Reading Skywards – Your Friendly Bookshelf

INFORMATION ABOUT THIS BOOK
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Harper Voyager
Publication date ‏ : ‎ June 2021
Format:  Hardcover, Paperback, audiobook, and ebook
Print length ‏ : ‎ 427 pages
Genre:  Romantic Fantasy Fiction

WHY DID I CHOOSE THIS BOOK?

This book has been on my radar for a while. I am a mood reader, and I knew vaguely about this book, but I knew for certain that it was more in the romantic fantasy realm, which is not the genre I will normally choose. As I was walking out of my local library, the book was being returned… so I borrowed it on an impulse.

MY PERSONAL OPINION OF “The Wolf and the Woodsman”

I have mixed feelings about this book. There were many elements I truly liked. The setting of the book was superb. The way the forest, the mountains, the tundra, and the city were described with such care that it was believable as I was reading, but also maintained the fantasy aspect of the book.

The two main characters (Evika – the Wolf) and (Gaspar – the Woodsman) were great, two opposites in position and fortune, but really similar when they compared their loneliness and pain. In their journey, they connect and disconnect constantly. Letting rage, beliefs, and indoctrination take control of how they should feel for each other, and only at the most lonely and scary times, would kindness and empathy win between them.

The best part of the book for me was when they were alone; once the other characters were added to the mix, I lost a bit of enthusiasm. I felt that the other characters had a reason for being part of the story, but were not able to take more than an afterthought for me.

The ending was good. I was maybe expecting a happier ending. But at the same time, I understood what the author meant to transcribe with that ending, and I welcomed it.

This was a 4-star read for me.

PREMISE OF THE BOOK AS FOUND IN AMAZON / GOODREADS:

In her forest-veiled pagan village, Évike is the only woman without power, making her an outcast clearly abandoned by the gods. The villagers blame her corrupted bloodline—her father was a Yehuli man, one of the much-loathed servants of the fanatical king. When soldiers arrive from the Holy Order of Woodsmen to claim a pagan girl for the king’s blood sacrifice, Évike is betrayed by her fellow villagers and surrendered. 

But when monsters attack the Woodsmen and their captive en route, slaughtering everyone but Évike and the cold, one-eyed captain, they have no choice but to rely on each other. Except he’s no ordinary Woodsman—he’s the disgraced prince, Gáspár Bárány, whose father needs pagan magic to consolidate his power. Amidst rising political intrigue, Gáspár fears that his cruelly zealous brother plans to seize the throne and instigate a violent reign that would damn the pagans and the Yehuli alike. As the son of a reviled foreign queen, Gáspár understands what it’s like to be an outcast, and he and Évike make a tenuous pact to stop his brother. 

As their mission takes them from the bitter northern tundra to the smog-choked capital, their mutual loathing slowly turns to affection in a slow burn romance bound by a shared history of alienation and oppression. However, trust can easily turn to betrayal, and as Évike reconnects with her estranged father and discovers her own hidden magic, she and Gáspár need to decide whose side they’re on, and what they’re willing to give up for a nation that never cared for them at all.

MY RATING: 4.0

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: AVA REID

Ava Reid was born in Manhattan and raised right across the Hudson River in Hoboken, New Jersey, but currently lives in Palo Alto. She has a degree in political science from Barnard College, focusing on religion and ethnonationalism.

Bibliography:

• Juniper and Thorn: a Novel
• Lady Macbeth
• Innamorata