I find myself having a hard time writing a review for For the Wolf. The book was fine. There wasn’t anything spectacularly new about it, but it also had solid writing and characters. While I do feel like the plot could have been flushed out a little bit more, the world-building mostly made up for it. Basically, if you like young adult fantasy, you will enjoy this book. If you do not, you will probably find it ok.

The thing that throws me off about For the Wolf is that it seems to be a YA book written for adults. I know a lot of adults still read YA, and that is great. But ultimately, the genre is written for young adults. This seemed to follow the formula for YA but wrote it with an adult audience in mind. It was disconcerting.

I should have listened to my friend DJ when he told me to read this one in 202 because I really, really enjoyed it. The atmosphere, the fairytale feel (and elements) and the story all swept me up from start to end, and I’m definitely eager to get to the sequel as well.

I love the fantasy genre and especially love fairy tale retellings. FOR THE WOLF is reminiscent of Beauty and the Beast, with some obvious Little Red Riding Hood references. I enjoyed the characters in this book, Wilderwood characters more than Valleyda, but unfortunately the rest of the story didn’t work well for me. I liked the premise, but found the execution lacking. The world building was confusing to me, and I’m still not entirely sure how everything within the Wilderwood worked. I also would have loved a bit more character building.

Overall, if you’re new to the fantasy genre, this could be on you’d enjoy.

2.5 stars

I don't think fantasy romance is for me. This was semi okay but I honestly would've liked more POVs. The main character was boring.

The author did a great job with the world building and atmosphere. I like the fairy tale element. I found the beginning to be a little slow but I look forward to reading the next book.

A stunning and rich story of family and love. The story is a retelling of Beauty and the Beast and The Red Riding Hood, or at least that is what it felt like. I was enamored by the writing and I really can't wait to read book 2. I did think that there were times where the whole fantasy elements were a little confusing to understand. I felt at times the setting was too dense and the characters were not really explaining the whole history behind the sentinels, the weird growing moths. I just couldn't picture it in my head sometimes.

Wolf was incredible and I really fell in love with him and the way he showed his loved by small actions here and there. I also found the sub characters VERY interesting and I can't wait to see how the story develops within the rest of the series.

This has been sitting on my shelf for awhile, I just needed to pick it up. Based on the cover and the main character's name (Red), I had Little Red Riding Hood vibes, but it ended up being more of a Beauty and the Beast type story.

It was interesting. It took a bit to understand the Wilderwood and the hold it had on people, but it eventually made sense.

A good fantasy. I'd recommend it to others.

I received this book free of charge from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

This hooked me from page 1 and didn’t let go! Magical, intriguing, and engaging, this was a fun ride and I can’t wait for more!!

This is such a wonderful fantasy series, and the best way to do a retelling! Not only are the characters and their relationships compelling, but the deeper plot is engaging to read.

Fairy tale retellings are sort of my jam, so this book was right up my alley. Whitten is a strong writer, and I felt myself completely immersed in this read. Can't wait for more from this author!

I'll preface this review by saying that I just read A Court of Thorns and Roses, for the first time, only a month before I read For the Wolf. This is a bit unfortunate as their introductory stories are both based on Beauty and the Beast.

Our leading gal is taken by a 'monster' and held 'captive' (sort of). Which, of course, results in them developing feelings for one another. Most would agree that ACOTAR is a pretty amazing read (captivating, quick, and kind of like crack, you just want more!). The opening 300+ pages of Hannah F. Whitten's first book in the Wilderwood series is perhaps the exact opposite. It's fairly boring, predictable, and seems to go on-and-on for no real purpose at times. I'm not sure why we didn't get more character development (besides a bit from our two lead characters) or why there is seemingly no foreshadowing whatsoever. Even the explanations of magic, politics, culture, etc. don't give (or at least not for me) any hints as to what might be coming next. And given how this story twists it seems fairly important to maybe give your readers a sense of what is coming.

But I will say this... that first 300 pages of boredom is worth it! Things really change up and have some excitement to them in the latter half of For The Wolf. Lots of interesting gothic-esque ideas are brought about (although not as gothic and dark as I want, but for your average fantasy reader I'm sure it's just right) and some really interesting dilemmas and situations come up.

Which leaves me to my last pet peeve... you absolutely cannot take a big, and I mean BIG, idea and repurpose it. This faux pas is almost as bad as having a castle in your book named Hogwarts. You can have a magical school castle but it needs a different name at least!
<minor spoiler ahead...>





You cannot put someone into a 'shadow land' and then describe said land as upside-down. Like literally trees are upside-down. Now maybe it's because I just finished watching season 4 of Stranger Things; but I think the show is more than big enough by now to say that you should NOT borrow from it. Or, if your story and description came first; maybe consider tweaking it a bit because as son as I read about upside-down shadow lands all that happens is I feel annoyed that someone would rip the concept right out of Stranger Things. Right or wrong; that is how it comes across to me.

As I do plan to read book 2, I know I will have to get over my annoyance with this. As it does appear our shadow lands will be prominently featured in it. So let this be a warning instead to future publishers and authors; please, please make sure you change something just enough, or at least name it differently so that your readers aren't rolling their eyes at the blatant rip-off. And again, intentional or not, you just can't use something so widely known in pop culture and hope no one notices.

Please note: I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. This is an honest and unbiased review.

This one is somewhere between a 3.5 to 4 stars for me.

I'll start off by saying I most definitely did not absorb a lot of the world building/mythos that was given in the first half of the book. Given that, there was a lot of me just nodding along pretending I understood the bigger picture of what was happening in the latter half of the book. I did listen to the audiobook and I can't help but wonder if I would've grasped more if I was reading the physical copy.. maybe someday I'll attempt to re-read it.

Despite that, I did enjoy this, especially as things picked up in the last half of the book. The relationship between Red and Eammon hit some of my favourite beats, and I was definitely rooting for them/the Wilderwood by the end of it.

I will say I was not expecting this to be a Beauty and the Beast retelling, so I was a bit disappointed in that (just not my favourite story), and also felt the ending was a bit lack lustre? More so the big "omg" moment was resolved quickly, when I was expecting it to continue on to the next book...

All that said, I will be continuing on with For the Throne... I have a suspicious feeling I might like that one better. Excited to see where Neve's story goes, I enjoyed her little interludes.

A strong debut, but not one with characters i could feel emotional attachment to enough to care.

The writing is nice, the plot pacing feels nice and steady, and all the motivations feel reasonable and understandable. Unfortunately this may be a case of, subjectively, me not being the right audience.

This book follows two sisters attempting to save one another, a magical forest, and one Wolf. By all means this book should have been right up my alley and I’m kind of sad it hasn’t been however I will continue with this series once the next book comes out. I think the ending plot points were extremely well done and creates a bridge between the two books very well.

I'm hoping the next installment will have that special something that leads me to feeling like I am connected to the characters and invested.

Thank you NetGalley and Orbit books for my copy of For the Wolf by Hannah Whitten in exchange for an honest review. It published June 1, 2021.
I really wanted to love this book, but unfortunately I found it hard to follow. Maybe I just wasn’t in the right headspace for this book. I think if you really love retellings and blood doesn’t gross you out, you’ll have better luck than me.

Hannah Whitten show the lengths people will go to protect the world:

First daughter to rule, second sister is for The Wolf. The wolf has been sent three second sisters before and Red will now be the fourth. There was a time when Res thought that she would run but one night Red was able to bring the forest alive and since then has been resigned to go. Her older sister Neve is the next in line to be Queen, but she does not want Red to go and offers to help her escape. When Red says no, she cannot understand why. Now that Red has gone she will do whatever she can to get her back. Red herself is confused once she enters the forest, nothing is what it seems in the tales that she has been told and she can only hope that she is strong enough to satisfy the forest and the wolf as an ancient evil is attempting to escape their underground prison.

I’m unsure if this is a retelling of Little Red Riding Hood, there are many imageries used in the book that makes me think that it is, but it is very different from the tale we know, so maybe retelling is not the correct word. Well whether it is a retelling or not, I really enjoyed this book. Now this is not a book that you pick up read a few pages and then put it back down again. There is too much information and world building that unless I had a good chunk of time to dedicate to this book (like a flight) I did not pick it up. But when I had the time I was drawn in to the world and characters that I did not want to put it down.
This had such an imaginative feel to it with the trees being what is keeping the world safe from the bad things down below. I like the idea of trees being the anchors/locks of the world as I just picture their roots growing deep and how that would help keep things in. There is also a religious aspect throughout the book as the people worship the trees and they are an essential part of the religion and stories that people tell. It was also interesting that the Wilderwood had a mind of it's own and carnivores at times wanting/needing blood and I am not sure I fully understand this concept yet.

Personally, I preferred Red's point of view over Neve's. I found that Neve's POV to be too depressing at times and her naivety of what was happening around her to be frustrating. Red's POV was richer and preferred her as a character as well with her need to help and protect what is there. While Neve was unswaying in her path to get Red back, she seemed to be doing most of it for selfish reasons of needing her sister and not accepting her sister's choice to leave.

I enjoyed this book once I was able to sit down and sink my teeth into it (wolf pun intended) I think that Whitten has created a very interesting high fantasy tale that has danger, drama, betrayal, and romance. I look forward to reading the next book in the series.

Enjoy!!!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this arc in exchange for an honest review

The first daughter is for the Throne.
The second daughter is for the Wolf.

I love the idea behind this. I have to say For the Wolf was a delight to read. And while I didn’t love this book, I did like it a lot.

This book was a magical slow burn that I couldn’t get enough of. But somewhere in the middle, I felt like it lost its magic. The start was very intriguing and the end was captivating, but the middle was just blah.

And while I now know this book is an adult fantasy book, it did read more like a ya book to me. It felt a bit on the younger side of things. So that did throw me off a bit, I like to have an idea of what I am getting myself into and this definitely felt more YA or NA to me. So that could have a lot to do with why I didn't rate this higher.

The characters were okay, I did find myself loving Neve more. And I did find the romance parts to be a bit cringe. Just some of the conversations the love interest had just seemed off somehow.

I do look forward to reading the sequel, I have high hopes for it.

Thoroughly enjoyable read. Interesting setting and characters. I'm very much looking forward to starting the next book.

Really 4.5 stars but rounding up.

A blend of several traditional fairytales, most prominently <I>Beauty and the Beast</I>, with touches of <I>Red Riding Hood</I> and <I>Snow White, Rose Red</I>, For the Wolf is lush, dangerous, and smoldering (a slow burn, you might say). The romance is fairly realistic - no insta-love here - and has lots of that UST I just can't get enough of. The characters exist in shades of grey, some more than others - while Eammon is a cinnamon roll, Red is more morally ambiguous, although her intentions are good. (I'm excited to see this continue, and amplify, into the next installment.)

I do wish certain things about the plot, and the rules of the magic and the wood, were better laid out or made more clear. I understand that certain things had to be somewhat nebulous as Red and Eammon (and the Wilderwood) figured it out, but at times reading felt akin to trying to grasp water through my fingers, and would have left me frustrated if I hadn't resigned myself to accepting the nebulousness. Luckily I was able to suspend my critical disbelief because I enjoyed the rest of the story well enough.

I particularly liked the slow slide into religious fervor glimpsed during the Valleydan interludes. Watching Neve slowly lose control and be taken over by a mad cult gave a delicious feeling of dread.

There's quite a lot going on in the book - Red's hero journey, the slow-burn romance between her and Eammon, the twisted cult-like religion, the whole [sub]plot to free the Five Kings - but it never feels overwhelming; in fact, if anything it feels like a gradual, careful build. The Wilderwood is the best fleshed-out setting, with Valleyda thinner and the rest of the continent (and its history) an afterthought. I'd have liked to know more, but there was enough going on that the lesser-build parts didn't feel like a detractor.

The book is somewhere between YA and adult fantasy - New Adult, I suppose - and somewhere between fantasy and horror. There's a good deal of (fairly mild, to me) body horror and lots of blood. Otherwise it's fairly clean (again, to me) - there's more swearing than sex, and for all the UST I'd have liked there to be a little more sexy time! I did enjoy Whitten's writing, although it was a bit repetitive at times with certain actions or descriptors - Eammon's 'green-ringed eyes' and 'full lips' and 'bloodless cuts' for example - and should have been edited down before final publication.

Although it wasn't everyone's cup of tea, it was definitely mine.

"For the Wolf" is a fairytale mash-up, focusing in particular on Little Red Riding Hood and Beauty and the Beast.

Our heroine, Red, is a twin born to a kingdom where the first born daughter inherits, and the second is sent off into a neighboring woods. Said woods are owned by a scary monster, the Wolf, who has lived there for centuries--in return for the Wolf holding other monsters at bay, the kingdom sends him a companion. But the girls never return, so there's a reason the dispatching of a daughter is seen as a sacrifice.

Red leaves her known world for the Wolf and all you need to know is she meets him first in a library. You can pretty much sense where things are going from there.

What's good: The original hook of the story is interesting. The idea of sisters (Red and her twin) trying to save each other, accidentally on opposite sides, is interesting. The character of the Wolf is appropriately set up to appeal to the reader. This is a book I whipped through rapidly and had fun reading.

What's iffier: The writing can be repetitive at times and some of the phrasing is overdone. I remember, for example, one line comparing Red and her sister's voices--one autumn and one winter. I'm usually good at following imagery, but it didn't fit together. A few pages later, there's a line comparing the mother of the twins to ice, snow, and winter--and given one of the twice was just associated with winter, again, the wording took me out of the actual story-telling. In addition to some of the writing, I found the major conflict resolution a bit of a let-down.

With thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the chance to read this book in exchange for an unbiased review.

Great first novel! I feel it is more fantasy than romance but there is some there. I did enjoy the characters and the setting was great! Looking forward to the next one!