After reading and loving the story Foundling by Diana Peterfreund in Brave New Love: 13 Dystopian Tales of Desire, I decided to see what else she had written. After reviewing the offerings, I decided to give the Killer Unicorns series a try.
Yes. I know. You read that right. The Killer Unicorns Series. You, too, can give it a try if you wish. You can find it HERE.
All in all, I loved the book. It took me quite awhile to suspend my disbelief about a) unicorns, b) killer unicorns, and c) unicorns in the middle of Rome, but once I managed it, the book was really fun, thrilling, and a page turner. It read very much as a young adult novel, which is fine since that is the target audience, but I think that anyone with the ability to actively suspend disbelief and embrace something fantastical for the sake of an adventure will enjoy this novel. As I was reading, I was reminded of my youth when reading was the most captivating for me. I still love to read, and I still think that reading is one of the best ways to spend time, but it has been a long time since I was able to read a book with the same suspension of disbelief that I was able to achieve when I was, say, 12 or 13.
This book, when I was able to put my adult disbelief aside, took me to that magical realm of reading that I remember from that age. It was exciting, sweet, silly, and serious at times. The only mild complaint I might have is that the ‘reluctant heroine’ trope was a bit worn out, but it wasn’t as if I didn’t understand the heroine’s reluctance. The requirements for the job of Killer Unicorn Hunter aren’t fun — virginity and probable death? Yeah.
As a reader and writer of fanfiction, I admit that several times I wondered if this book started out as a seed of Buffy the Vampire Slayer fanfiction, but I couldn’t draw conclusive parallels between any of the characters. I only think this warrants mentioning because I believe a person who enjoyed Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and could suspend disbelief to the point of loving that show, could also really enjoy this book.
I haven’t read the second in the series yet, but I look forward to it very much.
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And, as a reminder, my book with Keira Andrews, Earthly Desires, comes out tomorrow! It is most definitely not a Young Adult book, but for those of you of proper adult age, do please consider buying it! 🙂
Leta Blake 
I would imagine it hard to believe unicorns as killers, since so much folklore has been written about how marvelous they are! That said, I love the book cover. The sword is absolutely fabulous. I might actually give it a read! 🙂
I grew to truly enjoy it. At the time, I was super busy–when am I not–and could only read it at bedtime. I got to the point where I was waking up every morning looking forward to bedtime so that I could spend a little more time in the universe of killer unicorns. 🙂 If you read it and like it, let me know!