Trained as both a monster hunter and a taskmaster over the working poor, Anca is sick of killing beasts abroad and being a monster to her own people. Despite her position in the vaunted Hunting Households, she cannot sway her fellow incalcitrant nobles or the capricious Queen to change the law. Sensing a chance to usurp the leaders of her order, Anca takes on a hunt that no other Household will accept: bring down a rampaging beast alongside Eugen Furloc, the most hated of the Queen’s servants. An exiled monster hunter, rumors speak of his cruelty and wild blood magic that turns him into a raving berserker. 

As the hunt begins, Anca learns that Eugen is a kindred soul. Similarly trained to hunt monsters, he is racked with guilt over his role as the Queen’s enforcer. Their mutual hate turns to sympathy and a budding passion ignites as they pursue the creature deeper into the wilderness. Anca must choose between her sense of duty and what her heart wants. 

It is a little too early to talk about WHALE RIDER, but I can say it is like How to Tame Your Dragon in a world of insidious sea monsters and steampunk pirates. 

Life as a guardian to a backwater island has robbed Rhys of a normal Life. Once a mysterious mage offers him a chance to escape this life, he leaps at it. The true nature of the deal darkens and the identity of his backer is revealed as a dreadful figure of myth. Now Rhys must race against his former benefactor before their plans unleash a catastrophe across the globe.