For the Wolf

Finished March 22

For the Wolf by Hannah Whitten

This novel is the first in a new series called The Wilderwood. Neverah (Neve) and Redarys (Red) are two sisters, daughter of the Queen of Valleyda. They are fraternal twin sisters, with Neve the older of the two. It's been many years since there has been a Second Daughter in the royal family of their kingdom, and Red has known of her fate as long as she can remember. 

There is some world-building here, but mostly around the one kingdom. There is mention of the other kingdoms and one gets a sense of some elements of how they interact with each other, but nothing deep. I'm curious as to whether the series will bring them in more in future installments. 

Long in the past, the Kingdoms' leaders had asked the Wilderwood to save them from monsters, and in exchange they agreed to give every Second Daughter of the ruling family of Valleyda to the Wolf that guards the wood. So, on their twentieth birthday, these young woman are put through a ceremony dedicating them to the Wolf and then paraded to the edge of the forest at the northern edge of the kingdom and sent in, never to come out. 

Neve and Red are close, and have talked in the past about trying to rebel against this tradition. When they were sixteen they left a celebration and went to the forest to rebellion and something happened. Red was changed by this experience and has been fighting a pull from the trees ever since. She believes that following through with her traditional destiny is the best thing to do, and has stopped fighting to change it. 

Neve doesn't understand why Red has given in, and wants to still fight to keep Red beside her. As Red continues to follow her destiny and enters the forest in her ceremonial clothing, she finds something that she didn't expect, and, as she learns more of the fate of her predecessors, and of the true nature of the Wolf, she finds that her thoughts about the Wilderwood and its nature adjust and become more complex. 

I'm really looking forward to the next book, which there was a taste of at the end of this one.