(5/22/2021) 5 stars.

For the Wolf is dark and magical story about love and sacrifice. Whitten has weaved a story that deserves to be adapted to the big screen by the likes of Guillermo Del Toro; only he could pull off a tribute to the fairytale and horror of this story.

The story follows Redarys, the second daughter of Valleyda, who is promised to the wolf of the Wilderwood through a bargain forged centuries ago. Each second daughter of the royal line that has entered the Wilderwood has perished and Red spent her whole life trying to fight against this fate. A fateful event when she was 16 changed her mind but she never discloses what happened with anyone. When Red leaves for the Wilderwood on her 20th birthday, her loved ones around her are desperate to save her from her seemingly inevitable future. But when Red arrives at the Black Keep and finds the Wolf, everything she thought she knew about the Wilderwood, the Wolf and the magical bargains that bind the second daughters to the forest is turned on its head.

The strongest aspect of the story is Whitten's portrayal of love: familial, platonic and romantic. Love is what leads many of the characters down the path their on. Love is the reason for the original bargain between the wolf, the second daughter and the Wilderwood. Love can save and love can damn. It has consequences, good and bad.

The cast of characters are all wonderful and driven mostly by the desire to save someone they love. There are, of course, wicked and evil characters that will take advantage of that and you can't help but be disgusted by their manipulation.

The pacing is somewhat slow but its not pages wasted. It did take me a little while to grasp the magic system of the world and the consequences they have on various characters. However, the second half of the book gets really interesting to read and I sped through it. The mystery and implications of certain events have left me a husk of myself; I need book 2 right now!

I ended up DNFing this book at approximately 25%.

Sometimes you pick up a book, and learn that it's not for you. While the blurb sounded awesome, I feel slightly lead astray in terms of what the story ended up being. First, this book felt very YA. Which, looking into it more it appears to be marketed on the edge, but I anticipated this being an adult novel. And this is not a knock against YA, but this felt trope-y in a way that I did not like. What I anticipated was an eerie, atmospheric book, with some grit. What I got was an angsty princess, who is of course magic and bad at decision making, and a premise that was not engaging.

Also. I know that the trend right now is to market books as "Story X meets Story Y," which makes sense and has sucked me into a lot of books. However, if a novel is going to be marketed as "Uprooted," meets "Bear and the Nightingale," then it had better be absolutely excellent. Those are big shoes to fill, and this book did not come close.

When I tell you that I devoured this book, I am not joking. I loved this book so much that it is hard to form coherent thoughts about it. We have dark forest magic, beautifully lush writing and a plot that keeps you turning the pages as quickly as you can, but also slowing down to appreciate the scenery along the way.
Did I mention the characters, and the monster (Wolf) boyfriend?

The plot is a bit of a slow burn, which I personally love because the writing felt similar to The Starless Sea (one of my all-time favorites) in terms of beauty as well as Circe (another favorite) for the vibrancy of the nature. But this book is dark. The Wilderwood and the Shadowlands both terrified me at times, and Whitten did a great job of making you feel like you were the one running through this spine-chilling forest. The bits of the story that we get from Neve’s perspective made the plot tension that much better.

Don’t even get me started on the characters. I loved our disaster group of main characters, who are all dealing with their own form of trauma and turbulence in their lives. I saw so much of myself in Redarys and felt very seen with the way she reacted in certain situations. I’ve come to learn that I deeply love stories that deal with sisterhood in any way, because when the bonds of sisterhood are portrayed well, it gets me every single time. Red is trying so hard to get to Neve, and Neve is fighting tooth and nail to do the same, and that alone would’ve made this book worthwhile.

But you get so much more in For the Wolf. We get to see past relationships having long term effects, and the friendship between Fife and Lyra, and the tension between Red and the Wolf, as well as all of their tension and growth.
If this is your first time reading a review from me, I am a hugely character driven reader, and I love some lyrical writing. This book had everything I love in droves.


Overall (TLDR)
Please read this book. If you enjoy dark books (please check the content warnings!) that have spooky forests, nature magic, pining and slow burn romances and plots, you will love this as much as I do. I am incredibly excited for the sequel and can’t wait for this to be out in the world to everyone!

Thank you as always to Orbit for the review copy!

I was provided an ARC by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and words are my own. Whenever a new fantasy series comes along there’s always the fear that it will be the same tropes written in the same way, using the same formula that fantasy books are known for. For the Wolf takes those ideas and tosses them out the window straight into a forest. I adored everything about this book.
The worldbuilding- Wilderwood is phenomenal in concept and execution. Whitten does an amazing job of placing the reader in the woods with Red and bringing the feel through all the five senses. I’m no artist but I’m pretty sure after 450 pages I could paint an accurate description of the Wilderwood because it’s so well constructed.
The Lore-all amazing fantasy reads usually have centuries built around why things are the way they are and For the Wolf is no exception. What IS the exception is that I really enjoyed the history of Valleyda, I enjoyed the history of the Wilderwood and learning the different spins on what had been passed down and what was fact. Whitten does a great job of presenting lore that you’ve never heard something similar to before and making it a great experience to root down to the truth (see what I did there?). Neve and Red- The two sisters couldn’t be on more opposite ends for the novel (serious, one for the throne and one for the wolf). Whitten does a great job of structuring how different their experiences growing up were based on their end responsibility. If I had to fault anything of this novel, I’ll say I understood that the sisters would do anything for each other but I wish I had seen more of them together so I could have felt it on a deeper level in the earlier chapters of the book. All in all, I believe the point gets across but I would have enjoyed more scenes of the two together (hoping for more of this in the next book!)
Romance- Everyone loves a book boyfriend and you can tuck Eammon right next to all your other favorites. I’m a sucker for tall dark and brooding and he delivers. The chemistry felt genuine and reading through them sorting their feelings for each other was a great experience.
All in all, 5 easy stars. Now if you’ll excuse me I’m off to find a red cloak to purchase and For the Throne to preorder.

Thank you for the ARK book. I loved the idea of this adult fantasy, but I just never became interested in the characters. There was was no buy in for the storyline for me. The characters seemed flat and the love triangle was juvenile. I love the cover. I love the second daughter idea. I really hated all the bleeding!!

Thank you NetGalley and Orbit books for providing me with an e-arc in exchange for a honest review

For the Wolf is about a young girl, Red, who must be sacrificed to the Wolf in Wilderwood on her 2oth birthday due to a centuries old bargain. The hope of this bargain and sacrifice is for the Wolf to return the five kings who once ruled. Red quickly learns that not all the stories about Wolf and the Wilderwood are true and that something dark and sinister lurks within these woods.

Hannah Whitten does a fantastic job of creating a dark, sinister and ominous atmosphere in For the Wolf. If there is one thing I love in books, it is a creepy forest. Especially one that feeds off of blood. Besides the setting, For the Wolf has really great and complex characters. Both Red and Eammon (the Wolf) are forced into situations they had no control over and very clearly did the best they could to adapt and cope with said situations. I really loved the relationship between Red and Eammon. I loved the slow-burn/taking the time to understand each other pace to their relationship.

Besides taking great care in detailing characters and their relationships, Whitten very beautiful has woven a compelling story and world filled with interesting magic and politics. For the Wolf was an action-packed story that didn't feel overwhelming or like there was too much going on. The writing style while very beautiful and description was very accessible for an adult novel. If you're mainly a Young Adult reader I think For the Wolf would be a great place to start if you're looking to get into Adult novels.

"People with power resent losing it, and too much power for too long a time can make a villain of anyone."

For the Wolf is a novel gives off dark fantasy vibes mixed with fairytale elements which makes it a very fun, fast and interesting read. For the Wolf is one of my anticipated reads of the year and it lived up to that anticipation. This book ended with me feeling satisfied but still hungry for more, so I am very much looking forward to For the Throne.

Atmospheric debut novel about a second daughter that is sent into the woods as a sacrifice. This story is a inventive reimagining of Red Riding Hood, filled with magic and strong female characterization. I’d recommend this book for fans of Uprooted or other fairy tale retellings.

There is a lot to love in For the Wolf, which is a very competent debut fantasy novel with a slow-burn romance, fun worldbuilding, and some really striking scenes and characters. The Wildwood is a fully-realized place that has a lot of interesting tension and potential to it which I felt the story used well, and it was entertaining to see people interacting and reacting to such a strange and often hostile location in this book, which is then turned around on its head later as readers see how other places can become just as hostile in different ways. The book is a definite recommendation for people who enjoy fantasy with slow-burn romantic elements, especially to people who are fans of YA novels or are trying to find books that straddle the weird adult/ya divide.

Fans of "The Hazel Wood" should definitely take a look at this one. If you loved "The Bear and the Nightingale" (an incredible series) and "Uprooted" (from genre vet Naomi Novik) you should approach this book with a little caution, however, as I feel that those comparisons might be reaching a little far. While there are similarities between them, if you go in expecting something that immediately delivers on those levels you might have a bumpy time getting into what otherwise seems like is going to be a very promising series.

This is an excellent debut dark fantasy. It has elements of Little Red Riding Hood and Beauty and the Beast but I think it was still such a unique take on all of it. The characters, the atmosphere, and the plot are all top notch. I was fully engrossed especially towards the end. I couldn't put it down. This is definitely dark fantasy and I would check the author's website for content warnings if those are something you need.

I will say I loved Red and Eammon. Eammon especially. He was so great. You could feel his pain through the author's writing. I loved him so much and I loved him even more with Red. He was amazing with her. He tried so hard to protect her. I just don't know if I can properly explain how much I loved them both separately and together. One of the other great things about this book was the atmosphere. The author did an excellent job of creating a truly immersive world. I felt like I was there. It really was an excellent debut. I can't wait to read the sequel when it comes out next year.

I will update the review with the link to on our blog closer to publication date.

I'd like to thank the publisher, Orbit and Netgalley for providing me with a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

“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 richly developed story that follows two sisters; one raised to be queen, the other raised to be sacrificed as part of an ancient bargain. Red welcomes being sacrificed as she has been struggling for years with a chaotic magic within that terrifies her. Once Red enters the wood she quickly finds the wood, the legend, the bargain, the Wolf; are all not what they appeared to be. Each moment that passes Red is living longer than she ever thought she would. If she can learn to wield her magic and answer her calling there may never need to be another sacrifice again.



On the other side of the tale we have her sister and friends doing anything they can to find a way to bring Red back. No matter the cost.



A very loose Little Red Riding Hood and Beauty and the Beast hybrid retelling. This story comes off a bit dark in the same vein of Into the Heartless Wood and Three Dark Crowns. The world building and history is excellent and inventive. It stays off the beaten path enough to keep you curious without betraying logic the world adheres to. At times the magic system was confusing or not explained as well as other aspects of the story. I would recommend this to fantasy fans of Uprooted, Winterwood and An Enchantment of Ravens.

I sadly don’t have a ton to say about this book. It simply wasn’t my cup of tea.

The characters were pretty bland. Nothing about them truly reeled me in like I wanted. Especially because at the start, I was really intrigued by Eammon...but then he kind of fell flat.

Not a whole bunch happened in the meat of the book? Nothing that really captivated me or hooked me. I was waiting for that moment aaaaaall the way up until the end but it never came? The climax didn’t even feel like a climax and all of the bigger plot points were executed very calmly. So I was mostly bored.

The other chapters—Neve’s chapters—felt pointless at times. Some of the time the information was necessary, but other times it felt like we could have skipped them and still been fine.

The world was interesting, that much I will say. The wilderwood gave me chills and I could very vividly picture it. The magic was very unique and the way it worked interested me...but other than that this book sadly didn’t do it for me, and I’m bummed.

I am unfortunately DNFing this book at the 20% mark. The premise seemed so appealing to me and when I read the blurb I was picturing a dark, compelling world like something resembling Garth Nix. This story is about Red, a second daughter, who is sacrificed to the "Wolf" and sent into the Wildwood to be a sacrifice for her people.

I was uncertain what the audience for this book was and went to double check. It's marked under Adult and YA, but many people were saying that this was an adult fantasy. I would disagree. The writing reads more YA. I think that the author did a good job building up suspense and keeps a good handle on action. There wasn't a boring moment from the second I started reading. It doesn't slow down, which I thought was well done. It hits all the traditional beats and keeps momentum going.

However, there were things that just really did not endear me to this book and that likely reflects in the rating. I am so sorry for this ugh I hate giving bad reviews.

Ok. So. There is a frustrating lack of subtlety. All character emotions are so explicitly explained and spelled out that there feels as if there's no room for interpretation or character complexity. The reader is essentially told what to think and feel, but this approach always fails because of dearth of nuance.

For example, instead of showing us the dynamic between mother and daughter and allowing the, presumably adult, reader, figure out that relationship, the author just describes the relationship between her and Red's mother and her and how she wanted her mother's attention as a child. We don't get an actual example scene of that. It ends up being a lot of: "This is -insert character name- he's my childhood friend and here's the exact nature of our relationship and the drama that's going on"...basically it feels like Red is explaining to us in detail relationship dynamics. Feels like the author being Red and breaking the fourth wall instead of a 3rd person limited story with authentic characters. A believable character/person or 3rd person limited narrator prob wouldn't be explaining relationships in that detail because they already are aware of that knowledge. I wanted more story telling.

When Red meets the "Wolf" and learns more about the world, she becomes a caricature YA character - being stubborn and forgetting to ask reasonable and pertinent questions that would make sense for anybody who is a real person to ask. The relationship between Red and the Wolf is one I am uninterested in. I felt the potential romantic vibes, but just couldn't get myself to be invested. The main issue is that the characters in the book don't feel like fully fleshed out people, but rather caricatures of typical YA characters/tropes.

This is all writing style and character work that I didn't enjoy or like, but can't really change. I feel like if I were to give actual actionable advice to make the book better for me to read (again this is just my opinion and your mileage may differ), I would suggest adding a beginning chapter or prologue where we get the scene of Red and Neve going into the woods and Red getting her mysterious forest powers.

This happens early on and is heavily referenced, but because the reader doesn't see this happen, there is no connection to it. I don't feel anything when Red and Neve keep referencing it in the beginning. If the author were to add this scene in the beginning, I think it would've been a great introduction to the two characters and would've provided insight into their personalities, how they're different from one another, and their sisterly bond/how strong it is/what it's like. Not only would it have given us all that insight, but it also would've provided some world building and actually seeing the scary scene in that forest would've given the reader an emotional connection to it and we would've known what went down for when it's referenced later.

I was so excited about this one and unfortunately, it wasn't for me. That's ok though. To be honest I would be happy to read more from the author later. I looked her up and she is so young and seems like a great person. I would be happy to support her work in the future and give her another try for another series! I have recently been reading later books from authors and have been thinking about the tremendous of amount of growth that authors can go through. So while this wasn't for me, I wish Hannah Whitten the absolute best and am interested in seeing more from her.

(2.5 stars) A wolf, a dark woods, and a sacrifice… Whitten has reimagined a twisty combination of Little Red Riding Hood and Beauty and the Beast (heavy on the Beauty and the Beast).

Redaris’ future is based on hundreds of years’ worth of legend that has been fused with fear and assumption. Her sister, firstborn Neverah, will be queen. But Redaris is secondborn, and her value to Wilderwood is in the sacrifice she must become. The sacrifice has worked throughout history. The monsters have been kept at bay. Or have they? Sometimes evil can look good. Sometimes good can look evil.

The overall plot for this fairy tale isn’t new or ingenious. I found the storyline to follow all of the traditional tropes of the genre. Much like the trees in the story, some healthy and some infested with shadow rot, the writing wanes between lyrical and clichéd. Beautiful prose often became overwrought and overused. And unfortunately, the magical system and world building vacillated between workable and muddled.

While I was left wanting overall, I do think this story will hit the mark and be wildly successful with the YA audience.

Thank you Hannah Whitten, Orbit Books, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review an advanced copy of this book.

If you took the wicked forest of Uprooted and mashed it together with a cranky tree wizard love interest, you'd get this amazing fantasy romance by Hannah Whitten. I loved every second of it and eagerly await the sequel.

This was amazing, literally. The story, the characters, the world... all of it gorgeous. The writing is the perfect blend of purple prose with poetry that I loved, and there are so many quotable passages. Red's story is something to enjoy time and time again.

thank you for the e-arc.

3.5 stars. I saw gothic forest vibes + monster boyfriend and knew immediately that I had to read this. There are a lot of things this book did RIGHT and then a few that I felt needed some fine tuning.

What this book did right comes down to overall plot, setting, and some of the relationships. The overarching conflict with the Wilderwood + Red’s sister Neve was super interesting. The forest really came alive (literally) and made for an awesome backdrop/secondary character in some scenes, and the sister relationship in this book was I think very well done. The side characters were precious too.

What I think needs a little work is the pacing, we don’t get the whole picture with the plot until around 50% of the way in and only at that point did I feel compelled to keep reading.

The other is our main romantic relationship. Wolf was A+ monster at the end but I was very much not convinced in the beginning. Not of his supposed “monster” qualities nor of the developing relationship between him and Red. It felt a little quick and they had gone from acquaintances to being in love without any real development towards that.

Super solid debut and I will 100% pick up the 2nd book when it comes out!!!

When a Second Daughter is born to the royal house, she is bound by an ancient pact to be sent into the Wilderwood, where she will be sacrificed to the Wolf that lives within. In return, the kingdom will know peace for a few more decades, the monsters that lurk in the forest will sleep a little longer, and maybe the Wolf will finally see fit to release the ancient gods held prisoner within. On her 20th birthday, Redarys, Second Daughter, is dressed in a red cloak (red, for sacrifice), and sent into the forest to die. What she finds there, though, is nothing like what she expected. The Wolf is not a monster, the forest is not filled with demons, and the gods imprisoned there are not what she has been lead to believe.

I went into this expecting a straightforward fairy tale retelling; but if I'm going to compare this to a fairy tale, it's going to be Beauty and the Beast rather than Red Riding Hood. Red's relationship with the Wolf is central to the story, and the forest setting screamed Beauty and the Beast to me from the first page it appeared. The setting is lush and beautiful, and the characters that live in the Wood are both charming and terrifying. Whitten does a wonderful job of worldbuilding, not just in the Wood, but back in Valleydan, where Red's elder sister struggles to find a way to save her sister from what she thinks is certain death. The villain is truly terrifying in a way that fantasy villains seldom are, and yet by the end of the book I still felt some sympathy for him (though whether I keep it will depend on the next book). I already can't wait for the second volume!

I really, thoroughly enjoyed this book. The Little Red Riding Hood aspect of it was, in my opinion, pretty perfect, right down to the main character's name being Red. I was pleasantly surprised to see hints of another fairytale woven in there as well, which I won't name as I feel it may be spoilery? Absolutely wonderful, though. I enjoyed Red and her stubbornness. While I was able to predict the twist that was coming, there was another that I wasn't fully expecting. Was it perfect? No. It wasn't perfect or ground braking. There were times when I felt it lagged, but it was still such an enjoyable read I finished it in two days. I believe it is perfect for someone in the mood for a darker, bloodier fairytale than what they were given as children.

What a bloody fantastic tale!

For the Wolf is a deliciously dark mix of Red Riding Hood, Beauty and the Beast, and just a sprinkling of Snow White. It's atmospheric and set up in such a way that readers get both Neve's and Red's views as the story progresses, giving the world more depth.

This is definitely a slow burn romance...like, agonizingly slow, but I was drawn into the relationship between Red and Wolf so much more because of the pacing. Watching them grow and learn with each other felt more organic and it was a refreshing change than the typical insta-love I'm seeing lately. And, my heartstrings definitely got tugged on there toward the end! (I might've shed just a few tears...)

I greatly appreciate how Hannah Whitten finished the book and I am very much looking forward to the next one! I highly recommend picking up this unique, dark fairytale.


Huge thank you to Orbit Books via NetGalley for the e-ARC to read and honestly review. I thoroughly enjoyed this one.