Title: For the Wolf
Author: Hannah F. Whitten
Rating: ★★★
I’ve been looking forward to reading this for a very long time and I think this is one of those instances where my own expectations got the best of me. There is nothing fundamentally wrong with For the Wolf – overall, I enjoyed the characters and the reading experience, but it wasn’t exactly what I had been expecting and honestly, there wasn’t much to set it apart from other fantasy novels with similar plots.
I will start by saying that I really liked Redarys and Eammon as characters. I enjoyed reading Red’s POV and found her to be an extremely likable protagonist. I also really loved the relationship that developed between her and Eammon. The two of them are what ended up carrying the story for me and I found myself more invested in their romance than the actually plot.
A lot of the story felt familiar…and it felt familiar because it wasn’t entirely unique. The book has certain aspects that feel very similar to other books of the fantasy genre. For some readers, that may not be a problem but for me personally it made it hard for the book to stand out. There was a sense of “been there, done that” when I was reading.
The one other complaint I have is that I was very confused by the magic system and backstory with the Five Kings. I kept thinking things would make more sense as the book went but it didn’t. After awhile I accepted the fact that I would just have to be okay with not understanding most of what was going on. I think the magic system had good bones and was a really intriguing idea, it simply wasn’t executed in the best of ways.
For the Wolf was one of my most anticipated releases for the year and a book I have been looking forward to for a very long time. Because of my anticipated and high expectations, I was disappointed when it didn’t quite meet them. A lot of the story felt overdone and the magic was convoluted which added to the letdown.
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