Kazan travels to try to sell her vampire slaying weapons in another city, when vampires attack. Flighty and amused by their own fancies, they make Kazan Queen of the Vampires. It’s not as great as it sounds. At the end of her three day tenure as queen, she becomes an all-you-can-eat-buffet for her “court”.

Kazan is a selfish and untrusting woman who wants to make it out alive. It’s refreshing to see a main character more worried about themselves than the greater good. Unfortunately, the only allies she can find are vampires–who she’s both drawn to but willing to kill.

3.5/5

Kazan is blacksmith and a skilled grifter. Hoping to sell a magical sword she crafted with special wood and silver which can be used against vampires, she attends a party of Madam Rask and steals an early meeting spot from another party guest, who happens to be the vampire Adrius. They have an immediate connection and end up attending the meeting together, and then depart ways. Madam Rask suggests Kazan join a caravan to a new city to sell her sword. En route, despite the protection of the Wardens, she is abused by a vampire clan and is abducted. In order to keep the Vampire city magic alive, the blood of a human is sacrificed every year and the human, this year Kazan, is made Queen over a Vampire Court for 3 days where they are wined and dined before becoming the feast. Kazan has a will to survive and finds unlikely allies.

This is a fast paced story with action, violence, and dynamic characters. I feel like the characters and the world building could have used some further development. There’s a lot of saturation in the romantasy category and while I enjoyed this book, I didn’t love it in that “can’t put the book down” type of read. I liked Reya’s character but feel like threesome romance was a bit forced

Thank you NetGalley, Angry Robot, and author Ciel Pierlot for this ARC, it made my day!
Pub date: June 25, 2024

This was maybe a bit out of my comfort zone, as I did find some of the earlier scenes a bit violent (something to keep in mind) and I don't normally read vampire books. That said, I did like the worldbuilding and the sense of tension / danger that ran through the whole book. I liked how the bulk of the story was restricted to one particular area, adding to that overall tension.

However, I wasn't that keen on the main MC, but I did really like Adrius and Reya and wished that they had a bit more time on page. I'm glad I read this, as it did get me out of my comfort zone, but overall, it's one that I'm not too sure how I feel about it.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC. Although enjoyable at times, this book was a let down. It had so much potential but seemed haphazard. Very superficial without much character development. Plot was confusing.

I really enjoyed this gory, violent book. as soon as someone's head got lopped off I knew it'd be the book for me. the only thing I didn't quite like was the ending and the romance is lacking. but everything else....love. I was definitely feeling the "ready or not" movie vibes and all the action scenes were so satisfyingly.

I received an ARC copy through netgalley but all thoughts are my own.

Deliciously fun and full of wonderfully cruel and sadistic vampires. This is definitely one of my favourite vampire reads of 2024.

Even though, I felt that the ending was predictable, I very much enjoyed the plot. We follow Kazan as she goes from humble blacksmith to Queen of the Vampires and their next meal. She is unapologetically herself throughout the novel and despite her situation refuses to resign herself to her fate. Her determination to survive in the face of disdainful, mocking vampires made it easy to get behind her.

This is the first Ciel Pierlot novel I've read but it certainly won't be the last.

The dedication is *chef's kiss*- Dedicated to everyone who read Twilight and thought "Why are these vampires so Mormon?"

Great world-building, morally gray af characters, and a high-stakes escape adventure- what more can you ask for in a vampire book? I enjoyed all the twists and turns that kept me binge reading this in a couple of settings.

Would definitely read more by this author.

This was a spicy, romp of a fantasy and was highly entertaining. If you love books with vampires, then this should be your next read.

I flew through this one in a couple of hours. Really enjoyed the plot, and the characters alike. This book felt much more like a vampire book than some others that are big on tiktok right now, so I was very happy to get that sense of fear and gore that you expect from a vampire book. A lovely little hint of a romance too.

Thank you to Ciel Pierlot, Angry Robot and Netgalley for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

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This book was certainly quite captivating.

I am not usually a fan of vampires in fantasy, but this book has opened the door for me. The world- building was strong and the information about this ritual was very well explained. It was really interesting to see how important Kazan's role was to the Vampires. There were also so many people in power within this world, seeing how they wielded that power and interacted with their subjects was really captivating.

Kazan is a very unique main character. I like that Pierlot doesn't shy away from showing that she has flaws and that she is not the most powerful. As a human, she lacks physical strength, but it is her mental vigour that really speaks volumes. This is so nice to see in the fantasy, as it is hard to find a flawed and imperfect main character within the genre these days.

The romance was very unexpected but also surprisingly well fitting. I am excited to see how these characters interact and change their relationships with each other in future books. The trope in this book is one that I haven't encountered in fantasy yet so I am looking forward to see where the author takes this.

I gave this book 3.75 stars.

summary & overall impression:

i went into, ‘the hunter’s gambit,’ with high expectations but i was sorely disappointed. i don’t typically read vampire fantasy, but this did catch my eye on netgalley. it had a lot of potential with the introduction of blood magics combined with the ongoing vampire vs warden conflict. this novel centres around a blacksmith called kazan who gets her life entangled with a renowned bloodthirsty vampire seneschal, adrius de vere. after being kidnapped by the vampire king, dasar, and his hunting party, she is trapped in their citadel to serve as queen. this is part of a yearly tradition where one human is sacrificed at the end of a 3 day celebration to prevent the destruction of their home.

main characters:

kazan was a very hyperactive haphazard character. when she wasn’t being a pathological liar (which was 85%) of the time, she was busy running around dasar’s castle trying to escape. this situation can only be compared to going to the grocery 10x to buy eggs, when you already know there’s none. she’s also supposedly this mostly self taught fighter, but i still don’t know how she was able to defeat aged vampires with her skillset. this was just unrealistic. kazan is also very selfish and i didn’t fully understand her motives most of the time. for example, after she was accidentally turned into a vampire and her replacement was brought in for the sacrifice, she didn’t even care to find out if he was alive after ruining adrius & reya’s plans. her excuse being she’s a bad person?? her also eating the king’s heart when she didn’t want to be a vampire in the first place is also weird to me but pop off queen.

reya is a one of kazan’s love interests and a very one dimensional character. her most interesting aspect was being able to transform into a black cat. i feel she didn’t really do much except being described as pretty and being able to do some super powerful magic which wasn’t even described in depth.

adrius was most definitely the most well thought out character but there were still so many flaws in his actions. it didn’t seem very consistent of him to excuse kazan’s several lies so easily. his fight scenes were very cool though, i have to admit.

critques:

- none of the side plots were very well developed e.g when kazan teamed up with the geist, alphonse, who was adrius’ brother that he killed accidentally. those scenes just felt all over the place and predictable.
- there was definitely too much back and forth between the reya & adrius vs kazan, with the who trusts who and who’s lying to who. it just felt like that couple would always choose each other over her based on their dialogues. then they would spin around and always save her when she did something stupid. very contradictory.
- isadora, kazan’s lady in waiting was killed so brutally and quickly like she wasn’t even part of the book was just a bit unnecessary and dramatic.
- her decision to not go to glassdow at the end in order to live her life as a human felt rushed and like she didn’t really make that choice for herself. they just booted her out the carriage. this felt like she was being forced to follow the vampires’ plans once again with no real mind of her own. after that, kazan then randomly decided she’s trading her whole house for a horse to go find them. like please be for real.

1⭐️ & 0/5🌶️

The Hunter's Gambit by Ciel Pierlot
Published by Angry Robots
4/5 stars

Love, love, love!!! I absolutely love a good vampire book and that is exactly what Pierlot has delivered!

Kazan is determined and intelligent, but she is fascinated by vampires. She gets captured by them and becomes their Queen for 3 days, however there will be a grand celebration where Kazan is the main course of the feast! Kazan will do anything to survive.

This book was brilliant, it contained so much adventure, action and some spice! I fell in love with this and cannot wait to read more by Pierlot.

Thank you to Ciel Pierson, the Publisher and NetGalley for this arc!

First, I want to say thank you to both netgalley and the publisher/author for allowing me to read this arc. This was a fairly quick read for me, I did find myself skipping sentences and some paragraphs here and there just because I did get a little bored during some parts. I was hoping for a more intricate and in depth plot which was unfortunately not the case. I LOVE the concept of the plot and book though, just wish there was more world building. I would love to be able to imagine a bigger picture but found it slightly hard to do so. The fact its a standalone is amazing since you dont have many fantasy books these days as standalone books.

I'll be honest here. The blur about the book had me feeling a bit "meh" about the story. I like fantasy, vampires, lovers to enemies tropes, but nothing jumped out at me to really grab this book. Until I read the dedication... "Dedicated to everyone who read Twilight and thought: 'Why are these vampires so Mormon?'" I decided I had to read it for that sole reason.

...and it was a bit of a let down. Not a bad read, but not a memorable one. The author can write and can create interesting characters, but I had a difficult time buying in to how those characters interacted with each other. The plot was interesting and how the pieces fit together to form a solution was a bit predictable. The thing that I am hung up on is the ending. It was not satisfying for me. I don't feel a sense of closure to the story, but I also do not feel like there is enough set up to have a sequel (unless you consider this novel to be a sort of origin story to future writing?).

If the author does treat this as an origin story, I would read whatever comes next.

Today I’m so excited to share my review for The Hunter’s Gambit by Ciel Pierlot ✨ Thank you so much to the amazing Angry Robot team for my stunning copy!! 💖

As soon as I saw this book described as sexy vampire threesomes I was immediately sold!! 😂

I really enjoyed this!! It was fast paced, full of action and had really fun worldbuilding! I loved Ciel’s writing style and found myself absolutely devouring this! The concept was so cool and I really enjoyed following along as everything played out.

I loved our no-nonsense, vampire hating, main character Kaz! I loved how she was determined not to go down without a fight and was going to give these vampires a taste of their own medicine. She’s sarcastic, witty and ruthless - the perfect qualities to make up a great main character! Plus the tension and instant chemistry between her, Reya & Adrius was sizzling and I really enjoyed trying to figure out whether she could trust them as her allies or not!

The Hunter’s Gambit was an amazing electric read that gave me the best vampire fix!

Thank you NetGalley and Ciel Pierlot and Angry Robot Publishing for the eARC.

This was the first book in which I was introduced to a morally grey FMC. This is typically something that is hard for me to connect with, but as the story continued, I began to see that all she does was for survival. She's very determined to accomplish her ultimate goal. I think her character arc was well written; she's not likable, she's flawed, and that's what makes her interesting.

This was a very easy and quick read. It reminds me of Dungeon & Dragons; gore, fighting, swearing, blood etc. This is a very gritty vampire book.

The world building could have been further developed because there's so much opportunity in the world of vampires to explore. I am excited to see if other books in the series will provide that!

The pacing is fast in my opinion, and the plot, once it got going, it really took off. This book does have a dash of romance, but I wouldn't say that this was the main focus.

**𝑨𝑹𝑪 𝑹𝒆𝒗𝒊𝒆𝒘** 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑯𝒖𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒓'𝒔 𝑮𝒂𝒎𝒃𝒊𝒕 𝒃𝒚 𝑪𝒊𝒆𝒍 𝑷𝒊𝒆𝒓𝒍𝒐𝒕

Release Date: June 25, 2024

3.5⭐️4🌶

This book reminded me of the classic The Most Dangerous Game. The Kazan is a young woman who is also a blacksmith. She's created a silver sword that works very well on killing the vampires of this world. She's quite good a lying deceiving, and this comes in quite handy when she's captured by a group of Vampires.

This group of vampires traps Kazan in their castle-like compound on top of a rocky hill. She is the 252nd human to be their annual sacrifice to a spell that keeps the castle from crumbling around them. They make her "queen" for three days and then they will "eat" her to satisfy the spell.

She spends those three days doing everything she can, including making deals with vampires, to try and make her way out of the compound of death.

A big thank you to @netgalley for approving me for this ARC!

"The Hunter's Gambit" by Ciel Pierlot will pull readers into a world where vampires do not hide in the shadows but live among humans, even if the humans aren't exactly thrilled about it. In this thrilling, fresh take on what it means to live alongside vampires with their own rules and laws, readers will find themselves tangled up in a hundreds of years old tradition that comes with a bite.

Kazan Korvic is one of the best blacksmiths around, and she's especially skilled at creating weapons meant to take down the nasty vampires that like to prey on and terrorize human citizens. When she strikes a deal and sets off to sell her prized weapon, she finds herself attacked by a group of vampires in which not even her sword can help. Taken to the Vampire Court, Kazan is forced to play out the role of their 'Queen' for three days before celebrating the end of her rule with a feast where she will be the main course.

Instead of succumbing to her fate, Kazan plans on finding her sword and making a great escape-something no one that came before her has managed to do. With no allies and hardly any time alone to find a way out of her prison, time feels like it's slipping through her fingers. Yet, it's not long before Kazan realizes that the vampires are stuck with her, too, and they have no idea how determined she is to do whatever it takes to survive.

Kazan is a tough, ruthless, and fierce female lead. Yet, she also has her flaws, making her a fascinating character to follow as she often digs herself into some pretty deep holes before somehow finding a way out of them. So when she's put in an impossible situation, it's almost anxiety-inducing to watch her try and survive against all the odds stacked against her. Even under these strenuous conditions, she still has a sharp tongue and her wits, creating light-hearted moments despite tense and morbid scenes.

The plot is original and Pierlot stays away from cliches, making this an unpredictable story, especially with Kazan's spontaneity. But, Pierlot does draw on the typical themes found within vampire stories such as the seductive vampires, a castle, exquisite parties, gore, spice, and mind games. So the setting and themes feel familiar even while Pierlot flips everything on its head and delivers something entirely different for the reader to munch on in this escape-room-themed novel.

For me, this was a 3.5-star read rounded to 4. While I enjoyed the plot line and the characters, the pacing was slow. Had it not been bogged down by details in certain places, the pacing would've picked up, especially during action scenes or even some of the dialogue and that would've allowed me to immerse myself in the read more. The romance could've been developed a bit more to help the reader understand Kazan's decision at the end of the book. What she chose to do seemed to rely heavily on her feelings rather than what could be considered a logical or rational decision.

Overall, this was a fascinating read and one I think vampire lovers will be seriously intrigued by. "The Hunter's Gambit" is expected to be published on June 25, 2024. Make sure to read this one! A big thank you to NetGalley and Angry Robot for providing me with an e-arc of this story and for the opportunity to share my honest opinion in this review.

I was really excited to read The Hunter's Gambit. On paper it sounded like everything I love. Vampires, a FMC full of attitude, an interesting story line. But for some reason it just really didn't get there for me. I found the characters engaging at first but I just lost interest really quickly. It definitely wasn't bad but it wasn't up there for me.

The Hunters Gambit takes place during a time when Vampires rule the lands, humans live in provinces and are used as slaves and food. The way they dress, travel by carriage use lamps and candles makes me feel like it’s the 1800s maybe?
Kazan is our young FMC, she is a human blacksmith that has been on her own from a young age.
Kazan crosses paths with Adrius, a vampire, and they end up needing each others help more than either would like to admit.
With Kazans live in danger can she depend on Adrius help?
I was sucked into this story by the amazing world building and complex characters introduced.
I couldn’t put the book down after getting a couple chapters in.
I knew it would end on a cliff hanger but was soo sad when I reached the last page.
If you are a lover of why choose, fantasy, vampire, enemies to lovers books you’ll love The Hunters Gambit.