I very distinctly remember when I found The Hunter in Walden's Bookstore. It was the Spring of '94 and I was a freshman in high school (I'm an old lady, yes I know this). I had been waiting for a new L.J for over a year and I was having doubts that L.J. would write again. When I saw it…I almost blacked out. But I didn't. Instead, I bought it and proceeded to read it immediately after right in the McDonald's my family was dining at. I was so excited for her new trilogy that the two-month wait in-between books was absolute torture! Although The Forbidden Game is my least favorite L.J. Smith trilogy, I still loved it. She is THAT good of an author.
I know many people, including myself, who loved this series. It's basic premis is an old one, like many of L.J's books. Boy sees girl, boy falls in love with girl, boy terrorizes her and her friends with the use of black magic and super human cunning. Ya know, the usual stuff. Okay, enough with the lame humor. I'll give you the basic rundown and then you can click on each book title for a more in depth look at each book in the trilogy.
Basically it's a story about a girl named Jenny who has a pretty ideal life. Good looks, hot boyfriend, close friends and a lovely house in a safe neighborhood, right next to Compton of course! She doesn't know just how much her perfect life is about to be unsettled. Julian is the man who loves her desperetly, she just doesn't know it! He will do ANYTHING, including trying to murder her friends, in order to get her attention and love. The three books of The Forbidden Game: The Hunter, The Chase, and The Kill, all focus on the challenges and tramas Julian puts Jenny and her friends through in the name of True Love. This is certainly no school boy crush!! But you know what I think…it isn't all the Julian stuff that really shakes Jenny up. No, it's facing reality the shakes her up and changes her life. Facing things about her boyfriend Tommy, her friends, and especially about herself that she hid from before. The real challenge for Jenny is herself. Wow, I'm a regular after-school special here!

I gave this trilogy only three stars. Yes, some of you may be outraged at this. But there are other L.J. stories I like better. Let's face it…I had issues with Tommy. I think it's safe to say we all did. But I would like to touch upon the more finer points of the whole books in general. There are two aspects that I really enjoyed about these books and put them in their own separate L.J. catergory. They were unique for two reasons. The first is that all the heros…the "good" guys mean, are all human. No vampires come along to help them out, nor do they discover hidden magick powers they always had but never knew. Nope, they are just humans and use normal human strength and smarts. There is no other L.J. book like this. Not even Night of the Solstice, yes the heroes are human…to BEGIN with. But A witch helps them and Janie becomes her appentice. Plenty of magick there. Julian is the only magic one…and he's pretty bad to everyone's dismay. He's BAD people…just admit it. I know, I know…you're all wining "he was in LOVE, he was just misguided, he wasen't thinking strait!" Bull…just Bull. He was bad. Yes, he sacrificed himself for love…but I think he may have done it to save face a bit. But ANYWAY, I'll discuss this later in my The Kill page. The second thing I liked about The Forbidden Game was Jenny's discovering herself. She did this and was able to recognise that her life didn't revolve around Tommy. It didn't end with a Tommy and Jenny lived happily ever after. It ended with Jenny deciding to take it one day at a time…with or without him. As I've gotten older ad older…and older, I've liked this aspect of the trilogy more and more.