Review: For the Wolf by Hannah Whitten

For the Wolf by Hannah Whitten is an atmospheric Red Riding Hood/Beauty and the Beast style fairy tale that tells the story of Redarys, a second-born royal daughter who is forced by a magical pact to be taken as a hostage of the darkly magical Wilderwood when she comes of age. The Wilderwood is an ancient magical forest that is containing evil forces. It is governed by Eammon, The Wolf, who can call upon its magic to maintain its balance against the shadow realm.

Characters

Red, who has always known that her fate as a second daughter would be to be bound to the Wilderwood, is likable enough. She displays some core main YA character traits such as a certain amount of stubbornness and headstrong behavior, but without being obnoxious. She is also devoted to her sister Neve, whose perspective we also see a little bit of in interludes. Neve is determined to get Red back and will stop at nothing to do so, providing an interesting overlap between the characters.

The other main character is Eammon, the wolf, who Red thinks will be a monster but who is just a broody immortal magical forest warden. He is a bit uncommunicative at times, but is actually pretty nice and non-problematic and gets points for that.

There are also some side characters who help Eammon manage the woods and a few characters at the royal court. The ones at court were somehow more memorable to me, even though they had less time on the page. Overall, all of the side characters were a little flatter and seemed to mostly exist to progress the plot or to aid Red/Eammon as needed.

Plot & Worldbuilding

In terms of the plot, the majority is focused on Red as she tries to navigate her relationship with the forest and Eammon, its guardian. A lot of what she thinks she knows are just myths and legends and not facts, and since Eammon seems predisposed to withholding rather than sharing information, there is a lot for Red to learn. There are also interludes that show what her sister Neve is getting up to back at home, and although I see why these are included, they did somewhat slow down the pacing for me.

Overall, the worldbuilding was deep enough to capture me. I thought that it was more detailed than many other similar books that I have read recently. There was still a lot left to be explored, particularly outside of the Wilderwood, but some of that may be intended for sequels.

Romance

Let’s be honest, the romance is mostly what I was here for. There is a slow-burn between Red and Eammon and I liked the buildup of tension between them. Their first kiss felt fairly earned, although I would have liked to have known Eammon a little better. The book is closed door, so no smutty smut on the page, though things are implied to happen.

Overall

OK, so this is marketed as Adult and not YA, but… I can’t really see the difference. The character is like 19 or 20. The romance is decidedly closed-door. And while the prose was somewhat more elevated than what you might find in a lot of YA, there are definitely some YA stories with beautiful prose (Holly Black, for example). Basically, this felt like a marketing choice. Typically if something is adult, I want it to be, well, more adult.

That being said, overall, it was lovely and atmospheric. I enjoyed reading it and if some parts did seem a little slow, I did still care about finding out what happened next. So this is getting ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5/5 stars from me and I will definitely be reading the sequel.