Customer Reviews

Hunting Julian (Gatherers, Book 1)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

Hunting Julian tells the story of Julian, who must gather special women to save his people, and Asia, who is his kindra - his soul mate.

Many of this author's books deal with this very theme - a woman who finds herself in a world she didn't know existed (literally or figuratively, depending on the story), a man who needs her love to be complete, and their trials and tribulations as they find their way to each other.

In this case, however, somehow the chemistry between the two never clicks and the happily ever after feels contrived rather than deeply emotional. Asia's reactions are completely normal given her situation - she's been kidnapped by the man she believes has killed her sister. In fact, they're probably more "true to life" than you usually find in paranormal romance, where the heroine often completely accepts what should seem impossible with relative ease. That said, she still seems unsympathetic and is hard to connect with. She is convinced that she is unworthy, which isn't an unusual belief, but that deeply rooted conviction leaves her willing to doom an entire people because she doesn't want personal connections. That makes her really, really hard to like.

Julian comes across as a strangely submissive personality, with periodic eruptions of insanity. He brings his soul mate to a new land, doesn't tell her enough to keep her protected from either her new environment or their mutual enemies and then does some other things that I won't discuss, as they're probably too far down the spoiler road. Although he's described as sexy and caring, in many respects he comes across as neither.

I gave the book two stars, despite the flaws, because the world itself is very intriguing and the culture is complex and richly imagined. I will buy the second book in the series, but I'm desperately hoping that it returns to Ms. Frank's high levels. I would NOT recommend this book. Pick up any of her others, but leave this one.

I personally am going to have to go with selfish b**tch. And the ironic part here is that Asia continually calls herself selfish and cold throughout the entire book. She even has the gall to feel guilty about being so selfish that she's dooming an entire race (and more importantly her own soulmate). But does she bother to do anything about it? No. Not really. She does, however, vastly enjoy standing around yelling at hapless Julian about all her problems. (Which she created in the first place by attacking him, I must say.)

And the girl's not too bright to boot. I mean, hello. She's supposed to be some expert at survival and the first thing she does after finding out she's on an unknown alien planet is to go running (RUNNING!) out an open door without looking to see what might be awaiting her first. (I was a bit disappointed the nets didn't just give away and save us all the headache of dealing with her.) This character had zero redeeming qualities. And PDA, anyone? The two main characters were gasping and grasping in the most public places possible throughout most of the book (as in, in front of hospitalized children). It made me embarrassed for them.

I did enjoy Julian in the way that Frank switched the normal male/female roles-- his original and sole concern being their soul connection, hers being sex. I like how he could be physically protective and yet come off gentle and unhardened when dealing with emotions. Some reviewers thought this made him a pushover, but I just thought it made him a product of his culture.

The world Frank has created is somewhat interesting. But she tends not to stick to her guns. I mean, how many people in this dimension speak English? Whole heck of a lot, I can tell you that. Basically, everyone Asia meets. The monsters and perils of the world are not well-fleshed out enough to be interesting, and we have plenty of unanswered questions (Jewel?). Maybe it will get better as we go along in the series, but this is highly disappointed considering the rich worlds Frank usually creates.

For those that are familiar with Ms Frank's work this is not the same as the NightWalkers series nor is connected to the Shadow people. Instead readers are taken to an all new world "Beneath" earth. Hunting Julian reminded me of the futuristic novels of the 90's. Alien like race searching for earth women to breed or to save their race in some way. In fact it brought to mind Marilyn Campbells stories of old with the Terrans living in earths core. This is not a negative though. Frank does a great job of describing the world and as always the side characters are intriguing and make your curious about their untold stories.

Asia's character reminds me a lot of Dae from the shadow dwellers only without the likeable factor. She was rough and tough but didnt know when to quit. Julian whom I adored made a lot of idiotic mistakes. He left Asia with a person in the story that he knew had a grudge and would be very negative toward Asia which of course sets the plot for the story and then he insists repeatedly that she cant go home so get over it. Once I got through some of these holes for lack of a better word this was ok. I didnt feel a great connection to the characters and there didnt seem to be a romance or passionate love affair between the two. Julian met Asia, decides she's meant to be his life mate, Asia disagrees-a lot, they have sex which in the beneath world feeds energy to the people,they fight some more and then Asia agrees to stay with Julian. Thats how it read to me, very bland in comparison to the other great stories by this author. There are some great moments and then some predictable moments so I will follow this because as I mentioned, Frank does a wonderful job of making you eager to hear about her secondary characters. Hopefully their stories will be more exciting. So 3 stars for interest and good job of world creating

My favorite book is Jacob. Hands down out of everything I've ever read and I have over 800 books in my rated section here on amazon. That's nifty by the way.
Anyhow, needless to say, I love Jacquelyn Frank. I did not love Hunting Julian as a matter of fact I disliked it so much I quit reading it that doesn't happen to me often. But when I found myself wishing the heroine would throw herself off of one of Julian's hanging city buildings I knew I was done with this book.
The idea is awesome. A woman chasing the man she believes has murdered her baby sister, suddenly finds herself at his mercy. And for the first chapter or so he is very alpha and so very yummy. Then everything changes, he doesn't watch out for her expects her to go along with everything he tells her without any explination and rather than throw her over his shoulder and drag her back to his man cave when she doesn't (which would at least be interesting) he whines. (I hate whiney men!!) Asia keeps telling him how tough she is and yet he is constantly pulling her out of trouble. (Admittedly he gets her into the trouble in the first place) but she keeps telling him she won't be his breeder but she never really tries to get free!?!
I found the heroine to be full of hot air and the hero to be wishy washy. I hope her next two novels are better. I'd hate to have to stop reading her.

I paid for every page but only read about 20% of it. I enjoyed JF's first series but by the time she got to "Noah" I was done. I felt Noah was flat and boring. I couldn't get into the second series at all. And, this third series is the worst.

I recommend this book with reservations. I liked the fun and slightly silly premise: hot men from another dimension must kidnap/convince/seduce women for energy to help their starving people survive. I mean, HELLO, how many of us wouldn't like to occasionally escape into that dimension?
But because of personal preferences, Hunting Julian is only a mediocre read for me. I am not a fan of the tormented heroine, and Asia Callahan certainly falls into that category. The title should be Hunting Asia because it's really about Asia, not Julian. Readers learn a lot more about her than him, and what I learned I didn't like.

However, some folks may appreciate Asia's character. Frank is true to her vision of a bad-ass heroine. Asia is the real deal, a believable female bounty hunter. Too often in romance, an author tells readers that the heroine is a strong, dangerous woman but shows us a girl who is an emotional wreck in need of rescue. And I skeptically think, "This chick apprehends hardened criminals for a living? Yeah right." But Frank's Asia is plenty competent. She fights. She manipulates. She ignores emotion. She curses--a lot. She stubbornly asserts her independence. She's a bounty-hunting ice queen because she lost her flighty mother and had to raise a younger sister. Actually, the fact that Asia raised such a sweet, warm-hearted, idealistic baby sister is the only evidence to show us that Asia is really a nice person who needs love too!
Some readers will appreciate Asia, but she's not my cup of tea. I wanted more Julian the interesting otherworlder, less Asia the mean human.

What did I like? The world-building, the interesting premise, and ESPECIALLY the preview for the next book featuring someone named Kathryn and a monstrous nightmare-energy-sucking hero.

Right now, I am exactly halfway through the book, and I can honestly say that I could stop right now, never read the rest, and never think about it again.

The main problem is a lot of the basis of the plot and this alien culture seems so self-indulgent (on the author's part) and so out there that I keep rolling my eyes and groaning (and not in a good way)... it's impossible to suspend my disbelief. This is even harder because both main characters seem so flat and unreal. Also, the writing style in this book seems very amateurish for this author... a lot of telling rather than showing, and a clumsiness with language that has not been present in her other books. I keep thinking that this must be a book that she wrote much earlier and is just now publishing. Either that or the real Jacqueline Frank is being held hostage somewhere and someone much less talented has taken her place (Misery meets Single White Female?)

One problem that may be purely my own quirk is that the whole alien sci-fi meets romance novel doesn't really seem to work for me. I love sci-fi, I love romance novels, but most combinations of the two just don't work. I think it's because most authors who try end up using sex/romance as the whole reason for the alien encounter (alien men must have earth women to mate) which seems cheesy rather than just allowing the romance to blossom as a subplot to a more believable action/adventure story. One example of this is the Paladins of Darkness series by Alexis Morgan... the "alien" presence is part of the overall sci-fi nature of the plot while the romance drives the emotional subplot of the story.

Overall, a disappointment compared to her other books. But, despite the flaws it's at least readable and some of the aspects of the alien culture are interesting/imaginative enough that I will likely finish reading it all.

I have to disagree with some of the other reviewers. I enjoyed Hunting Julian, although I did not think it was as good as some of Frank's other books. I thought the world she was developing was interesting and I liked the characters involved. The plot did not develop as seamlessly as some, but still held my attention. I look forward to reading the next book in the series, but also hope to see more in the other two series as well.

As background, I read this author's book "Jacob" when it first came out and fell in love with the book. I loved the others in the Nightwalkers' series with the exception of "Noah" (the final book). I haven't read her Shadowdwellers series.

This book is very bad. The lead female, Asia, is a whiny, bitter character. I couldn't connect with her or with the hero, Julian. I couldn't understand their motivation or their actions and did NOT like this world at all. I did not understand why they were "in love" with each other (Julian keeps saying that it's not just sexual attraction but you never know WHY he supposedly loves her). A minor point, but it felt like in every chapter, earth and humans were being bashed. I couldn't figure out why these women would voluntarily leave everything behind to go to a totally different world where they had ZERO chance of coming back (at least in Nightwalkers, the characters were still in this world). Also, many of the ideas in this book seem like a mish-mash of recycled ideas from her Nightwalkers series as other urban or fantasy books (the companion that is cast off, the pre-destined mate, people on the council with issues, different species that hate humans, etc). I had to force myself to finish this book. Save your money and don't buy it.

I kept reading this book hoping it would get better but it was a total waste of time. I found the premise of different planes doubtful and uninteresting. Information about other planes might have helped. What would happen if someone fell into the abyss? Where did the mysterious substance holding the village together come from? There were more questions than answers.