#BookReview: FOR THE THRONE by Hannah Whitten @hwhittenwrites @orbitbooks

Publication: 9th June 2022 – Orbit

Red and the Wolf have finally contained the threat of the Five Kings, but at a steep cost. Red’s beloved sister – Neve, the First Daughter – is lost in the Shadowlands. But Neve has an ally, even if it’s one she’d rather never speak to again – the rogue king Solmir. Together they must journey across a dangerous landscape to find the mysterious Heart Tree – and finally claim the gods’ dark, twisted powers for themselves.

AMAZON

WATERSTONES

I adored For The Wolf, so, even though it was only a year, it seemed like a long wait for the sequel, For The Throne, but it was worth it. To be honest, I wasn’t a big fan of Neve in the first book, but I liked how she developed in the sequel and I loved how the story ended for both her and for Red.

In the first book, Neve would do anything to save her sister from the Wolf and the Wilderwoods. In the sequel, it’s Red’s turn to save her sister, but does Neve need to be saved?

Even though the story focuses mostly on Neve’s journey, it is told from three different points of views. Neve is in the Shadowlands, an inverted kingdom, and she needs to stop the gods and the kings from regaining power and return to the real world. Her only help is Solmir, one of the Old Kings, and the man who betrayed her and entrapped in the Shadowlands. She wishes she could stay away from him, but they have the same goal, and is he really the cruel king she thinks him to be?

“It’s an upside-down world filled with monsters that are terrible and gods that are worse”

The other point of view is Red. She and her husband Eammon, the Wolf, have now become the Wilderwoods and Red is ready to do anything to save her sister from the Shadowlands.

“The Wilderwood had lived in him so much longer than it’s lived in her. Her own relationship to the forest they anchored was a mostly amiable one, wrong forgiven. Eammon’s was more complicated, and she still didn’t quite know how to ask him about it. If he’d even the words to answer if she did.”

And then there is Raffe. In love with Neve, even though he’s always known that they couldn’t be together, he teams up with Red to save her from the Shadowlands.

I loved For The Throne. The world-building is intricate and interesting, the magic is intriguing, the characters are brilliant and well-developed. Red and Eammon are adorable, while Neve and Solmir have an enemies-to-lovers relationship full of chemistry that kept me glued to the pages. The relationship between the two sisters is complex and central to the story. Their love for each other is stronger than everything else and they would do anything to protect each other.

For The Throne is the perfect and satisfying ending to this duology. Dark, gripping, and addictive, I enjoyed every page of it!

A huge thank you to Orbit and NetGalley for providing me with a proof of this incredible novel.

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. Follow her on Twitter at @hwhittenwrites.