This was a solid read! Not one that I'd necessarily reread, but one that I enjoyed while reading. I liked the Vila, and I loved learning more about them as the book progressed. They were a piece of folklore I knew nothing about, so I liked seeing them prioritized. I also liked the characters, although Fanya's chapters bugged me. Altogether, a fun book!

Book Review…The Wolves Are Watching by Natalie Lund

The night little Madison disappears from her crib, Luce sees a pair of eyes, two points of gold deep in the forest behind her house and feels certain they belong to a wolf. Her town, Picnic, Illinois, is not the kind of place where a toddler goes missing without a trace, where wolves lurk in the shadows.

In town, people are quick to blame Madison's mom. But when Luce's English teacher shares an original script about the disappearance of another little girl in Picnic back in 1870, Luce begins to notice similarities. Certain that something deeper is going on, Luce tracks the wolf she saw into the woods and uncovers the truth: magical animal women have taken her cousin for their own purposes and they have no intention of bringing her back.

This was an nice read! It's a well paced story with that spooky feel making it a good read for the Halloween season. I liked the main characters Luce and Fanya and the mystery of the plot. There was enough mystery that I wanted to keep reading to find out what would happen next. But if you're looking for a book that has some magic, a whole lot of suspense and a touch of romance then you will like this one! Thank you Turn the Page Tours and Natalie Lund for sharing this book with me!

Another fantastic October read! I was pulled in from the start and had a really hard time putting this book down. The only reason it wasn't read in a day was adult responsibilities and sleep.

The pacing of the story was fantastic and since the timeline also correlates with the moon phases, you get to see which phase the moon is in throughout all the events happening. That small detail really brought another depth to this story.

I really enjoyed the characters, the side romance, and the dynamic between Luce and her mom.

If you enjoy shifters, folklore, a little bit of mystery and suspense, then I highly recommend checking out this book.

The Wolves Are Watching had a really cool premise to it but ultimately I felt like the POV and storytelling was a bit strange. I really enjoyed the folklore aspect and the mystery surrounding the town's history!

When they said this book was fresh, compelling, and eerie, they weren't lying. Natalie Lund is one of my favorite authors, so I wasn't surprised I loved it. With a mixture of folklore, mystery, and creepiness, The Wolves are Watching will forever be one of the most compelling novels I have ever read.

These new batch of pandemic books are hitting the shelves and they are wrought with the sense of isolation and fear we all felt. A pattern of disappearances has Luce investigating the strange phenom of missing children that return...changed. Enter the Vila, shapeshifting women who can change into humans, wolves, falcons, and snakes. They're not particularly vicious, but their agenda does not coincide with the humans whose children they take once almost every decade. Luce soon teams up with a Vila named Fanya to help return Luce's real cousin to her family.

I was afraid this was going to turn into a Shiver-type novel, but I was pleasantly surprised how little the romance with Luce's best friend took center stage. I enjoyed the balance between Luce's social life and the mystery surrounding the town of Picnic.

This is a great Fall read if you're looking for something atmospheric and unique.

This was exactly what I was craving for a spooky atmospheric read. It takes an exploration into small town with secrets and stolen children.. and the wolves in the woods who are always watch.

Luce sees golden eyes from the forest, the same eyes that are there when children go missing. The town is so quick to blame others, especially the moms who children are gone. But really there’s a mystery surrounding Picnic, Illinois. There’s something definitely strange going on in the woods so she decides to travel deeper than she should. There she learns the town is woven in magic and a chilling folklore that is too unreal to be true.

This story has a lot of small town mystery and intrigue. We have Fanya who is actually a shapeshifting Fae who takes children for a reason, which you’ll learn reading. The story is told in Luce and Fanya’s point of view and this fast pace plot to save Luce cousin before it’s too late.

It’s a mystery fantasy with a lot of suspense and magic and was perfect read blended into one. It’s the type of story I get drowned in.

When Luce’s cousin, Madison, goes missing in the middle of the night and returns the next night, Luce is sure it isn’t the same Madison. There’s something very different about Madison, making Luce think that she’s been changed into a Vila, a shapeshifter/Fae.

I love the pacing of and the telling of The Wolves Are Watching! Weaving in the phases of the Moon and the time constraint is a brilliant way to amp up the tension. The eerie atmosphere is perfect for spooky season which runs all year for me but will appeal to those looking for a little fantasy, horror, and magic in their choice of spooky books.

Dual POV’s between Luce and Fanya, a Vila, make this a great way to incorporate the folklore and gave insight into this wholly unique story.

My thanks to Penguin Teen for this gifted copy.

**Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Teen for the eARC in exchange for this review. This in no way changed my rating**

The Wolves are Watching is about Luce and Fanya. Luce is a teenage girl who's cousin, Madison, goes missing one night and who is mysteriously returned the next night. However, Madison is very different from who she was before, leading Luce to believe it isn't really her cousin. Fanya is a fae creature called a vila, a shapeshifter who can change from human to wolf to snake to falcon. The book is told from alternating POVs and is a race against the clock to save Madison before it's too late.

I really liked this one. It was well-paced and just the right amount of spooky. Since the timeline is tied in with the phases of the moon, it was a nice touch to add the moon phase was at the beginning of the chapter to add to that tension and feeling of pacing. That was a small detail but one that drives up the tension and keeps it there until the end.

There is a slight romance aspect to the story between Luce and her best friend, Anders, but it doesn't detract from the overall story about Luce, Fanya, and Madison. I actually thought that Lund did a nice job balancing between the main plotline and the b-/c-plots (Anders & Luce and the relationship between Luce and her slightly overprotective mother). Fanya's POV chapters reminded me quite a bit of the panther chapters in Mindy McGinnis' The Initial Insult, which I also really liked. I think it struck a good balance of being naive without being annoying. The characters in general are very compelling.

Overall, I think this title will appeal to people who are into "fae" books or Fantasy books with creatures like fae, such as The Cruel Prince. I also think it would appeal to people looking for a little bit of a Suspense or Thriller read for the Fall. It was well done with great characters, an interesting mystery to follow, ample tension, a little romance. It has a little bit of something for everyone.

4.5/5 stars

Rating: Solid Book, 3 stars

The Wolves Are Watching by Natalie Lund is a YA, paranormal mystery/thriller in which Luce, a 16 year old girl i Picnic, IL, starts down a strange path when her young cousin, Madison, goes missing. An interaction with her English teacher, starts Luce investigating a pattern of these disappearances over the years, and leads her to uncover the existence of something that the town has always laughed off as a fable: the Vila. The Vila are women who can shapeshift into multiple different forms, and it seems that they have taken Madison for their own purposes. Now Madison is in a race against time to find her cousin before it is too late.

This book was a fun time. It wasn't my favorite, but I didn't dislike it. It was a book that made me want to continue to pick it up and continue reading to see what happened next. I will say that while at first it has the vibes of a horror novel, it gets away from that pretty quickly. It does take place in the weeks leading up to Halloween though, so it is a great seasonal read.

I feel like I was super intrigued by the Vila portions of this book, but I wanted more from it. The ending didn't wrap up in a way that I was fully satisfied with - it's not that it was bad, but it did feel a bit unbelievable. However, the MC is a pretty good teenager to follow in my opinion, and it definitely kept me wanting to know what happened next. There is a C plot of teenage romance, but it is definitely not central to the story, and it doesn't make the MC act foolish.

The characters were fine, but none of them were fleshed out well enough to be particularly compelling. Therefore, this definitely felt plot driven rather than character driven. Not a bad thing, but it is probably the reason that I didn't rate it higher. I love a good plot, but it wasn't fast-paced enough to outweigh the lack of character depth for me.

Overall though, this was an enjoyable Fall read, and I recommend it if you are looking for a paranormal mystery during spooky season. Thank you to James Akinaka at Penguin Teen and NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review. The Wolves are Watching releases on October 4, 2022.

This was such a fun and spooky read! The mystery of trying to find poor little Madison and Luce's determination to find her little cousin was so interesting and well written. The side characters were lovable and Fanya grew on me awfully quickly in the end, I absolutely loved the mystery of it all and finding out the clues and twists along the way with the main character, The magical plot was written incredibly well, so well in fact I'd read a book about the Vila because it was just that interesting. This was such an enjoyable fall read I totally recommend if you're looking for an enjoyable short read.

Thank you Penguin Teen for the e-arc!