I received an advanced reader's copy of For the Wolf by Hannah Whitten from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was the first book by Hannah Whitten that I read and I didn’t know what to expect. Happily, I was immediately hooked.

The world-building was easy to follow and engrossing from the start. Whitten’s imagery through words creates a visceral reaction in the reader. You want to empathize with Redarys (Red), the sacrificial Second Daughter, and Eammon, the Wolf, as you learn why they were brought together and what they need to do to keep their world safe.

The plot moves swiftly, the characters pull you in, and the wordsmithing by Hannah Whitten is simply gorgeous. Everything about For the Wolf pulled me in. I was surprised at the amount of time that had passed from the beginning to the end of this novel - I was that engaged, time felt like it stood still.

I am excited to have a new author to follow and cannot wait to read the next novel by Hannah Whitten.

This was one of my most anticipated reads of 2021. I think Hannah's writing is gorgeous and I was so thrilled to get this book early. The premise is fascinating right off the bat - a unique combination of Little Red Riding Hood and Beauty and the Beast. I love a good retelling and this one was original enough to hold my interest. I also loved the familial themes, the slow-burn romance, and the ending that left me ready and waiting for book two.
I also loved Red. She's bold and brash and determined, but she's also kind. She loves her family and her sister and that really influences her relationship with Eammon in a really interesting way.

There were times where I wanted the pacing to pick up a bit or Red to be more proactive about her circumstances - there's a lot of waiting and wandering as she finds out bits of information along the way. However, Hannah's writing was beautiful, so I never minded the extra scenes too much. Overall, this was enjoyable and I'm definitely going to read the second one.

For the wolf starts out slowly, but that's okay because while using beautifully constructed language, it is building and creating a unique world where the first daughter rules and becomes the queen, but what's a second daughter to do? Well, she is sacrificed to the wolf. But that's where the plot twists. The wolf is actually kind, and owns a fantastic library (Beauty and Beast vibes are very strong here), and doesn't have as much power as all the people thought he had. In fact, as Red discovers the more time she spends in the woods, that there is something more going on, something that needs her and the powers she is finally beginning to reckon with.
Overall, this was a lovely mesh of fairy tales with a spin that was all its own. I am looking forward to the next installment, and think that this book is a lovely tale for a dark, winter night.

**3.5-stars**

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

As the second daughter to the Queen, Red has always known her fate. While her sister will inherit the throne, Red will be sacrificed to the Wilderwood and the monster within. In her kingdom it is believed that the Wolf of the Wood has the ability to release the world's captured Gods, and that with Red's sacrifice, he may choose to do that. Thus, Red could essentially be the savior of the world.

It's never worked before, but now could be the time.

Red doesn't know about all that, but she is hiding a mysterious gift that is quite dangerous. Because of this, she is ready and willing to go, if only to protect her friends and family from the magic that lies within her. Upon entering the Wilderwood, Red quickly discovers it isn't at all what she expected. Sure, it's dangerous, but she was planning on instant death. Not so much.

Also, the Wolf, he's not a beast, he's a man who lives in a castle, has an incredible library, two humorous roommates, a magical mirror and he needs some help. Is this starting to sound like anyone you know?

For some reason going into this, I expected a Little Red Riding Hood retelling, but it's straight-up, Beauty and the Beast; my favorite fairy tale of all time. I smiled every time I discovered another connection.

This is wildly creative. I loved the entire atmosphere of the Wilderwood and the Wolf's castle. It's dark, dank, murky and dangerous. The root magic, or earth magic, that Red and the Wolf had is quite captivating. I really enjoyed that aspect.

Red and the Wolf's slow burn romance was also enjoyable, although when I say slow, I mean SLOW. For me, it dragged on too long. I almost feel like this could have been broken into two books. While I liked all of the content, it failed to keep me entirely engaged. I was constantly checking to see how many pages I had left.

However, it's good. It is a well thought out story with some great world creation, so please do not let my one small grievance affect whether or not you pick this book up. In fact, please pick this book up. I want to hear your thoughts!

If you enjoy Fantasy with interesting magic systems, you could end up loving this. Particularly if you are a fan of slow-burn romance. I am absolutely planning to continue on with this story. There's some complicated political maneuverings occuring, as well as intense family drama, so I can't wait to see how that plays out.

Looking forward to it!

Thank you so much to Orbit Books for granting my wish! I actually had preordered this title, so had already read it by the time this came through. Nevertheless, I truly appreciate the opportunity. Looking forward to picking up the next installment!

This book was a pleasant surprise. I went in expecting a story very much themed in the Red Riding Hood fairytale, and while the elements are there, the author twists the story in such a way that is also could be themed as a Beauty & the Beast retelling. The reader discovers these twists along with Red, that the Wolf isn't traditionally big and bad, and that he needs her help to save the world. I really fell in love with both Wolf and Red, as well as all the ancillary characters. I cannot wait for the second book!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this arc.

I absolutely loved this book. It sucked me in immediately. I never wanted to put it down. I adored Eammon and Red. It was a darker story than I was anticipating, but it made it all the better. I bought a copy for myself when Fox and Wit featured it in their book box. :)

4.5 ⭐️

If I had to describe For the Wolf, I’d say it’s a combination of Little Red Riding Hood meets Beauty and the Beast with a paganesque twist reminiscent of The Green Man.

I’ll be honest though, I had no fucking clue what was going on for the majority of this book. Seriously until like 75-80% I didn’t know where the plot was leading me, all I knew was that I must follow. There’s just something about it that roots (see what I did there 😉) it’s way in and keeps you engaged while slowly revealing the plot.

Overall I found For the Wolf to be beautifully written with excellent world building and well crafted characters, and I look forward to reading more of this series!

I was drawn to this book by the cover, title and description. I love stories like this and this one didn’t disappoint. The story follows two sisters on their separate paths. The descriptions of the wilderwood were fantastic and there was a real atmosphere or darkness and danger present throughout the whole book. The romance was very well done. There was action and suspense throughout and overall I really enjoyed this book. I’m definitely looking forward to book two! Just can’t get over how pretty the cover is!

So what happened was I finished The Wolf and The Woodsman, and needed more wolves and woods. How I became aware of this book, was that I had been following the author, Hannah Whitten, on social media for a while leading up to the release of For The Wolf. The two wolf and woods books were very different, but I did enjoy each in their own way.

This book may not be a YA, but it did feel like one throughout. The layout and characters just felt classically YA in every way. As someone who has read a lot of it, that’s fine with me for the most part. I felt that I needed to warm up to this book for a little longer than I’d have liked, but once it found its stride it ended up capturing my interest. As a debut book for an author, it was pretty impressive, and I am interested to see where the sequel takes me.

I enjoy keeping my reviews as vague as I can because I don’t really like to be spoiler-y and also it’s the best way for me to express how I felt about the book as a whole. This particular book is described very well in the summary, so I just think it’s a little superfluous to run through it piece by piece.

To close out, I recommend this book to a certain crowd because while I did like it, I definitely didn’t love it. First and foremost, give this a try if you’re a reylo or Adam Driver enthusiast; iykyk. I would also rec this to avid lovers of YA fantasy, this will really tick all of your boxes. The parts of me most interested in those things very much appreciated For The Wolf! I hope that helps in deciding whether this might be a good book for you.

My Rating: 3.5

This book was an incredible read. It's creepy and the characters are well developed. I need the next book immediately!!!!

An atmospheric fantasy romance that starts at a run and never slows down. A must read. Whitten knows how to create ambiance that drips in thorns and desire all the while having a story that doesn’t suffer from it one bit. Whitten will be a must read for anyone who is a fan of fantasy romance.

Ok. Retelling of Beauty and the Beast mixed with Little Red Ridding hood?! Yes please! I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I think that some of the characters could have been better fleshed out, but I still enjoyed it and I will be waiting for the sequel.

I loved this book. It brought me down familiar tropes, but then led me into a forest of trees with teeth and a wolf that may not be so bad after all. Great story and I can't wait for more from this author. This has been a repeat recommendation to all of my customers at the store who love fantasy.

For the Wolf is a debut novel that’s a retelling of Little Red Riding Hood. I enjoyed how the chapters swapped between sisters so we could get an omniscient view of what was going on. I had a rough time connecting with the characters until there was more romance between Red and Wolf, I thought the beginning was slow, but the ending picked up and was more enjoyable than I was expecting.

Okay, I was not prepared to fall in love with this book. Red is a second daughter, and therefore must be sacrificed to the Wolf in the wildwood in hopes that he will return their 5 lost kings. While Red's sister Neve would rather she run away, Red already has a connect to the wildwood and has seen how harmful its power can be... especially in her own hands.

The world building in this book was absolutely enchanting. Red and Neve definitely gave me Frozen vibes in the since that they both wanted to protect the other sister, and were willing to put themselves in harms way to make that happen.

I loved Wolf and all the characters in the wildwoods. The magic explained in the book was really interesting as well, and something I've been seeing in fantasy more lately. Like magic is more finite or requires a sacrifice. This definitely raises the stakes a ton and made me much more interested to see how things played out.

I'm really glad to hear this is only the first book in this series because I definitely need more.

This book gave serious Beauty and the Beast vibes: the Wolf is a man and not a beast who lives in a castle surrounded by spooky woods with a library, a magical mirror, and is trapped in some kind of curse.

The beginning and build up to Red being sent away held my interest and provided just enough information to keep things mysterious. However, as the book went on, there didn't end up being much clarity until nearly the end of the book and even then there are still things that didn't feel fully explained especially the magic elements. It felt like things were new elements constantly being added and made it hard to understand exactly what was happening. Red's interactions with the Wolf (and really everyone else) seemed repetitive and their romance was S L O W. I would have liked more world building and more depth to the characters.

This book was so incredibly difficult to get through because of how boring it was. It was so dragged out and there was too much repetitiveness. If I have to read about one more white tree being covered in rot I’m going to rip my hair out. None of the characters were interesting and I honestly didn’t care for any of them.

I was surprised how much I liked this. I think it's meant to be a retelling of Little Red Riding Hood, considering the main character is literally named Red and she is sent as a sacrifice to someone known as "The Wolf." But it also has shades of Beauty and the Beast and just general fairy tale retelling vibes. I really liked Red (Redarys) as a character, and particularly liked how she decided to take control over her magic and work with the Wolf to heal the Wilderwood, the forest in which they live. The mythology and world-building was really cool here, and I really hope there's going to be a second novel based on how this one ended. I wanted to know a lot more about the Five Kings and the history of that whole situation, and the epilogue here set up some solid potential for that in a sequel.

For the Wolf by Hannah Whitten is one of those books I don't know what to feel about. Any retelling of Red Riding Hood entices me and since it was being published by Orbit (a.k.a my favorite adult fantasy publisher), I was really looking forward to reading it. The book is really atmospheric, like one would expect, and the imagery is beautiful. The characters, however, were okay and I sort of lost interest in the middle due to the pacing. In the end, my opinion about the book was...lukewarm. I neither loved it nor hated it but I'm looking forward to the sequel, nevertheless.

Rating: 3/5.

I’m not sure how I feel about this. There seemed to be too much random action that didn’t seem cohesive.

I kinda had to force myself though parts of this one. But at the same time still enjoyed the writing for other parts.

Red was an alright character but I don’t really see how her and Wolfs relationship even got to where it did even though this book was so long. They didn’t really have any meaningful interactions except when one of them was about to be murdered.

I may or may not read the sequel. I did like Neve a decent amount and I’m assuming the next book will be about her.