For the Wolf

Book Title: For the Wolf

Author: Hannah Whitten

Series: For the Wolf #1

Date Started: October 3rd 2022

Date Completed: October 15th 2022

Genres: Fantasy, Adventure, Romance

Quality Rating: Three Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Four Star

Final Rating: Three Stars

Review:

◆ Thank you to NetGalley for this ebook for review ◆

For the Wolf starts off slow, predictable and frankly eye-rollingly cliche, but somehow I have to admit that the second half was really compelling and went in new directions. The main crux is a typical YA romance (and, honestly, the first half is the same scene of the Wolf reluctantly saving Red six times over); it's the outside threads that make it worthwhile. And the sickly unfaltering dedication from certain characters remains, but the plot finally grows into something really quite interesting, beckoning whatever's ahead while still resolving this novel's story well enough to be satisfying for now.

A bit more time spent at the novel's beginning establishing three-dimensional characters could've also turned around the opening acts. I ended up liking many of them by the final act, and I want to know what happens to them next, but they were paper archetypes at the start more from a desire for the angst than an initial equilibrium. I wonder if the desire to echo the fairy tale (which seems more Beauty and the Beast/Snow White and Rose Red than Red Riding Hood) was a bit distracting to begin with, before the story took its own roots.

I'm actually really looking forward to this novel's follow-up (which is already in my library), as I trust the story has come into its own now and can continue in this new and exciting direction, fleshing out the side characters even more as they become more integral to the story.