The Forbidden Game: The Hunter; The Chase; The Kill

Finishing this series gave me that satisfied and sad feeling you get when you close an amazing book and think "there's no more". I stumbled upon it completely randomly, and I'm so, so glad I gave it a chance. The premise seemed really intriguing and after seeing a lot of positive reviews, I decided to dive in. And what a journey.Because that's what this trilogy is: a journey in another world made of shadows, nightmares and secrets. The first book's atmosphere is secretive, sensual and creepy. Smith's prose is really good, not in an obvious way like Laini Taylor's, but more subtly, like a story that creeps under your skin and makes you remember the monsters and uncertainties of your childhood. Book after book, the author weaves a fast-paced plot packed with adventure and mystery, with a side of delicious romance and heart-warming friendship.About the main love interest: I don't want to give away too much, but I thought the romance was very, very well done. Smith somehow manages to make us both hate and root for Julian, while still keeping a healthy and lovable boyfriend. No weak alternative here. Oh, and Julian... Sigh. He's both irresistible and impossible, with this dark, calculating edge tinged with softness and a hint of something not quite good, but promising. It draws you in and leaves you begging for more. He's a very well-developed character and I'm really happy we got to know more about him and his side of the story in book 3.Also, I adore the female lead. She's not particularly strong at the beginning of the book, but she's not the weak damsel in distress type by any means. You watch her blossom and evolve during the whole story and it's a beautiful thing. She's so relatable and lovely and she has this little something, this innocent brightness about her... I can completely understand what Julian/Tom/everyone sees in her. I want her to be my best friend. Someone point her to me in real life, please (this is the moment you can tell Lamia has lost her mind, which is further proven by the fact that she's talking about herself in the third person).While this trilogy is mainly about paranormal adventures, it's also a very good coming of age story. Every character has their own traits and are useful to the storyline. I know each and every one of them, which is definitely not something I can say for most YA series (empty best friend syndrome, anyone?). As the plot moves along, you witness the characters getting closer, falling apart and putting themselves back together again. You get more insight into their personality and as relationships are made and unmade, you watch them grow and mature, and close the last book with a satisfied sigh and a sense of pride. You feel close to them. It's wonderful. This book is amazing, plain and simple.In case you couldn't tell, I'd highly recommend this trilogy to anyone. It's a page-turner and all the books are short and succinct, very easy to read. What are you waiting for?

I have always loved LJ Smith. Her books were a staple on my shelves as a teenager. My copies are worn and well loved as they were read many times by many people. None did I love as much as The Forbidden Game. I have read the series more times than I kept track of. When I became a mom my son read the series. He and I both agreed this was her best series. I know not everyone feels that way. The thing about these books is they were written in a different time of YA writing. Back then YA was not targeted at adults. It is my generation that grew up nostalgic and continue to love and read YA but our desire for beautiful writing and complicated story plots are greater. LJ Smith writes in a clean simplistic format. It isn't perfect. She spends too much time giving her characters physical traits that she returns to dozens of times (spiky lashes, copper hair, grey eyes etc). I didn't notice it as much as a teen but definitely do as an adult. She also doesn't form her characters well enough at the beginning. She jumps right in to action so we don't slowly get to understand the character flaws and strengths. Because of this it is hard to understand their total transformations at the end of their heroes journey without LJ Smith needing to point it out with words. All that aside though, this particular story is brilliant. It has a sprinkle of "Labyrinth" with a more delicious wicked edge. You can tell LJ Smith loves Julian. She spends all of her time fleshing him out and his world out. He is the one character where she doesn't tell you but shows you who he is. He is what makes this book. If she had spent that same attention on building her other characters this series would be a force. Jenny is somewhat lack luster and her boyfriend is really bad but again...it really doesn't matter. The heroes Journey of Julian js what brings you back. Those scenes you feel like a punch in your gut. This book would be spectacular and insanely popular done as a Manga. I have always wished she would do it and told her years ago in an email I sent. At that time she sweetly wrote back and said she had always wanted to do it as an adult story. That could work too but there is something is something visceral about the bad boy who might have a good heart for the woman he loves that keeps teens coming back. If you have never read this before and you are an adult I encourage you to not bother. It won't have the effect. However, rereading it or reading it as a teen it is so worth it. It is a story you haven't read before I can promise you that.

LJ Smith has always been a favourite of mine when I was young. I reread it, and still love it. <3

This book is so amazing. Although I’ve only read a 100 pages till now , but it feels so amazing and so thrilling. Lj smith deserves to be hyped , come on guys!!!!

A good book from L.J. Smith. To the fan, please keep in mind that this one is really old (1994). So... You might be disturbed by her early writing, the "no-cellphone" problem etc...

Like many reviewers on here, I'm now in my mid-twenties and first read and loved this series in my teens . When I saw this new edition which collects the whole trilogy together in one book I couldn't resist revisiting it, despite my reservations that it wouldn't be as good as I remembered. I needn't have worried - I read the whole thing in a few days and despite my tastes nowadays being rather more literary, still enjoyed it more than almost any book I've ever read.It's difficult to pin down quite what makes it so fantastic. On the surface at least, it's not much different from any of the hundreds of "paranormal romance" titles that dominate the teen sections of bookshops. There are however lots of factors that make it special:*The plot is rather unusual. Yes, it's your standard girl meets mythical being, but rather than the endless vampires/witches/angels etc it's focussed on Norse mythology, which I at least have never seen used before.*Speaking of mythology, there's lots of detail about runes and the Nine Worlds and German legends, which really adds depth without ever weighing the story down. Similarly, there's some clever stuff referencing history and literature and even surrealist painters, all of which is neatly weaved into the plot*At times, especially in the first book, the supporting characters seemed in danger of being a bit 2 dimensional - the glamorous one, the sporty one, the geeky one - but as the story goes on, they really develop and they become one of the most interesting supporting casts I can remember in a book like this. I could really visualise all of them and imagine how they'd react to any given situation.*Moving away from the supporting characters though and on to the star of the show - Julian. He's one of those characters who are half villain/half love interest which pop up in lots of books of this kind, but my goodness, never have I seen it done so well. This is a book for teens and as such there's no sex scenes, but seriously, there are scenes in which Julian is just talking to the heroine, Jenny, or at most kissing her, that are more romantic and almost more erotic than anything I've read in more adult books.As this is meant to be a review and not a eulogy, I should briefly mention some of the bad stuff, but I promise that these don't detract from the overall effect:*Some of the description, especially of how the characters look, is incredibly repetitive. In particular, there must be literally about a hundred references to how blue Julian's eyes are. There also appear to be some paragraphs that are almost repeated word for word.*More seriously, there never seemed to be enough justification for why Julian was so utterly obsessed with Jenny. She seemed like a nice enough all-American high school girl - not really enough to catch the attention of an all-powerful, devastatingly handsome supernatural being. Clearly you always have to suspend disbelief a bit with this kind of story, but she didn't even seem the most interesting one out of her circle of friends. Julian being into the uber-chic, cultured Audrey or take no nonsense, super-physical scared of nothing Dee would almost seem to make more sense.*A related problem is the human love interest, Tom, Jenny's long-term boyfriend. Nominally, this story is meant to be a bit of a love triangle, but the author seems to have little to no interest in Tom. At best he's totally normal, at worst a bit of a "you can't wear that sexy dress" type control freak. For most of books one and three he barely appears and when he does, he has no real romantic scenes with Jenny. If the two could have been a bit more balanced (like with Stefan and Damon in the same author's other series, the Vampire Diaries) it would probably have added that bit more narrative tension.So there we have it. It isn't a literary masterpiece, but it is more intelligent and interesting than you might expect from a paranormal romance aimed at teenagers. It's enthralling, very sexy in parts and quite nerve-wracking in others. I'd recommend this to any teenage girl without a second's hesitation. If you read it when you were younger, I'd also recommend revisiting. If you're older and it's new to you, you might well notice some of its faults rather more, but if you're remotely into this genre, I'd still give it a go. At worst it will be a quick fun read, at best you could still be totally blown away. I challenge anyone not to fall a bit in love with Julian and not to be caught off guard by the amazingly emotional ending.

Some people may say this book is not phenomenal and is just a standard fantasy book. Those who love the Night World series of the same author maybe the majority of those who feel this way but I, as a fan of the Night World series too think this is a phenomenal book. It is one of those rare stories that I'll never get tired of reading over and over again and will be glad to keep a hard bound copy of this too to give to my future grandchildren.This is a story of an ordinary human girl who have been favored by a beautiful and evil mystical creature-Julian. Julian who want to take the girl back to her world and make her his forever did all the evil tricks he can do to trick this human to come to him. In this trilogy he forced them to participate in this deadly games for his single purpose of acquiring the girl.What I love most of the series is that it opened my mind/ heart more about love. It made me wonder myself if I could ever love someone so evil. It made me re-check my priorities and rearrange my prejudices. Maybe what appealed to me most about this story is mere pride and vanity. To be loved by someone good is really not that big a deal. Everybody pure and good loves everybody else. But to be loved by someone evil? When the evil one isn't supposed to know or understand the concept of love? I think this is the greatest compliment a woman can ever receive.