For the Wolf by Hannah Whitten

For fans of Naomi Novik's Uprooted and Juliet Marillier's Heart's Blood, For the Wolf is a Beauty and the Beast retelling with hints of Red Riding Hood, Snow White, and Green Man mythology. The eldest, Neve was always intended for the throne, but being the second daughter, Red has been "For the Wolf" her entire life. With her approaching 20th birthday, she is sacrificied to the woods where she begins what is possibly the greatest adventure of her life. This book teeters on the edge of adult and YA fiction. Look at that beautiful cover that just screams "LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD RETELLING." Th main character's NAME IS "RED." Yes, there's a red cape. Yes, there's a "wolf." Yup, the dark woods, too. But is it really a Little Red retelling? Absolutely not. It's 100% a Beauty and the Beast with hints of other fairytales thrown in for good measure. The first 100 pages of this book had me super excited. It was everything I could want out of a fantasy novel: strong female characters, the dark woods, fairytale retelling. And then Beauty meets the Beast - I mean, Red meets Eammon - and the character interctions start to give the book what I can only describe as a YA flare. Still good - there's nothing wrong with YA (it's just not my cup of tea), but it changed the feel of the book, for me. The ending made up for my mixed feelings about the middle, and set the book up perfectly for book two (expected '22 release). Very excited to read the next book! Thank you, #NetGalley and Orbit, for the ARC of this book