Publication: 1st June 2021 – Orbit
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.
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“The First Daughter is for the throne. The Second Daughter is for the Wolf. And the Wolves are for the Wilderwood.”
For The Wolf is a beautiful and dark tale of sacrifices, curses, and magic that kept me completely hooked from the first to the very last page and I keep still thinking about it days after I finished reading it.
The protagonist is Red. A princess, the second daughter of a queen, her fate was sealed the moment she was born. As a second daughter Red will be sacrificed to the Wolf, the creature living in the forest of Wilderwood, in exchange for the return of the Gods. Red accepted her fate a long time ago and she’s been waiting and preparing for the day she will be given away. Red has her own reasons to go into the Wilderwood as she thinks it is the only way to protect her twin sister Neve and those she loves from her magic.
When Red arrives in the Wilderwood, she finds out that there is more to the legends and myths she’s heard all her life and she allies with the Wolf to save both her people and the forest. In the meantime, her twin sister Neve, the future queen, refuses to leave Red in the hands of the Wolf and the Wilderwood and won’t stop at anything to get her back, even if that means creating dangerous and deadly alliances.
The story is beautifully-written and it is so engrossing and intriguing. There is magic and curses, legends and sacrifices, monsters and gods, heroes/heroines and villains, romance and alliances that will make it almost impossible to put the book down. The characters are well-developed and Red is a fantastic heroine, loyal, brave, and strong-willed.
I was drawn to this novel by the buzz around it and, once I started reading it, I wasn’t disappointed. It is a dark and addictive fairy-tale that reminded me of Little Red Riding Hood and The Beauty and the Beast, but it also original and unique. I loved For The Wolf and I can’t wait for the sequel, For The Throne, to come out.
A huge thank you to Orbit and NetGalley for providing me with a proof of this novel.
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Hannah Whitten has been writing to amuse herself since she could hold a pen, and sometime in high school, she figured out that what amused her might also amuse others. When she’s not writing, she’s reading, making music, or attempting to bake. She lives in Tennessee with her husband and children in a house ruled by a temperamental cat.
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