - Killer Unicorns # 2
Publication Date - September 28th 2010
Synopsis
Astrid Llewelyn is now a fully trained unicorn hunter, but she can't solve all her problems with just a bow and arrow. Her boyfriend, Giovanni, has decided to leave Rome, the Cloisters is in dire financial straits, her best friends's powers seem to be mysteriously disintegrating, and Astrid can't help but feel that school, home and her hopes of becoming a scientist are nothing but impossible dreams.
So when she's given the opportunity to leave the Cloisters and put her skills to use as part of a scientific quest to discover the Remedy, Astrid leaps at the chance. Finally, she can have exactly what she want--or can she? At Gordian headquarters, deep in the french countryside, Astid begins to question everything she thought she believed: her love for Giovanni, her loyalty to the Cloisters, and most of all her duty as a hunter. Should Astrid be saving the world from the killer unicorns, or saving the unicorns from the world?
Quick and Dirty
What if unicorns are not the gentle creatures of daydreams, but the monsters of nightmares?
Opening Sentence
The unicorn drew it's last breath.
The Review
Astrid Llewelyn spent the last year doing a lot of growing up, to almost losing her boyfriend to a killer unicorn in the states. To traveling across the ocean to join The Order of Lioness a Cloister in Rome reopened with the threat of unicorns. While in Rome both girls meet boys while training to be unicorn hunters, while Astrid builds the start to a relationship, Phil ends up loosing her talent for unicorn hunting. They learn that Marten Jaeger their sponsor was behind Phil loosing her unicorn magic. Through Bucephalus a 3000 year old Karkadann who saves Astrid from Kirin they learn that the Kirin are plotting with Marten Jaeger and need to stopped. The end of the first book finds Astrid watching as Bucephalus kills Marten Jaeger and not being able to stop him.
The second book starts off with the girls hunting unicorns of course while Phil and Neil work to get financial backing for the Cloister which is in financial ruins due to loosing the support of Marten Jaeger. While Neil is looking for more hunters to join the ranks in this book Phil is working to save and protect the unicorns. They reach out to the church for support in turn the church requires the girls to act like nuns in a sense they have to wear hunting habits, no boys and for all intensive purposes they are nuns. In America Astrid's mother is in a media frenzy promoting her daughter as the hero to the unicorn menace.
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With unknown reason Cory seems to be loosing her unicorn mojo she can't sense them like she used to and she's growing weak to the point she can't even hunt them anymore, and with the unicorns drawn to the hunters Neil her uncle decides it's not safe for her to be in Rome. They enlist Astrid to travel to London with Cory for her to be tested to try to find out why she's unable to sense the unicorns. They are worried it could be a disease from the unicorns passed to hunters since none of the doctors can find it.
Before leaving Rome Neil tells's Astrid that they found Seth the guy who stole Phil's unicorn magic and ask her to head to France to identify him for the police to arrest him. While Cory head's off to London, Astrid takes a quick detour to France to catch Seth. Once in France she learns it isn't Seth but her old ex-boyfriend Brandt and he's working for Marten Jaeger's wife. Brandt talks her into meeting Isabeau Jaeger who claims that she was estranged from her husband for a long time. Astrid learns that she has einhorns the more beautiful of the unicorns.
While in France Astrid learns the Isabeau wants her to guard the einhorns from the protesters outside of there enclosure in the public land. Isabeau has the einhorns for research to find the Remedy that they all have been looking for. She offers Astird the chance to work on her studies, live in a beautiful home, and not have to kill unicorns. After debating Astrid jumps at the chance a change from living at the Cloister where she had to wear worn out clothes and worry about dying every time she hunted.
Giovanni has returned to the states for school leaving Astrid behind but has promised to make the long distance relationship work, though he isn't happy about Astrid living so close to her ex-boyfriend. While living in France Astrid builds a strong bond with the einhorns, even naming them, but when asked to kill them in the name of research she's not thrilled about it. With a botched euthanasia of Jumper one of her pet unicorns, she ends up in bed for days healing thus starts a renewed friendship with Brandt. However somethings aren't always as they appear which she will learn.
Through the series you see Astrid grow from a the girl she was in the beginning to the woman in the end of this book. Through the two books she learned so much about herself, she grew up maybe not who she planned to be, but still an amazing character. She's very easy to connect with I found myself wanting to know more, even worrying about her while I wasn't reading. She's not perfect, that's what makes her so likable she's easy to relate too.
All the characters are all well written which makes you care about and want to know what happens. I spent a lot of the book worried about what would happen to Cory and if the other girls would get it too. I kept hoping that Phil would be able to save the unicorns, would come up with a solution to saving them thus changing the hunters lives for the good. I was hoping that we would learn more about Phil and Neil's relationship I was hopping for a little romance from them as well. I didn't care at all for Astrid's mother she wasn't very nice to Astrid or the other girls.
I had a hard time putting this book down, I stayed up super late last night just trying to finish it I had to know what happened. Overall I enjoyed this book not as much as the first one but it had everything in it to make it good. I just wanted more, I feel like I was left with so many unanswered questions and I hate that in a book worse when there isn't another one. I like the unique take that the unicorns were in hiding, and that there are more then one kind of unicorn too. If you look at all the tapestry's they depict unicorns in all shapes and sizes so why not. I would suggest the series to anyone who's open to a new take on Unicorns and I don't mean the sweet ones but the man-eating ones.
Notable Scene
I reached for my purse as the unicorn started forward again. This time it broke right past the barrier and galloped towards the steak, still in Brandt's hand.
My ex-boyfriend turned around just as the unicorn reached him. It lunged at the steak, spearing right into Brandt's hand. Brandt cried out.
The unicorn collapsed, the vibrating hilt of my alicorn knife buried deep in it's throat. Blood pooled around the steak still clenched between it's jaws. The other unicorns scattered, terrified. I rushed forward, watching Brandt's expression dissolve into pain as he struggled to pull the horn out of his hand.
Too late, too late! And this time, there'd be no ancient vial of the Remedy to save him. What an idiot, to wave a piece of meat at a starving unicorn! If only I'd pulled out my knife the second I saw them come out of the woods. If only I hadn't wanted to see the einhorns up close.
"Man, that stings," said Brandt. He shook his hand free and looked up at my stricken face. Then smiled "You okay, Astrid? Aww, that wasn't your first time was it?"
I froze as he calmly held out his punctured hand. The wound knit together before my eyes, leaving behind nothing but a small, helix-shaped scar.
Killer Unicorn Series
1. Rampant
2. Ascendant
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