I absolutely love fantasy and fairytale retellings so when I came across For the Wolf by Hannah Whitten, I had to read it immediately. I assumed this YA fantasy was inspired by “Little Red Riding Hood” but it’s honestly more of a “Beauty and the Beast” retelling. Those things should have made this book a winner but unfortunately, it fell woefully flat. This review will have spoilers.

Synopsis:

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

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.

My Thoughts:

• Rating: ⭐⭐

For the Wolf is the perfect example of a book that’s great in theory but poorly executed. The synopsis is very interesting. The world, especially the Wilderwood, is also very interesting but that’s literally all I enjoyed. This story was just SO dull.

Once Red entered the Wilderwood, this book became unbearably repetitive and boring. The flow of events would go something like this: nothing would be happening, the trees/shadow creatures would attack and then the characters would go back to doing nothing of interest. I also found the magic system to be uninteresting and convoluted.

I finished this book about a week ago and I can’t describe any of the characters to you because they’re that unmemorable. They all fell flat. I had high hopes for Eammon and Red but the repetitiveness of the story killed any interest that I had in them and their relationship. I didn’t buy their romance because they had ZERO chemistry. There wasn’t one interaction between them that made me really believe that they loved, or were even attracted, to each other.

I decided to go ahead and give this book two stars because the writing was good and I do think the author has potential. In my opinion, she needs to work on creating more drama and making the reader feel that there are high stakes in her future books.

Final Thoughts:

While I do think Hannah Whitten could be a good writer, I’m not interested in reading the sequel to this book. Nothing from the story really compels me to see what happens next. As always, though, I’d love to know what you think. Thanks for reading and have a great day!