The story follows two characters: Margaret and Weston. Margaret lives in a small town, where an event called the Halfmoon Hunt is happening soon. The hunt is for the hala, a magical fox. And while Margaret owns a hound named Trouble, she needs an alchemist in order to enter the hunt.

Weston, or Wes, is desperate for an apprenticeship as an alchemist. He travels to Margaret’s town in order to appease Margaret’s mother, a famed alchemist, to become her apprentice. But Margaret’s mother isn’t there, and Wes finds himself joining the hunt with Margaret.

There were so many elements of this book that I loved. Saft’s writing is atmospheric and lovely, with a dash of creepy when describing the woods and the hala’s dark presence.

The story has dual POVs, which I always love, and it’s character-driven. What I really appreciated about this book is that both Wes and Margaret are flawed characters. They feel very real, and their motivations feel very real, because of this. Wes is boisterous and utterly charming, but he’s also a swaggering womanizer. Margaret, on the other hand, is strong and stubborn, but she’s a recluse due to her absent parents, and is unwilling to let anyone in.

Their personalities are foils of each other—grumpy and sunshine—and I found that it worked well alongside their shared feeling of being outsiders. Both of them struggle against discrimination and ostracization.

I thought the slow-burn romance was well done. However, I will say I went into this expecting it to be YA, and while it definitely feels like YA, there are a couple of scenes, while not spicy, that do veer more towards NA. It’s just something to keep in mind when going into this or recommending it to teens.

My only critique is that the worldbuilding very closely mirrors our world in the 1920s. The city is a thinly veiled New York. The religions are almost carbon copies of Judaism, Catholicism, and Protestantism. I almost wanted this to be a true historical fantasy set in the 1920s, or the worldbuilding to stray a little farther from the real world. That being said, I think Saft handled the main theme of xenophobia/antsemtisim well.

I really enjoyed this one, and if you like flawed and dynamic characters, character-driven stories, romantic fantasies, and atmospheric reads, then I think you’ll enjoy it!

This book is absolutely incredible. It’s filled with rich world building, and an incredible love story. It’s definitely a slow burn, and even though the plot moves slowly, the characters and the world keep you invested in the story. I loved DCTN, but somehow I love this even more.

Thank you to Netgalley and St Martin’s Press/Wednesday Books for giving the opportunity to read this incredible book.

This is a great story that follows the main character Margaret, who is the town out cast. After losing her father and brother, her mother has devoted herself to her researches, and spending most of her time out of town. Only problem is that leaves Margaret, all alone in a manor full of ghosts.

All of the children that live in Margarets town of Wickdon, was raised on legends of the Hala. The church believes it is a demon. Margaret’s family believes the Hala is a sacred creature who carries divine knowledge. Margaret has decided that she wants to participate in the Half-moon Hunt, which means she will unlock an ancient magical secret, if she kills the Hala. Being an excellent marksmen Margaret is only missing an alchemist. That problem is solved when another town kid, Weston, appears at her door asking to apprentice under her mother. After hearing about Weston’s family, Margaret finally asks him to join her in the hunt. If they survive the danger they face in nature, can they defeat the dark magic that threatens their lives?

Such a great novel with a lot of representation included! The writing was fantastic and it was hard to put this one down!

4.5 Stars!

I would like to thank NetGalley & Wednesday Books for providing me with an ARC of this title in exchange for an honest review of the material! :)

<i>“What would it be like if people would come home when she asked them to? If love always outweighed ambition?”</i>

I want to start off by saying that I thoroughly enjoyed this novel!

Saft constructed a captivating world that readers can easily find themselves immersed in — walking amongst the towering redwoods of Wickdon alongside Margaret and Wes.

The descriptions of the traditional Hunt and its preparations were also phenomenally done and made me feel as though I was walking amongst the various vendors selling fox-related merchandise.

The depiction of familial ties and bonds added an interesting element to the story that I was grateful for. The complicated nature of Margaret’s relationship with her mother, as well as the decision that Margaret makes regarding said relationship at the end of the novel, was both heart-wrenching and empowering to read.

The romance between Margaret and Wes was hard-won, and definitely delivered in the butterfly department! :)

Seeing the genuine trust between them grow into something tangible and heartfelt was simply incredible to say the least…Being able to see every little moment that helped to form that bridge between them made the wait feel very worthwhile!

*Slight Spoiler*

I would also like to note that I am very, very happy that Trouble did not pass away (I was gripping the edge of my seat while reading that particular scene)…

Thank you for sparing him, Allison!

This author’s sophomore novel did not disappoint! I really enjoyed her first book, Down Comes the Night, and its atmospheric and captivating qualities. A Far Wilder Magic followed in the same vein, being equally atmospheric and gripping with its small-town coastal setting and rich fantastical elements.
This book follows Margaret and Wes, an unlikely pair who have to team up in a hunt for a magical fox. The Halfmoon Hunt requires an alchemist and a sharpshooter to work together to find the mystical creature and claim the prize for killing it. Margaret hopes that winning the hunt will bring her mom home to her, while Wes hopes it will win him a new teacher to become an official alchemist. As they dig deeper into the mystery of this fox, they uncover a dark magic that may put everything and everyone they love at risk.
The immersive writing places the reader directly into the atmospheric setting. The whole story was told through really detailed descriptions that created fantastic world-building with intricate layers to the society. There was a lot of important commentary about immigration and religion as Margaret and Wes were both forced to overcome prejudices based on where they were from and what they believed in.
The slow burn romance was absolute perfection. It was grumpy meets sunshine with so much tension, longing and angst. I loved Margaret and Wes together, their relationship throughout the book was never simple but they always felt so right for each other. Margaret’s independence and strength and Wes’ charisma and determination made for a great balance between the two in this character-driven story.
With an adventurous yet cozy feel, this book was a great pick up for the winter months.

This felt very much like a YA fantasy written for a younger audience. The characters are loosely defined, the book easy to read, plot smooth to follow, and people operate on a very simplistic level. While many enjoy this type of book, I honestly found it to be illogical, unrealistic, and underwritten. In many ways, I felt like I was reading a book adaptation of a Disney or Fox animated movie. The heroes are earnest, they have to solve some rather simplistic issues, and the villains are fairly cartoony. Add in social commentary in lieu of nuance and depth.

Margaret Welty is the daughter of a great alchemist - a scientist who rarely had time for her daughter. Weston Winters has one desire: to be a great alchemist. But he has failed every apprenticeship and has become desperate to make money for his ailing mother and family. As a last ditch attempt to become an alchemist, he seeks out Margaret's mother at her manor but finds only Margaret and her bloodhound; Margaret's mother had left one day and never come back. Now, desperate to get her mother back, Margaret decides to join and win the dangerous Blood Hunt. But she needs an alchemist and the only one available is questionable: Weston. Can the two win the Blood Hunt and save their families/mothers?

I honestly kept expecting the story to pause so the characters could break out in a song a la Disney movies. Weston was pretty much Flynn Rider from Tangled or Dimitri from Anastasia, spending his charisma and words to get himself out of scrapes. Margaret was a more dour Elsa from Frozen, locking herself away from a world that hurt her. That perhaps is the best aspect for many readers but for me, it made the characters very cartoony. Their motivations, actions, and interactions never really felt logical or realistic in what is a very cruel world out there.

But perhaps the biggest issue I had with the book is the thinly veiled commentary on religions - from Catholic to Jewish. From worshiping icons/idols to discriminations based on antisemitism. There is a good message about tolerance but honestly the author hits you over the head with it. It came across as just lazy writing or soapboxing to not create a fresh and original world for this YA fantasy. Yet again, we have a fantasy based on British/Celtic mythology and it just gets old and overdone.

I got about half way through but ended up not finishing. It just did not have the depth, nuance, or sophistication I need in order to really enjoy a book. Likely that won't deter other readers, however, who will enjoy this easy read. Reviewed from an advance reader copy provided by the publisher.

Thank you to Wednesday Books for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Set in a world with alchemy and magical beasts. I'll be honest, the title and the cover had me really interested in this one, and I've really grown to love alchemy in stories.

I loved the way this one started out: a young apprentice looking for someone to take him in after failing out of every apprenticeship. He finally just takes a chance and heads out to a oceanside apprentice, but when he arrives, only her daughter is there and she has one condition for him to stay: join her for the Hunt.

Overall, I enjoyed this one, although I found it a bit slow and dragging at times. I was not a fan of the romance, I would have much preferred them to be friends, instead. It also took a long time to get to the hunt, which feltl ike it just kept building and building to this thing that lasted maybe 5% of the actual novel.

An okay read, but not a favorite, unfortunately.

Thank you so much Wednesday Books for the early digital read of A Far Wilder Magic by Allison Saft!

This is a solid and enjoyable follow up to Down Comes the Night, Saft’s debut, although I found pretty similar issues in the two books. It makes me think that *breaking the action for yet MORE fairly repetitive inner monologue* is simply the author’s writing style and while I have thoroughly enjoyed both of her books, I don’t love being thrown out of the action as such. I also have a few content issues to be discussed below – although don’t worry, I’ll also mention all the good parts!

A Far Wilder Magic is another extremely atmospheric story, set in a world with an interesting mix of modern and old fashioned elements. There is mystery, alchemy and magic, sexual tension out the wazoo, and a deadly fox hunt.

The time period confused me a bit, it wasn’t steampunk but the rich had cars.  There was alchemy but also electricity.  Guns were the weapon of choice, and there were tenements and factories in the cities.  One age of immigration and innovation maybe, where old and new tended to mix was what I pictured, in s place like Dublin.  It was clear that the racial and religious lines drawn were Catholic, vs Irish and Jewish (I’m 99% sure), although they had other names and different religious objectives

There was not a ton of actual magic, although the Hala causing destruction and mayhem was interesting.  I liked that the Hala didn’t shy away from people.  The other magic involved the alchemy, but more as a natural talent that could be honed through study.  An alchemist and sharpshooter had to enter the hunt together – and I again think she could have done more with the magic, but I liked what was there.

The characters are sweet and I liked them.  Wes was my favorite because he stood up to the bullies and found it within himself to become a great alchemists, despite his multiple failures and implied dyslexia.  He hid all his vulnerability behind a wall of good looks, and I liked his character arc.

Margaret took a bit longer to crack, and I questioned quite a few of her choices like to let a strange teenage boy live in the manor, despite how much she needed help.  Margaret also crumbled or stood down in the face of religious and racial bullying, where Wes stood up and was more fed up with taking it.  Both are fierce characters in their own way, and I guess when you put the opposite sides of a coin together … You get a coin.

The book had good themes like overcoming prejudice, standing up to bullies, as well as believing in yourself, trusting others, not giving up, found family, and living your own life vs. staying in a parent’s expectations or shadow.

**I really liked the book, I just wish that the author wouldn’t interrupt action scenes for two pages of inner monologue that we know already. Let the action end first or it’s a very jarring shift in momentum**.

She did it at one crucial point where an animal was injured – you’re telling me the characters paused assisting the animal to sit and debate monologue for so long? Or at the end of the fox hunt she broke a critical scene for … more monologue.  I will be honest that it took some skimming to get through those more repetitive parts.  I would have liked to see more from the fox hunt itself too.

There was quite a bit of action though, from sabotage to run ins with the Hala and training for the hunt.  There was also a snarky horse, which I can always appreciate!

Content wise: again this is young adult, and I will die on the hill that characters don’t need to go from first kiss to no clothes in one scene, ever. It’s not what I would want my kids reading.  Also PLEASE stop this trend of characters shacking up before the big end scene, it’s neither necessary nor something that all teens want to read in every fantasy.  There is some other content regarding touching oneself, a teen girl reading smut, condoms (I imagined the book takes place in the time when only the rich had cars, and modern technology was newer).  I already touched on the religious and racial bullying, which is a good theme to confront and seems well handled, and a bit of gore. Amazon says age 14-18 but I would STRONGLY say 16+ for parents, regarding sexual content.

All in all, again, I truly mostly enjoyed this one. It’s a good book for fans of atmospheric, slow burn romances with low fantasy elements.  I would recommend for 16+ and new adult readers 

Links:
https://onereadingnurse.com/2021/12/27/a-far-wilder-magic-arc-review-by-allison-saft/

https://www.instagram.com/p/CX_w2_cr9nD/

With its captivating cover and premise, A Far Wilder Magic tells the atmospheric story of Margaret Welty and Weston Waters, two teens who join the Halfmoon Hunt as an unlikely team, desperate to survive and to make their families proud.

For all of its atmospheric wonder, I found the pacing of the book incredibly slow and the storyline lacking. This book took me several weeks to work my way through because it didn’t hold my attention and I was left with more questions about the plot than the resolutions. The characters felt underdeveloped and one dimensional and for a promised slow burn romance, I just wasn’t enamored with the buildup of their feelings or their relationship as a whole. The entire book felt unnecessarily religious/political and that was a big turnoff for me in this fantasy world.

The author is clearly very talented at knitting together a fantastical world, but this one just wasn’t for me.

DNF

I’ve been reading this for more than a month and can’t seem to get past the first 15%. I keep trying but I think it’s time to give it up.

If I had to blame anything, I would have to say the pacing. It’s slow. And the chapters are achingly long with no oomph. I think if executed differently, this would have me turning pages more frequently. The writing is good and pretty, but the layout isn’t workin for me.

Gorgeous cover!

Thank you so much to St. Martin's Press for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

If there’s one thing that I knew going into A Far Wilder Magic after reading Down Comes The Night earlier this year, it was that Allison Saft was going to sweep me away with another beautiful fantasy romance. And she did just that. A Far Wilder Magic is full of a captivating world that leaves you wanting more, loveable and complex characters, enchanting magic, and the sweetest romance. First speaking to the world of A Far Wilder Magic, I think it’s Allison Saft’s superpower to create this intricate world with so many intriguing aspects such as rules, religions, races, magic systems, and more and write just enough to draw you in and leave you hungry for more. It doesn’t help that so far her fantasy novels have both been standalones. I’m so desperate to know how else the worlds in Down Comes the Night and in A Far Wilder Magic work because they both seem so interesting. In this world, there’s a cross between a historical world and a modern world, as people have phones and cars but also wear older clothing and ride carriages and horse-drawn carts. It kinda feels like it’s set in the late 1800’s/early 1900’s, which was pretty interesting.

Next, the characters (Margaret and Wes) and romance between them in this book was just as enchanting as Wren and Hal in Down Comes the Night. In A Far Wilder Magic, we have reverse grumpy x sunshine, i.e. grumpy girl x sunshine boy, forced proximity, slowburn, protective dynamic, tension, angst, and pining. At first, I was wary of Wes after reading his POV chapters and seeing him flirt and follow every other girl he encountered aside from Margaret like a lovesick puppy. However, I’m glad he eventually realized his feelings and only had eyes for Margaret in the second half of the story. The bit with him catching Margaret reading a romance novel and only thinking about performing scenes from the romance novel with her from that point in the story onwards KILLED ME. Get you a man who promises to marry you and buy you a library filled with romance novels.

I also love Margaret as a main character in this book. After reading Wren’s journey in Down Comes the Night, I was sure that Margaret would also be a badass FMC, and I was not wrong. Her inner monologue and inner journey to learn how to love and stand up for herself really hit home and I’m so glad she was able to find her confidence in the second half of the book.

I think the only reason I knocked this down a star was because the actual Hunt/competition for the hala felt really drawn out and anticlimactic at the end. Wes and Margaret spent the entire book training and stressing how dangerous this Hunt was, only for the actual Hunt to take place over a chapter and not have as much consequence as expected. I definitely think that the plot is slightly more character-driven, although it’s more plot-driven than Down Comes the Night. Overall, I still recommend this novel though if you’re looking for a quiet, mystical fantasy with great romance!

This really wasn't what I was expecting, hints of modern thrown in with the fantasy, and the fantasy wasn't that fantastical. Each character had good development but the world wasn't hugely built out or the history. Still a feel good read.

I had really high hopes for this book but unfortunately found it to be a very slow start that did not have enough of a build that kept my interest. The best part of this book was the prose like writing but not enough that I found myself emersed in the story.

I loved this book! Saft is one of my new favorite authors.

I loved how vulnerable Wes was. I don’t think we get his personality with a lot of other male characters.

Margaret was so strong and I loved her 🖤

A Far Wilder Magic is beautifully romantic. While the plot revolves around a magical fox hunt, and I feel that is given the proper attention, romance really takes a center stage here. Saft takes these two characters from very different walks of life and portrays their relationship wonderfully.

Saft is excellent at dual-pov slow-burn pining. The kind that frustrates you and makes you want to throw your book across the room (and I mean that as a compliment). She has a beautiful writing style that had me highlighting several passages, especially when it came to Wes's thoughts about Margaret.

Saft is also amazing at crafting atmospheric fantasy settings that act as the perfect background to her stories.

a far wilder magic is a book that’s piqued my interest with its gorgeous cover and its captivating premise, but, unfortunately, ended up not reaching my expectations. this however, might be the case of it’s not you, it’s me.

let me start with the good! i really liked the main characters, especially maggie. their love story is literally grumpy x sunshine, and i quite appreciated how the author chose to let maggie be bitter about her life. it’s a nice change to this trope, which was well handled. although i didn’t really get why we were supposed to ship these two characters at first, as they had no chemistry in my opinion, their dynamic changed pace and i really liked the yearning and their banter. but i think this slow-burn was a tiny bit too slow.

the pace of this book is one choice i cannot understand. it’s unbearably slow at first, with barely anything happening and then it gets super quick towards the end. the hunt – which is the main plot of the novel and what sets everything into motion, plays such a tiny, underwhelming role. i wish we would’ve seen more of the hunt, i feel like it ended way too fast. it almost felt too easy for how fearful everyone was of the hala and what it can do.

i also didn’t get why the hala was so malevolent? why it caused so much havoc for no reason? i don’t want to give spoilers but the book switched between the hala being evil and it doing good without really explaining why it acts the way it does.

i don’t think this is a bad book by any means, it just wasn’t the book for me and that’s okay. i really liked the writing style of this novel so i will probably try the author’s previous novel.

3.5 stars.

A Far Wilder Magic tells the story of Weston “Wes” Winters, who seeks out Welty Manor in hopes to get an apprenticeship to become an alchemist, only to find out that the alchemist he’s looking for is absent. Instead, he meets her daughter Margaret Welty, who is taking care of the house while waiting for her mother to return and who isn’t happy about Wes showing up there at all. Long story short, Margaret allows him to stay on the condition that he joins her on the deadly hunt of the legendary hala.

While A Far Wilder Magic is not a very plot or action driven book, what stuck out to me was it’s incredibly atmospheric writing style. The writing was flowery, but not excessively so, and it constantly seemed to rain, which made the whole setting feel gloomy and mysterious. Alison Saft definitely did an amazing job there.

Now on to the characters. First of all, there is Margaret. After her mother disappearing on one of her research trips, she is left to fend for herself while taking care of Welty Manor. Margaret is a loner and an outcast, shunned by many villagers. She is also a talented sharpshooter and hopes to win the hunt.

Then there’s Wes, who’s character I didn’t particularly like. He needs an apprenticeship to become an alchemist, which is necessary to achieve his goal of becoming a politician. He plans to reform politics and to better the lives of poor families such as his own.
While Wes is talented, he is also dyslexic, which is part of the reason why he got fired from all of his previous apprenticeships.
Wes is a flirt and doesn’t seem to take romances very seriously, which was one of the reasons why I didn’t love him all that much. It took him forever to actually develop a romantic interest in Margaret, and if I’m reading a book with a romance, I don’t really want to have the protagonist constantly flirting with other people. It’s a pet peeve of mine.
He occasionally came across as a bit full of himself. However, it was interesting to read about his relationship with his family. He is desperate to help out his mother and his sisters, but his attempts cause him problems with his sister Mad who believes he’s just being selfish. There’s one rather emotional moment between the two of them towards the end of the book that I really enjoyed reading about.

The most important side characters are Annette, who was mainly there to look pretty and to distract Wes from his obligations and from Margaret, creating some sort of love triangle, and Jaime, who acts as the antagonist and who is a giant bigot. Neither of them were especially fleshed out characters.

Throughout the whole story I was asking myself what time period this book is supposed to be set in. The people in the story have “modern” things like cars, phones, and condoms, but no mobile phones or internet. Riding horses for transport is also a pretty normal thing there, so yeah, I couldn’t figure that out.

Now, let me get into the hunt itself. I had expected that the hunt would be the main event of the book and to my enormous surprise, it wasn’t. At all. The hunt started at about 90% of the edition I read and ended – if I remember correctly – at about 95%. As for the grand finale of the book it was utterly anticlimactic. It was a too short time span to really pack the amount of action into it that it should’ve gotten after all that build-up. I definitely would’ve preferred for the hunt to be way longer.

So overall A Far Wilder Magic was a solid read, but if you’re looking for an action ridden fantasy novel that will blow your mind, you might want to sit this one out.

A stunning sophomore novel from Saft, after loving Down Comes the Night I had high hopes for this novel and they were definitely met. Beautiful, lush writing and top notch yearning which I’ve come to expect from any book written by this author. Can’t wait for her third story!

This book is so so tender, it made my heart ache. I want to hold Wes and Margaret close and just protect them. Gorgeous writing, the BEST pining and longing I have read in a while - I am undone by this love. Just such a beautiful book.