This book was beautiful, brutal, and utterly enchanting. I was hooked from the first page, and the romance was the best kind of slow-burn angst omg. I LOVED IT.

A shortened, spoiler free version of this review will be posted on Goodreads, Amazon, and Instagram on Saturday, June 12, 2021. The complete review will be posted on my blog.

The Wolf and the Woodsman is a fast paced, plot driven fantasy about a hot-headed young pagan woman named Evike. Rival faiths and ideologies are at the core of the story’s conflict as the nation’s dominant religion seeks to extinguish or expel all others, including Evike’s. Devout Woodsmen from the capital come to collect magic-wielding pagan girls from Evike’s village and no one knows what becomes of them. Evike is barren of magic and is forced to trade places with another girl when the Woodsmen come to collect the village’s next seer.

At first, the Hungarian and Jewish inspired fantasy was reminding me a lot of The Bear and the Nightingale, and it does still in a sense, because a lot of the conflict in the book does come from conflicting ideologies and folklore. Some people will find the central conflict really interesting, and others might feel like this isn’t quite the fantasy they thought it was going to be. It is a lot more action packed than The Bear and the Nightingale, so if you liked the elements of folklore and the tension between the Old World and New World but wished it was faster-paced, then try this book out.

If you really like the writing of Sarah J. Maas, this will probably be right up your alley. I did find the writing a bit overwrought. I’m not a huge fan of how many similes the author used, but that’s just my preference. I do feel like I should make it clear that this isn’t necessarily a dark fantasy romance. If your favorite part of A Court of Thorns and Roses was the romance, then this book might not rate very high for you. However, if your favorite part of ACOTAR was the brutal fight scenes against strange monsters, then this book is for you.

To be honest, I wasn’t super thrilled with how this book wrapped up. Nor was I a huge fan of the romance. I’m interested to see what other people say about this, because I can’t tell if I’m being too picky on that front...but Gaspar is just kind of...meh. Oh, also, I can not stand that the main character is 25 years old and referred to as a girl. I seriously thought she and the other wolf-girls were teenagers because at 25 years old, Evike still described herself and others from her village as girls. This might just be my own personal soap box, but “girl” reads as someone less than 18 years old at least.

The story did pull me in right away, but the middle section does slow down quite a bit compared to the first 30% or so. I do think the initial journey from Evike’s village to the capital was too long. They don’t arrive at the capital until almost half way through the novel. The set up of meeting a lone Juuvi woman and her lover had virtually no pay off later in the book, as their presence ultimately provided no real plot significance. They don’t prevent Evike from finding and killing the turul, then they get taken to the capital and imprisoned immediately, so they don’t forward the plot at all there.

The pagan side of Evike wasn’t super compelling for me. I wish we had been able to see more of her getting to know her Yehuli heritage, but in the end it still felt like she had to make a choice between the two identities instead creating some kind of solution that was a combination of both. It would have been interesting to see the two magics work together, but instead the pagan and Yehuli magics felt very separate.

It’s a solid debut, but the writing style really grated against me. I’m not sure if I’ll leap at the chance to read another book by this author, but I might give them a try to see how their writing evolves over the course of another book.

2.5 out of 5 stars (3 stars on Goodreads, etc.)

One of several upcoming books this season that have some connection to the Little Red Riding Hood fairytale, although the connection in this one is fairly tenuous and the folklore focus is much more on myths and legends of Russia/Lapland/Eastern Europe. Also, the In this version, the "wolf" is the girl; born with no magic, which makes her an outcast in her pagan village. When the king (coded as early Russian Orthodox) sends his Woodsmen to take one of the "magical" villages to sacrifice, the village is only too happy to offer up their non-magical outlier as a substitute. What ensues is a journey that explores not only the harsh landscape of the area, but tensions between different religious and political traditions. I enjoyed the in-depth dive into the folklore, but didn't really end up rooting or the main characters and their relationship. I appreciated that the girl, Evike, was prickly and angry, because she had good reason to be. The prince/woodsman was also believably torn about his duties and his own family issues. However, their relationship didn't really have a believable build from "I hate you and everything you stand for" to "OMG I love you madly." They mostly argued and insulted each other and then spent days wandering the wilderness not speaking because of the arguing and insulting, before finding something new to argue and insult about. I didn't really get a sense of believable connection growing between them, other than that forced by close proximity and endless travel and hardship. I would have enjoyed the story more if there was more emotional resonance between the characters.

As a debut novel for Ava Reid, I went into the book with low expectations. However, after finishing it in one sitting, I saw how wrong I was. I am a sucker for enemies to lovers, especially when the enemies in question are forced on a long arduous journey. I also appreciate that The Wolf and the Woods man is a standalone novel. So often it seems that new fantasy books are forced to be a series when one book is enough and breaking it up into multiples dampens the plot. The gore was visceral and gruesome, but with purpose so it wasn't off putting. I would recommend this book for libraries as a much needed addition to fantasy and new adult collections. Phenomenal debut novel. I will be eagerly awaiting more books from Ava Reid.

The Wolf and the Woodsman is a fantastic debut novel by Ava Reid. I enjoyed the magic system and the way real world folklore and cultures were woven into the story. The novel has incredibly compelling characters with very understandable struggles and motivations. While the gore and violence might be too much for some readers, I think it was perfect for the story the author was telling. The ending was a bit rushed in my opinion, but it didn’t detract from my overall enjoyment of the book. The story is more about the journey than the destination, which is understandable. Ava Reid has a very strong voice as an author and I look forward to reading her next book, assuming she writes one. I’d recommend this book to any fantasy fan who likes books with Eastern European folklore elements, but I would caution them to be aware of the content warnings first.

This really is a book that fans of Naomi Novik and Katherine Arden are going to love, including myself. I adored THE WOLF AND THE WOODSMAN; the luscious writing, the bloodthirsty forest, the monsters, the folklore, the religious angst, and, of course, the enemies to lovers relationship. THE WOLF AND THE WOODSMAN delivered on all accounts.

One thing worth talking about is the magic system. It is dark. It is gory, and rightly so. Magic without a cost is convenient, and there is a cost in this world. Évike is one of the few in her village without magic, called "barren" and useless because of her "tainted" bloodline. She's sent off with the Woodsmen who take the pagan wolf-girls as sacrifice a blood sacrifice to the king. The king wants a seer, so Évike's leader disguises her as such, all but sending her to her death. But there are other ways to get power, she comes to realize after spending time in monster-filled the woods. Powers are brought about by body horror and self-harm (including digit removal), with users cutting themselves or experiencing seizures. This book doesn't shy away from exploring the dark physicality of magic.

It also doesn't shy from the romance, and I dare anyone not to ship Gáspár and Évike immediately. Fighting = flirting is one of my favorite tropes, and this book does not disappoint. Filled with stories inspired by Jewish mythology and Hungarian history, The Wolf and the Woodsman takes the reader on a bold and perilous journey through the dark, following a powerless outcast from the village who betrays her as she discovers her true source of strength: family.

Themes of genocide, ethnic cleansing, and religious persecution, and CW for physical abuse, gore, and self harm.

I was disappointed in this book, marketed as a dark fantasy adult novel drawing inspirations from Hungarian folklore. For me, The Wolf and the Woodsman lacks the joy and life that can be found in the comparable works by Novik and Arden. It was difficult to know what to root for: unfolding the world to better understand the geopolitics and magic of the wolf-women pagans vs the Christian rulers vs the Jewish tax collectors vs the Icelandic winter northerners? Should we cheer on the romance between the outcast magicless Evike and the outcast prince Gaspar, despite not finding much in the way of redeeming qualities in either? Hoping to see people come into magic by cutting themselves/removing body parts? The story was grim, grim, grim, and could have benefited from narrowing the scope a little to draw the reader in more effectively. Seems like it was written for the screen in the vein of Game of Thrones, but George R.R. Martin is able to bring moments of humor and lightness to his writing, even for his complex and unlikable characters. I think this book could be a hit with some audiences, but it did not work for me.

This book has some body horror and gore, so beware of that.

The Wolf and the Woodsman captures you from the very first sentence.

It is inspired by Hungarian history and Jewish mythology (I am not part of either culture, so I won’t speak on how well they were done), and it follows Évike, a pagan girl who is taken by the Woodsmen. The writing was rich and immersive. It starts off slow, but by the 50% mark it picks up the pace and it feels like a completely different book.

Évike as a main character was interesting to see since she has no magic and she cannot rely on her power to survive. It's rare to find a book in which the main character is not the most powerful being, so it was a breath of fresh air and made me even more invested in her.

The Wolf and the Woodman is also a journey for Évike to find where she belongs. I loved the scenes where Évike is spending time with her father and learning about their culture, I would have loved to see them spend more time together.

The hate-to-love in this book is actually hate-to-love, and not minorly inconvenienced to love. Both character’s beliefs make it hard for them to see each other as anything other than the enemy; it’s satisfying to see their relationship progress from mistrust to camaraderie to love.

The villain was very one-dimensional and he comes across as being evil for the sake of being evil. Katalin was an interesting character, though she is not in most of the book, she has a great character arc and grew a lot as a person; by the end, we understand her motivations, even if her actions were not always the best way to express her feelings.

The ending felt bittersweet but realistic, and it was a beautiful conclusion.

I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Honestly, the main thing that made me want to read this book was the Jewish rep. I love Jewish books and to have a fantasy book with Jewish themes in it?? Love!

This book was so amazing. The way it was written was so beautiful. It felt like a song with the way the narration flowed throughout the story.

I loved Evike so much! She was such a strong female character. I love how she didn’t let anyone push her around. And how, even in her strength, she had weak moments. It was so real and so beautifully done.

My fave thing about this book were the stories and fables from the different faiths mixed in. I was so excited that the story of Esther made it in because it is one of my faves. It really suited Evike’s story and growth.

All in all, amazing!!

The Wolf and the Woodsman is a is a wonderful and incredibly rich fantasy/mythology novel, so well built and fast paced that I wasn't able to put it down till I reached the end. I was absolutely captivated by the atmosphere, and the characters.

This novel submerges the reader in a landscape so imaginative and detailed that the information of the world building/plot never feels forced, and is never difficult to understand or picture in one's mind. I had an enjoyable time reading this and it held my attention the entire way through that I finished it within the day! I enjoyed every page and thought that the plot/story was very unique. Would recommend to anyone!

THIS WAS PHENOMENOL and I am SO GRATEFUL for netgalley and the publisher for granting my humble request. It has been a long time since I have read a young adult novel this exquisitely written, The world building is phenomenal, and the characters are wonderful - no OTT annoying people here.
By far, one of my favorite reads of 2021!

This arc was received by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

First off I’d like to say that I originally got this book thinking it to be young adult. It is not! There is violence, abuse and genocide most definitely making this an adult novel.

This story follows powerless pagan woman, Evike, and one-eyed prince Gaspar Barony, though told only from Evike’s pov. Evike is shunned from her from village for being denied powers by the gods. She is also half Yehuli, a race that is hated for being servants to the king. The kingdom is on the brink of turning against both halves of her identify, and she spends the book trying to find herself and where she belongs.

The king sends his Woodsmen to claim a pagan girl to sacrifice for her powers and the village offers up Evike, lying about her abilities. They come across trouble where they have to fight for their lives, revealing one of the woodsman to be a shunned prince.

Evike and Gaspar are enemies that are forced to work together for a common cause, saving their kingdom from its fate. The slight romance in the book was nice (because I love me some romance!) was a slow burn one that develops realistically in the given circumstances.

The world building is done beautifully as I found myself getting lost in the words on the page and imagining myself in the action.

What an incredible debut novel! This book had everything you can expect from an Adult Fantasy novel.

It had an angsty, slow-burn enemies-to-lovers romance filled with forced-proximity trope and the "I was meant to kill you" trope, which had me swooning by the end of the book. The love interest is also a lost prince, so say less. Not to mention that the couple in this book reminded me so much of Nina and Matthias from Six of Crows.

The book was dark and woodsy and had an ominous tone that is so different than other fantasy novels I've read. It also had an intricate magic system that stemmed from Jewish folklore and explored faith and religion in a way I have not seen in a fantasy novel before. It also delved into politics, war and a divided country filled with prejudices and violence that had me on the edge of my seat.

I also loved the main character, Évike. She is such a complex character who is trying to find her place in the world, while discovering and reclaiming her identity and self-worth in a society that refuses to accept her. She is a fighter and is brave to the point of recklessness, so we have to stan.

What makes this story, however, is the Hungarian history and Jewish folklore put at the center of the story. The author is an own voices author and she effortlessly managed to build this world that is so unique and beautifully built. Seeing Jewish representation and folklore at foothold of a novel that celebrates and explores the mythology and history was a breath of fresh air.

I have not read an Adult Fantasy novel in a while, and this book reminded me how much I love this genre. This book explored the realities of a war-stricken world that is cruel, vicious and divided, but also managed to be uplifting and magical. This is at the center, a story about identity and acceptance, regardless of what your blood is or what you believe in.

Thank you, Avon and Harper Voyager and NetGalley, for providing me with this ARC (Advanced Reader's Copy) in exchange for an honest review. I loved it!

TW: Blood, gore, extreme violence, genocide, ethnic cleansing

I really wanted to be a part of the crowd that absolutely loved this book (there are so many of you!) but for once I am not following the crowd and it feels weird.

The Wolf and the Woodsman is about Evike, a pagan woman who is the only one in her village without any magic. She must form a bond with a one-eyed woodsman in order to stop the overthrowing of the throne and to save Pagan, Patritian and Yehuli alike. There's loads of magic, romance and adventure.

As for the romance of this book...I just didn't believe it. Gaspar reminded me too much of Tamlin (ACOTAR) when he's under the mountain and is too ready to kneel to survive. Once that got in my head it was hard to get out. Gaspar is noble and devout but he seemed weak to me. He basically thought loving Evike was a sin even though he couldn't help himself that doesn't sound like love when you hate yourself for it! And Evike...she was almost instantly hot for him. I felt bad for her every time she wondered if he had the same lustful thoughts about her as she did for him (this happened quite often). (view spoiler)

The writing at the beginning was way over embellished. The author seemed to describe every blade of grass, every bark of every tree, every snowflake, etc. and it wore me out. It got better as the book went on but it took forever for me to get into a good pace of reading because of that.

One of the few parts of this book I did enjoy was Zsigmond, Batya and Jozefa. Their whole familial grouping was cute and at times funny and it made me wish for Evike to join them and choose to convert to Yehuli. To have a place to call home and safe space where she could be loved like she deserved to be.

The warnings in the book are many. There are a lot of trigger worthy facets of the book and if you are sensitive to any of them you should take the warnings seriously. This is a book deep with politics, war and cultural erasure. And I think with all those things violence is surely to be there. The Wolf and the Woodsman certainly does deliver the blood and gore of violence all throughout the book and it's super graphic so you are warned!

Overall, this book will be loved by many I think, it just wasn't for me and that's not to say anything bad about the book or the author...I'd still be interested in reading other works of hers in the future. Thanks so much to Avon and HarperVoyager for providing me an ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

*Thank you so much to the publishers for providing me an ARC of The Wolf and the Woodsman*

Trigger Warnings: Severe gore, torture, self-harm, animal death, antisemitism, cultural genocide, and ethnic cleansing.

The Wolf and the Woodsman is a Hungarian and Jewish folklore mythology-inspired story that makes this debut novel unique in its own rights. This book is well written and thought of, with its magical writing and its excellent world-building.

It follows Évike as its main character, a pagan woman who is magicless, the only one in her village. When the Woodsmen come to her village for one of the wolf-girls, she is picked by the village as the one who should go and be sacrificed. There she is introduced to Gáspár one of the Woodsmen that is taking her captive. LITERAL ENEMIES TO LOVERS HERE PEOPLE!

It is definitely a slow-burn and the story has its moments where it is slow-paced, but it works in its favor. I wished that the ending didn't feel as rushed as it did, but overall this was a stunning book and I would recommend it.

*This is definitely an adult book and not YA, so keep that in mind*

The Wolf and the Woodsman follows Evike, a magic-less girl in a village of pagans, in a land where the dominant, monotheistic religion has been wiping them out. In exchange for their relative freedom in their isolated woods, the king requires a tribute/sacrifice of one of their women every x amount of years. Evike, an outsider due to her mixed heritage, is betrayed by her village and offered as a sacrifice when the king’s Woodsmen come again. But their path back to the capital and Evike’s death is not so quick as it may seem.

Their journey, full of mistrust and long fueled hatred of each other’s religions, takes them between the Arctic north and the packed capital and back again as they try anything they can to prevent Nandor from seizing the throne, and inevitably grow closer and closer despite their differences.

The book is great for any fantasy lover: it has enemies to lovers romance, it has mythology, it has delicate political and religious conflicts, it has gods and monsters and mythical creatures, religion-based magic, long quests to fulfill their goals. But it has even more: it’s full of sweeping myths and legends they tell each other, studies and comparisons of religions, religious exploration, organic and lovely Jewish representation.

I LOVED this book!! I am now a little obsessed with it, and by "a little," I actually mean "a lot." I’m giving a heads up now that this review will be essay-length because I have so much to say. I was hooked from the first two lines (which may be subject to change), “The trees have to be tied down by sunset. When the Woodsmen come, they always try to run,” what an opener! The lyricism of the writing in the first few lines introduced me to Reid’s fantasy world inspired by medieval Hungarian history and Jewish mythology, and I remained captivated for the rest of the story.

Reid does an excellent job of portraying people as monsters and highlighting how people become monsters through education. Most of the people in this novel are educated through folktales, particularly religious folktales, which often take the form of propaganda. Terrifying creatures lurk in the “thousand-eyed” woods, but these creatures really cement the idea that humans are the real monsters because of the cruelty they can inflict on one another. Reid writes about the awfulness and violence that goes into nation-building and how religious and ethnic discrimination impacts it. Reid deftly portrayed the intersectionality of religious discrimination in this book and shows how deep-seated prejudices play out amongst different groups of people interacting with each other.

Évike's identity struggles really show what it's like to be a child of two different cultures (in her case, ethnoreligious groups). As someone who is half-Jewish on my dad's side, I related to her experiences of feeling isolated from both groups because she was too “other” to fit in with either group completely. I also understood what it's like to grow up and connect with Judaism later on and how welcoming the community is. Évike is the first character I’ve ever read who really has the same identity as me, and it was really cool to watch her grow as a character. I know the author was committed to writing an Eastern European-inspired fantasy novel that included Jewish people and their contributions in shaping history and culture and defining them outside of their oppression, and she succeeded. I enjoyed how Reid weaved Jewish stories (like the story of Queen Esther and the story about the Rabbi and the golem) and holidays (I believe they celebrate Purim at one point) into the story. Reading about Évike's relationship with her father and her developing connection to Judaism was reminiscent of my own life, and I adored it. The Wolf and the Woodsman is a lyrical celebration of Jewish history and mysticism contextualized within the journey of a young woman trying to understand her cultural identity while making her way through a country in the thrall of radical nationalism.

Évike is such an interesting character! The way she develops throughout the novel was amazing to read! She struggles to find her place in the world because she is highly aware of the systems of oppression and cultural genocide that surround her. The way Reid writes about nature through Évike's eyes is lovely; beyond it being beautiful prose, it is also a way of showing us how Évike sees the natural world around her and highlights her pagan background. She is a badass who stands up for herself. She is also hilarious, and many of her lines and observations made me laugh out loud. There were many instances of humor in the novel, but they do not detract from the story's overall seriousness. Évike is not perfect, but she tries to learn from her mistakes. As she learns to be more open and accepting of others, she becomes more accepting of herself (& how this acceptance plays out at the end of the novel was simply brilliant). It was also really cool to see a curvy main character in a fantasy novel!

THE ENEMIES TO LOVERS ROMANCE OF MY DREAMS!!! He kneels for her... oh my. Évike stands toe to toe with Gáspár the whole time and is snappy in a good way, which is important as she and Gáspár are legitimate enemies. They are from very different cultural backgrounds, which affords them different amounts of privilege. The romance was believable, and I enjoyed reading about them building mutual respect before building a solid romantic relationship.

I love Gáspár so much!! The way he listened to other people (mostly Évike), confronted his own prejudices, and reshaped his understanding of the world around his morals was amazing, and I adore him.

I’m a little upset that I read this early because now I will have to wait for more people to read this book and obsess over it. I hope there will be lots of fanart!! I have low-key started recommending this book to everyone I know, so hopefully, I’ll be able to talk about this book with friends soon. It may be early in the year, but I think this is one of the best books I will read in 2021!

It is very violent in some sickening ways, and I did have to take a bit of a break from reading it, so I did include trigger warnings in my Goodreads review.

Thank you very much for sending me this ARC!

CW- blood, gore, body horror, murder, death
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The Wolf and the Woodsman is a blend of Hungarian and Jewish folklore mixed together to create a spellbinding fantasy. Please note that this is an ADULT fantasy, and has quite a few content warnings, especially regarding body horror.
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I absolutely loved this book. The prose was beautiful, and it was quite easy to get into. At times it did drag, but the world building was stellar. I also loved the romance. It is a a slow burn enemies-to-lovers with two outcasts, and it was developed remarkably well. I also appreciated how the the love interest did not fall into the toxicity that many fantasy love interests have as of the late.
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This was also an amazing debut! It has such a level of sophistication and I just really loved the magic system!
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Again, this is still an ADULT fantasy. Part of the magic system is built on self harm and there are many violent and gory scenes.
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Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing a copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

🌟𝔹𝕠𝕠𝕜 ℝ𝕖𝕧𝕚𝕖𝕨🌟

𝕋𝕙𝕖 𝕎𝕠𝕝𝕗 𝕒𝕟𝕕 𝕋𝕙𝕖 𝕎𝕠𝕠𝕕𝕤𝕞𝕒𝕟 - 𝔸𝕧𝕒 ℝ𝕖𝕚𝕕
🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟.5

I was so grateful when I received an eARC of this book!! I want to give a shout-out to the publishers for letting me read this book early with an exchange for an honest review 😍 thank you!!

I’m just jumping right into this review I was hooked by the first chapter, the world building sucked me in instantly 👏 it was rich and had an old ancient story feel to it that I just adored! It was almost as if reading a book about the lore of a time lost long ago it has its vile ways but it’s also so consuming as you read on!

I also really enjoyed the romance in this book.. it’s not the main focus which I like in my fantasy reads but it was a perfect slow burn/enemies to lovers romance ! I couldn’t get enough of their banter and the slowww torture for them to finally see each other romantically was written so well!!

The characters themselves all had wonderful development and that’s something that can make or break a book for me! So that was a huge plus!

The one thing I do want to mention about this book is it is NOT for everyone and is 💯 adult ! This book is a lot deeper and more gruesome than I originally thought it would be! And there could definitely be some triggers in here including, animal cruelty, abuse to self and others, and genocide !

But the author Ava Reid’s writing style is so wonderful even through all the horrific events, I still felt like I was reading something poetic❤️ I would recommend this book to so many fantasy or lore lovers out there!!

This was a good one! Imaginative, unique, and one I had a hard time putting down. The female lead was refreshing in her characteristics and I’d definitely Italy recommend this one to the teen girls I know. Give this one a read if you enjoy unique fantasy!