This was a really lovely, bloody book. I liked the blend of aspects from myths and stories like Beauty and the Beast, and the depiction of good intentions gone horribly wrong. I know there was set up for a sequel, which I would have preferred this as a standalone. I believe this is being marketed to adults but a 16+ reader who is not afraid of reading about blood/bloodletting would enjoy it.

DNF @ 39%

2.5 stars (thus far, at least)

While Whitten writes with visceral, evocative prose, I ultimately struggled to connect with this book. It's not bad, but it's very slow. Even though I hit almost 40% of the book, I couldn't quite identify a plot thread that I wanted to follow. I feel like a good 50-100 pages could've been shaved off with nothing lost.

I did like many things: there were descriptive phrases here and there that were wonderfully written, and Chapter 11 with the folk marriage was cute to read. But other than that, this book isn't really for me. Would recommend for readers looking for a very atmospheric read with a slow-burn romance.

"Well, damn the myths. She was just as much a part of those stories as he was, and if her destruction was imminent, she'd rather be the architect than a bystander"

In a cross between Little Red Riding Hood and Beauty and the Beast, FOR THE WOLF tells the tale of the second daughter of Valleyda, Redarys, who is bound to the Wilderwood and deemed a sacrifice for the wolf that inhabits it. Unbeknownst to those around her, a fateful evening four years prior left Red with a piece of the forest's magic, and her fear of hurting those she loves causes her to believe that there is truly no other recourse for her, even when her sister begs her to run. Upon entering the forest, Red quickly learns that preconceived notions may not align with reality, and the true villain is far more sinister than the one that the stories allude to.

I knew that I wanted to read FOR THE WOLF based upon the cover and description. I'm a huge fan of fairytale retellings, especially those with a strong female heroine. Furthermore, this book is marketed as a Dark (Adult) Fantasy, and I was expecting to be immersed into a frightening, gritty world. In the beginning, I loved the atmospheric descriptions of the Wilderwood, but unfortunately, the novel quickly lost the edge that I was craving. While I enjoyed the tale itself, I felt that it lacked certain elements and depth that would bring it to the next level. That being said, I felt that Whitten managed to provide a fresh take on the well known fairytales, which deserves recognition.

Overall, I had mixed feelings about FOR THE WOLF. The book somehow managed to feel slow while simultaneously covering a lot of ground. Based upon the unique, creative spin and cliffhanger ending, I know I'll be picking up the next book in the series (with the hope that we're given just a bit more). A huge thank you to Orbit Books and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

I am grateful that the author provided a list of content warning, which can be accessed here:
https://hannahfwhitten.com/2020/09/02/for-the-wolf-content-warnings/

I received a copy of this ebook in exchange for an honest review
This book blew me away completely! Redarys was an incredible heroine, who embraced her destiny so hard! My heart broke for Eammon at all that he had suffered in his life. punished for things beyond his control. I loved their connection though and it made the battle against the Wilderwood much more dramatic! I would definitely own this!

I devoured this book. I love a retelling fairy tale but this is a mashup of a few. It had a touch of Beauty and the Beast, Little Red Ridinghood, and Snow White but it doesn't fit a traditional fairy tale. It could be considered a Young Adult novel but I think the target audience is supposed to be adults. As with any fantasy series it has its archetypes.

It’s a world where the First Daughter is for the Throne, the Second Daughter is for the Wolf, and the Wolf is for the Wilderwood.

Red is the Second Daughter which means she is given as an offering to the Wilderwood for the Wolf. Red has heard stories throughout her childhood but has never seen proof of why this tradition still occurs. There haven't been monsters in so long. She chooses not to fight it and accept her fate. and goes willingly after she and her sister, Neve tried to visit the woods four years before. Something happened to Red, something she doesn't feel like she can control. So to protect Neve she goes to the WIlderwood and finds the Wolf. Neve begins trying to find a way to get Red out of the Wilderwood but at what cost?

I look forward to the next book in the series and recommend For the Wolf.

For the wolf was one of my most anticipated books of the year and it did not disappoint me. Hannah Whitten’s writing is both immersive and atmospheric. Pitched as a dark Little Red Riding Hood retelling this honestly felt more like a Beauty and the Beast retelling then a Red Riding Hood one but I loved it all the same. I was hooked from page one and I became so invested in the story. I wanted to know why Red had to be sacrificed to the wilderwood? Why Eammon was cursed? Was Neve going to find a way to get her sister back?

The story centers around twin sisters Red and Neve who have been torn apart because of a centuries old curse upon their town in which the second born daughter of the royal family has to be sacrificed to the wolf of the woods on the border of town in order to stop a curse upon the land. The story is told in alternating points of view. Switching from both Red and Neve and while I loved Red’s chapters because the romance was one of my favorite things; I found that I enjoyed Neve’s POV just a little more, because we get to see the political workings of the world. We also get to see Neve hurting and missing her sister and because of this she is easily manipulated and while it was at times frustrating to read it was also very interesting. Red on the other hand is alone in a dangerous place with people she doesn’t trust all the while falling for a boy she doesn’t think she should be falling for. I loved the juxtaposition of both Red and Neve’s different experiences during the time period and I felt like Hannah Whitten did an excellent job showcasing how dedicated they both were to each other.

This book has quite a few things going for it that I didn’t quite expect but were a pleasant surprise. I expected a romance with fantasy elements and this book definitely delivers that but I was also pleasantly surprised with the intrigue of the world and the political turmoil. I also enjoyed how this book tackles not only the bonds of sibling relationships but also ties to faith and religion, and begs the question how long should we uphold long-standing traditions even if they are harmful.

On another note, a potential negative aspect of this book can be the sometimes difficult to understand magic system. I felt like I was more than half way through the book and still didn’t quite understand it.

Overall, this was a fantastic debut and I anxiously await the sequel. Thank you to NetGalley and Orbit publishing for the e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

Wow wow wow!! For a debut, this was stunning. The setting and the general atmosphere had me hooked from the beginning. The way Hannah Witten describes…well…everything, lit a desperate desire in me to run barefoot in the forests never to be seen again.
I didn’t connect with the characters as much as I would have liked, but I suspect that wasn’t entirely the point. This books plot is rooted (ha, see what I did there?) in the mythology, lore, and religion of this forest. The forest IS the story. And so I was okay with not feeling this deep connection with Red and the others.
Honestly I think this is a must buy for me now😅

I did not finish this book. I really wanted to like it. I was hoping it would be along the lines of The Bear and the Nightingale or some other more adultish tale. While engaging, I found it hard to follow in places and it felt like something was missing. Hope others may find it a better read ♡

I am full-on, full-stop obsessed with this book. This is a debut? What a powerful and moody and magnificent launch to what I’m sure will be a rich career for Hannah Whitten. Not only am I now hungrily awaiting the sequel, For the Throne, (seriously, I’m dying) but I look forward to following her writing for years to come. This is the book that at 20% through I was already texting people and telling them to read this book. I loved it so much I couldn’t contain it and had to share it. Normally I am cautious and restrained and wait to finish the book so as to properly pass judgment and recommend something but I was already so taken by this book and so confident that I went ahead on my recommending spree. And, let me tell you. I was correct in my confidence. This book is magnificent. By 40% I was yelling and making noises of the volume and exuberance that had my housemate coming in to see what was happening at which point I basically just pointed at the book and yelled YESSSSSS.
Okay, I’m going to try to contain my flailing long enough to run y’all through the basic premise of this wonderful book. So here we go: The kingdom of Valleyda has long been ruled by tradition and fidelity to their religion. According to custom, the First Daughter is for the throne, the Second is for the Wolf. Redaris is the first second daughter in generations and has lived her life under the shadow of this obligation, and, in recent years, in fear of a power, she has to keep tightly in check. Red doesn’t want to leave her twin sinister and first daughter Neve but she wants to keep safe her from Red’s wild power. So when her twentieth birthday comes, she does what she has always been told to do: she goes to the Wilderwood and the Wolf waiting inside. From there, nothing is what she expects. The wolf isn’t some hideous twisted monster but a man whose power is even more tangled up in the Wilderwood than hers is. Nothing is as she was told but Red must figure out where she stands soon if she’s to protect her sister, Valleyda, the Wilderwood, and this man she’s found herself bound to.
Trigger warnings include (but are not limited to, for a full list, check out the author’s website): cutting and bleeding for magical purposes, religious abuse, gore and parental neglect, and death.
I am always a sucker for stories with strong sister bonds and I loved that that was what launched For the Wolf, this tale of Neve and Red who, despite their predetermined fates, love each other fiercely. I’m also always interested in books that tackle the complexities of religion. The religion in For the Wolf is all tied up in these old stories and I loved the ways Whitten explored how it all started and got twisted, it was such a fascinating facet of this rich world.
Though I honestly would have enjoyed spending all my time with Red and Eammon, I think it was smart the way the story would cut back to Valleyda to give us a sense of how things were unfolding beyond the Wilderwood and with Neve in particular.
Okay, let’s get down to it. Eammon and Red. YES. Just yes. So much yes. Like the number of times I had to stop to just yell and fist pump or flail was insane. Some books are up my alley, this book was like an ice cream truck that drove right up to my front door and personally delivered me the most mouth-watering treats I’ve had in a long time. I was seriously just sitting there at multiple points thinking “omg Hannah, just @ me next time.” It was glorious. There was this bond, this trust, this tension, and when you throw in their powers and kinda sorta arranged marriage bond type thing and suddenly I’m on the edge of my seat the entire time, unable to think of anything else. I say this as a very high compliment but it felt like the love child of two different fanfics from two different universes that I count among my top 10 fav fics of all time. Plus some beauty and the beast influences, a unique red riding hood take, and a strong sister relationship thrown in. Utterly glorious combo. I had absolutely no idea what I was getting into with this book but now I’m going to be roving the countryside like a town crier or a bard proclaiming the wonders of this book and making more of my friends read this book so I can yell about how much I loved it properly with full context and examples.
Get thee to a book-selling place and get this book! Barnes and Noble even made this a monthly pick so you can buy this and get another book from their list for 50% off. Seriously, For the Wolf is moody and emotional and powerful and I loved it so much. Now I just need a time machine so I can get my hands on For the Throne already.

For the Wolf by Hannah Whitten is the first book of the Wilderwood.

Red is the Second Daughter, so she is to be sacrificed to the Wolf of the Wilderwood. The people hope this sacrifice brings back the gods captured there. Red has powers connected to the Wilderwood. She is determined to protect those she loves from that power, so she is eager to fulfill her purpose and go to the Wilderwood. When she gets there, she discovers that the legends aren’t all true. The Wolf of the Wilderwood is not a monster, but a man. Red’s powers are not a curse. She will need to learn to properly wield her powers if she is to protect the Wilderwood, and those she loves, from the monstrous gods eager to break free.

I love this book so much! It has everything I’m looking for in a fantasy novel: great world-building, awesome characters, high stakes, and romance. I simply cannot wait for the next book.

"The First Daughter is for the throne.
The Second Daughter is for the Wolf.
And the Wolves are for the Wilderwood."

For the Wolf may give Little Red Riding Hood vibes on it's cover but it totally gave me Beauty and the Beast feels which is always a good thing in my book. It's a fairytale re-telling with a YA fantasy hook. You have the romance the genre is known for, royalty, magic, evil forces, mysterious villains and themes of destiny.

I don't read a ton of fantasy and I found this book approachable and easy to follow. I did struggle to get a good sense of the characters individually and found that the setting, atmosphere and the woods were more of the focus for the first book. But the bond of sisterhood between Red and Neve really came across and there is enough there to intrigue me and put the next book in the series on my TBR.

I also want to applaud Hannah Whitten for including content warnings on her website for the book, as well as promoting these on Goodreads. It's great to see these from the author, especially when looking at YA books.

Thank you to Orbit and Netgalley for the complimentary e-copy to read and review

I was so happy to receive a copy of For the Wolf. The cover initially caught my eye, and once I read the synopsis, I was hooked.

I enjoyed Red and the Wolf immensely as characters. Add in a slow-burn romance between them, and they were almost perfect. However, I am a sucker for dual POV, and although we got Red's and Neve's perspectives, I would have loved to get the Wolf's as well.

The Wilderwood itself was very intriguing: dark, magical, mysterious. The Keep was absolutely fantastical. I loved it.

I do wish we would have learned more about the Five Kings and what was going on with them. I'm sure we'll have more questions answered in the sequel, but for the length of the book, I wanted to know more about what was happening.

I am looking forward to For the Throne, and I hope the new "forest" is as interesting as the Wilderwood.

***I voluntarily read and reviewed an Advance Reader Copy generously provided by the publisher via NetGalley.***

A really interesting concept. and I enjoyed it overall, but the execution was a little choppy in some places. I'm looking forward to the second book, which seems like an even more interesting fairytale adaptation (hints of Snow White, maybe a bit of Persephone?).

Striking, dark, and gripping. Really enjoying this resurgence of fairytale motifs in such complex books.

I loved so much about this book that I'm not even sure where to start.

First off, let me start by saying that this felt more like a Beauty and the Beast retelling than Red Riding Hood, however that worked for me. There were some characters I wanted to slap, but then when I thought about the story from their POV I wondered if they thought they were being noble. I realized they probably think their intentions are good, even if it did screw up everything. Feeling that conflicted about characters made this even more amazing to me. They felt like actual people. Realistic, flawed people. So well done.

The atmosphere Whitten creates in this book is makes part of me want to go for a visit to see it for myself and has the other part of me terrified of the trees in my backyard. The balance she managed was amazing. It is not good or bad, it just is. Whitten has taken the concept of a morally grey character and applied it to something that is not a character and she succeeded!

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and will have a hard time waiting a year for the sequel.

This book was SO lovely! Truly one of my favorite atmospheric reads of the year. And the banter between Red and Eammon?! Truly swoon worthy! I really enjoyed this book. I will say, it got a little slow around 40% in, but it kicked right back up easily.

Beautifully written Little Red Riding Hood retelling (with some echos of Beauty and the Beast as well). Red is the second sister, meant for the wolf in the woods, while her twin Neve is destined to be queen. Red is a strong and fierce character who doesn’t back down from the lot she has been dealt. I really enjoyed her relationship with Neve. Her romance with Eammon is sweet and slow burn, which I love in a romance. He was a fully fleshed out character without being a monster as we are originally expected to believe.

As much as I enjoyed the authors writing style, I feel like this book could have benefitted from being a little shorter. The magic system was also a bit confusing at times since we only saw bits and pieces. Hopefully it is better explained in book two (which is exciting! I originally thought this was a stand alone). . That being said I would definitely recommend this to fans of fairy tales and retellings. I had really been looking forward to this release and even though this book was a bit of a slog at times I will check out the sequel when it comes out next year. Thanks so much to Orbit for the advance copy.

Hannah Whitten’s For the Wolf is a story of sacrifice and the lengths to which some will go to for love. I picked it up thinking it’s another sort-of retelling of The Red Riding Hood. I mean, who wouldn’t? There’s a girl in a red cloak on the cover, and a wolf in the title. But it’s not.

It’s a story of a girl raised to be a sacrifice. Can you imagine knowing all your life that your entire existence is to be sacrificed to a “monster in the magical woods that ate up all the other previous sacrifices”? I’m somewhat amazed that Red isn’t halfway crazy, actually. It’s a story of a boy who thinks he’s a monster. Ok, so maybe he’s not quite a boy anymore. But he’s not a monster, either. (Spoiler: he’s not a wolf, either. Literally or figuratively.) It’s a story of gods who got locked away when they became too power hungry – and are trying to worm their way out. Because everyone who gets locked away protest their imprisonment, don’t they?

But I think most of all it’s a story of love. Of a sister for her twin. Of a friend who wants to be more than friends. Of a girl who’s afraid of hurting those she cares about. And of a man who’s carrying the burden of saving the world by himself, so another isn’t taken by the woods.

For the Wolf is a “good enough” read. I enjoyed the world-building – it’s so vividly described I can see it in my mind. But it gets slow and repetitive at times, as if I needed to be reminded why x can or can’t happen. It puts some of its characters through actions and decisions that don’t seem real – they’re not in dire enough circumstances to choose the path they do, especially when people die. I found it hard to understand how they justified doing the things they did.

All in all, pick this up for an enchanting world with a purpose and an entertaining-enough storyline.

drey’s rating: Pick it up!

Actual rating: 10/10

“You fear yourself that much?”

For the Wolf is exactly the book I have been waiting for to get me out of my book slump. I can’t thank Orbit enough for sending me a finished copy. Hannah Whitten, you’ve got a forever fan here. This dreamy, dark fairytale was as close to perfection as I could hope for. I have no complaints. This book has some retelling aspects of Beauty and the Beast and Red Riding Hood but it manages to be completely its own stand out journey.

If you like a little romance in your fantasy books, this is a good book for you. It’s not graphic in its romance, so if you’re a little shy about it, no worries. It is swoon-worthy and slow-burning, but also packed with murder, violence, political intrigue, religious manipulation, and so much more! As a trigger warning: the primary magic system in this world is activated by the usage of blood, so there is the act of cutting oneself to achieve the blood source. There are some other content warnings that our author provided in the link at the end of synopsis above, but that’s one of the most notable ones.

Personally, I am one of the ones that love some romance in my fantasy and I’m so happy to see a woman author not swept promptly into the YA category for writing a fantasy romance. This reads like adult fantasy and deserves to be in this category. You shouldn’t have to peruse the YA shelves to find a gorgeous, fantastical love story — and that’s not to say that there’s anything wrong with being a YA writer. Take note, publishers: there are many of us out there that adore a bit of love in our adult fantasy. We want the blood, guts, and the romance!

I was sucked into For the Wolf from the moment I opened the book. I truly did not want to put it down and read until my eyes couldn’t stay open anymore, only to wake up and immediately finish the rest of the novel. I just loved these characters and this world. The Wilderwood is as enchanting as it is terrifying. The Wolf and Red are both similar in ways; self sacrificing, brave, and giving. The Wolf is more serious, whereas Red brings a bit of light-heartedness to the dynamic. Red’s sister, Neve, is a bit sheltered and trusting, but takes charge. I’m so curious to see where things go with some of our characters, there’s definitely some side characters that fall into the morally grey area and I’m curious to see if any of our bigger characters are sucked in by their causes as the story continues. This novel was a build up to a much deeper story and it is masterful in its build up. The side characters add so much to this world and I can see many of them taking a much larger part in the future.

“I understand what it means, and I want them anyway, because I am for the Wolf, and the Wolves are for the Wilderwood.”

For the Wolf is captivating and smart, with beautiful prose and charming world-building. It’s astonishing that this is Whitten’s first published novel. I’ll be eagerly awaiting the next installment in this series and diving in as soon as I can.

This book...... I am completely OBSESSED! This is currently in the spot for my favorite read of the year. The atmosphere was really what sets this book apart from everything else I have read. I loved the forest and how it was almost a character of its own. I also REALLY loved the romance. This is one of the most impressive fantasy romances I have read. I need book 2 in my hands right now!