Two Girls and Friends Buddy Read: For The Wolf by Hannah Whitten

 

For the month of August we had chosen For The Wolf by Hannah Whitten

Let’s get a quick run down of what its about

Synopsis:

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

For fans of Uprooted and The Bear and the Nightingale comes a dark, sweeping debut fantasy novel about a young woman who must be sacrificed to the legendary Wolf of the Wood to save her kingdom. But not all legends are true, and the Wolf isn't the only danger lurking in the Wilderwood.

As the only Second Daughter born in centuries, Red has one purpose—to be sacrificed to the Wolf in the Wood in the hope he'll return the world's captured gods.

Red is almost relieved to go. Plagued by a dangerous power she can't control, at least she knows that in the Wilderwood, she can't hurt those she loves. Again.

But the legends lie. The Wolf is a man, not a monster. Her magic is a calling, not a curse. And if she doesn't learn how to use it, the monsters the gods have become will swallow the Wilderwood—and her world—whole.

Let’s get into the nit and gritty

Where to start. Hmmm. I finished this one Friday afternoon and had to take the rest of the evening and Saturday morning to figure out my feelings for this one. I can’t say that I loved it but I also didn’t hate it. I’ll start with the negatives and leave you with a positive. 

What I enjoyed in the story was the magic system. I really enjoyed the world she built and how the magic worked in the wilder-woods. It was very messy and took a little rereading some paragraphs to understand what the magic was. I still have found some areas of the magic system odd and hard to understand but since I’m not a stickler for absolute perfection it doesn’t bug me. Another thing I enjoyed was the build-up. Truthfully if she didn’t have a couple of build-ups I would have probably have put this down and walked away. It kept my interest enough to deal with the negatives that irked me. 

The Negatives: in my option, the writing style was the biggest problem. It wasn’t my favorite kind of writing. I felt that it was overly descriptive but then some of the descriptions didn’t make sense.. This one “He tasted like green things” and then didn’t describe said green things. So he tasted like what??? avocado? Broccoli? Green crayon? Weeds?  Un-ripped bananas? I found a couple of those sentences and was stumped. Lady if you're going to be one who describes every little thing then please make sure you do just that. I also knew Red and Eammon would end up together. But can we build their story together? Quick glances across the room. Accidental hand touches, late-night talks in the library? No, instead One minute they were new to each other, she was always sleeping, why he’s always in the library but then the next they were making out in the forest and had a brilliant idea to marry cuz the forest creepy whispered that two is better than one. I didn’t see any build to grow a relationship. Maybe it was overshadowed by her trying to build the world, but the relationship felt very flat to me. They had no dimension. Again my option.

I really do love wolf books so tell me your favorite Wolfie reads?

 

TEE'S THOUGHTS

I really wanted to like this book. Heck, I even suggested it to Ro to read. I loved the concept of the whole second daughter being given to the wolf, and the first daughter kind of inheriting the kingdom so to speak. I liked it even better when I found out that the sisters were twins. How much does that suck? You're the second daughter by mere minutes.

I have to agree with Ro, her writing was way over descriptive for my taste. I realize you have to build a world, but I read to chapter 13 and I still felt that all I was learning was that this castle or whatever Eammon lived in was just full of moss and twigs. I needed something to happen. I also didn't understand a damn thing that was going on to be honest, maybe because nothing was? After Red walked into the forest, I was totally lost from there on out.

I hate to say I DNF'd the book at about Chapter 13. I tried. I put it down several times and picked it back up. I re-read things because I thought I was missing something, but then seemed to still be missing whatever it was. It just wasn't for me

The cover is pretty though!