The printing of these books is very subpar. The text block is crooked and the spine end band is not on correctly. Also Amazon ships it without any protection and the cover gets damaged and ripped. I reordered this book since the first one was damaged and both of them are printed incorrectly.
This book is incredibly depressing and disappointing.I bought it because it was compared to Spinning Silver and The Bear and the Nightingale, and I assumed it was some kind of grown up Red Riding Hood story.It is not.If you are looking for steamy romance, look elsewhere.I read around 200 books a year and rarely leave reviews, but this book was so incredibly unenjoyable that I feel obligated to warn others off of it.It’s a story of unwashed, sad, abused people being met with unfairness and violence at every turn. Nothing in the entire book goes right for them except the last 2 pages and the epilogue. At no point did I expect anything good to happen. They make stupid choices throughout the book.Another review said it’s like a DnD campaign where every single roll is a 1. I’d just add that the dungeon master is also incompetent at planning the adventure.1 star being the writing is good in a purely technical sense.
Worth readingI wish the Slavic? Mythology was more detailed in an appendix. Some sex just one gratuitous passage- skippable. Teenager service.
Pure mysery page after page! The main character was crying ALL the time and I really felt for her. She was powerless, riddiculed, cast out, kidnapped, imprisoned, hurt, hopeless and... again hurt, imprisoned, powerless, hopeless... and then again... As I mentioned I liked the book, but it was just SO DARK. There was too many severed limbs, mentiones of self-harm, hate and the monsters were just SO GROSS. Not a book for faint-hearted.
I can't say I liked it. But it held me captive until the very end. I suggest preparing yourself for a monsoon of blood, disembodied limbs, and death.
Ava Reid is hands-down my favorite author. She writes about things that matter, things that move your soul and call your beliefs into question. She makes you think and opens your heart and urges you to think a little deeper. Pick up this book or any of her works, and you’ll know why she is an author to keep on the shelf.
First of all, I loved the world building in this. All of the lore behind the three religions in the story were fascinating and the magic involved in each religion just added to the complexity of the story.This is a dark, haunting story. The magic system for the one religion is based in self-harm. The more you sacrifice, the more power you have. This is also a story about building a nation based on one religion while attempting to destroy the other two in the name of purification and what those marginalized people go through under the reign of that religion. The Patrifaith is basically Christianity, the Yehuli faith is Judaism and the pagans are well, pagans, those who believe in more than one god. I think you can guess which faith is the aggressor here based on history.That being said, I really did enjoy this. The author handled the darkness of it beautifully. All the characters were complex, none of them were perfect and they all had flaws yet were still extremely likeable (well the main characters were likeable, I wanted to stab certain other characters in their stupid faces).
This is a fantasy that combines apparently aspects of Hungarian myth. Sounds promising, begins promising, but really really drags a lot in the middle. Ultimately a strong ending but it’s not a glorious new classic
I walked into this with few expectations, only knowing that some reviewers struggled with how the story unfolded. I was richly rewarded with a phenomenal story that I look forward to returning to again and again.This book is challenging. I think that's a good thing -- it urges you to think in new ways because we hardly ever tell stories like this any more. "What's the point of the wandering through the woods?" some have asked, and to them I say, "What's the point in suffering, in moving forward when we can just stay still?"Trite as that is, I think Reid has made a stunning world in this that feels much like stories from another time. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight comes to mind, with its twists and turns through solitary wilderness. But stories like Neil Gaiman's American Gods come to mind as well. The road a story takes us through doesn't always have to make sense on the first read, or even the second or third. That's the point -- good stories make us take them at their own pace, and new things are revealed each time we interact with them.Lofty thoughts aside, I really REALLY enjoyed this novel. It's safely one of my top reads for the year. I expected to be icked out by the gore and violence, but I found it fit the story and wasn't gratuitous or unnecessary. It was upsetting to the narrating character and thus it was also upsetting to the reader. It felt very human in that regard, even if the characters committing it weren't even human.All in all, a triumph of a story. I'm humbled that I had the chance to read it.
i loved the story but for about half of it they were just wandering around the woods finding women who were too human to not be human only for them to be witches/ monsters
I think the idea of this book is very good but the execution fell flat for me. Maybe I have been reading too many fantasy books lately and just need a palate cleanser but I had a hard time getting through this book.The story is good. The characters are sub par, in my opinion. It just felt like every other fantasy story I have read lately. I was slightly disappointed. I still plan to read Ava Reid’s other books.I think if you are new to fantasy, this would be an excellent book to start with. Maybe not for more seasoned fantasy readers.
Exceptionally well written, epic hero’s journey. The Wolf and the Woodsman is a new myth packed with magical realism, bloody adventure, raw determination, love (of all sorts), sacrifice, fanaticism, and the power of an open heart and an open mind. Those seeking a female hero will be thrilled. Those not will be equally as thrilled. I am looking forward to reading more from the mind of Ava Reid. Highly highly recommend!
It was a gripping story a wonderful one . The characters are compelling . There is so much tension so much yearning; every chapter has you at the edge of your seat. There were some small areas the pacing felt a bit awkward but overall it was a great book.
4.5 stars, but I'm rounding up ^^I'm a big Katherine Arden fan and wanted to see if the comparison between this book and TB&TN was accurate. It is! Like Arden, Reid transports you to an Eastern European world full of sacred and profane magic. Reid's world is entirely fictitious, however many allusions there are to real life religions and peoples.The enemies-to-lovers romance was a high point for me. It was well done, built on mutual understanding and with no illusions. There was none of the stereotypical bickering and miscommunications or petty jealousies. The worldbuilding is amazing-- pay attention to the map and character/pronunciation guide.The third act is weak. There's a section where the MC is hyper-focused on whether to convert religions as though she doesn't have anything else to do. The endgame villain is flat and literally just turns around at one point. Perhaps most frustratingly, there's a surprise attack from... well, I'll leave you to find out, but it doesn't make sense.All that said, this was a great read. I devoured it in one sitting. The language was beautifully descriptive, the relationships believable, and the characters (excluding one) were fleshed out.4.5/5, will read again!
This book does not get enough recognition. Enemies to lovers- and I mean TRUE enemies to lovers. A prince/woodsman grew up to hate the wolf-girls and vice versa. A brooding prince that literally goes to his knees for her 👏🏼👏🏼 So much hate, anger and trauma with every character. Found family, magic, ancient folklore, & saving the kingdom… I mean it has EVERYTHING I long for in a good fantasy book. Don’t pass it up.
Spoilers ahead.The book starts off as a Little-Red-Riding-Hood-type fairy tale: a girl living in a dark magical forest gets kidnapped by a Woodsman with a big axe.But the story gets hijacked by Norse mythology, which the author uses to describe the world’s magic system. Fair enough.The Woodsman is taking the girl to the king. But he makes a detour to search for a Magic McGuffin to Save the Kingdom from the Bad Guys. He has only a week to find it or all is lost!Along the way, the girl discovers that her world’s magic system has a dark magic that no one has ever seen before, and only she can wield it. Natch!Our Heroes reach the forest where the Magic McGuffin lives, and the story gets hijacked by Russian folklore.Now our Heroes are out of time with no Magic McGuffin to show for it. They hurry to the capital anyway, and the rustic forest girl is completely unfazed by the big city. Maybe she will use her dark magic to save the kingdom!Nope, the story gets hijacked by Christian mythology, and four magic relics are described in detail and mentioned repeatedly. Maybe they will be used to save the kingdom!Nope, the story gets hijacked by Jewish folklore, and the girl is introduced to magic words, including a Special Magic Word. Maybe it will be used to save the kingdom!Nope, our Heroes decide to go back for the Magic McGuffin, and they catch it, but it costs the girl her dark magic.Now our Heroes can finally save the—nope, the Bad Guys take the Magic Mcguffin and it is useless.But wait, an army appears with zero foreshadowing and the girl corners the Biggest Bad Guy where all the Christian relics are! Does she use them? No!But she’s got the Special Magic Word right on the tip of her tongue, rolling around in her mouth. Does she use it? No!It’s just too special to use.But our Heroic Woodsman comes dashing to her rescue in the nick of time and finally grabs a Christian relic! Does he use it to kill the Biggest Bad Guy and save the kingdom??Nope, the story gets hijacked by Katniss Everdeen, and there’s a several-years-later epilogue where the girl is back where she started, but the world is a slightly better place.Overall, this story felt like a D&D campaign throughout which the adventurers kept rolling a 1.
So, right off the bat, why did I wait so long to read this book?!Lyrically written and a cast of flawed characters to follow along the journey with, what more can you ask for?A couple small points of contention from me, not least of which is that if you're going with a religious allegory, then just maybe you shouldn't be using the actual words, descriptions, stories taken from the Judaic faith? It wasn't done with any other religion in the books (to the best of my knowledge, but I don't process to know every religion in the world).A couple times I found the pacing a little rushed, like for certain relationships, but once again an opinion.And as much as I like the lyrical prose, there were a few times where I wondered how our illiterate never left her village before MC came up with some of her metaphors, but I suppose that's to be forgiven because how authors do the do 😂😂.
A vivid new world splicing together fairy tales, legends, history, and mythology from cultures usually not appearing in "typical" American storytelling. Both fantasy and romance, the story centers around Evike and Gaspar - the wolf and the woodsman.The enemy-to-friends romance is at times naked, ugly, sweet, heartbreaking, fated, and impossible.The fantasy world captures why the "woods" are dangerous beyond imagination, and the tyranny has shades where "it could be worse" allows acceptance of the unsustainable.Faith and history clash and mesh depending on the day and person. The impact of refuge relocation and treaty marriages leaves children behind who must live with the strange guilt of those raising them - who both hate their mixed blood and have an obligation to raise it anyway.A complicated, wonderous world, the Wolf and the Woodsman makes a worthy read.
Person/tense: First person/presentGenre/subgenre: Fantasy romance based on Hungarian loreTouted as perfect for fans of Spinning Silver and The Bear and the Nightingale, I snapped up The Wolf and the Woodsman the moment I saw it. At $2.99m I couldn't resist. But my trepidation set in the moment I started reading.Though the writing is, at times, lovely, it is also tropey and trite in a lot of places. Evike is seems to function as more of a catalyst for changes to Gaspar's character while changing very little herself. She is brash and unthinking and by the 50% mark, has learned absolutely nothing. It's infuriating to see such a flat character arc. Meanwhile, Gaspar is patient but two-dimensional, lacking the depth or nuance a character in his position should have.To make matters worse, the characters seem to blunder into situations, leaving important beats unearned. Scenes read like a collection of loosely strung together vignettes, which contributes to the sense of pointlessness of the story.If you love eastern European lore, you might still find this interesting--and, in fact, I think the world itself is really interesting with some wonderfully cool fairytale features. But do not go into this book expecting Spinning Silver or The Bear and the Nightingale. Those are far superior in story, character, and pacing. Go into this expecting it to be what it is: a romance with some lovely historic/fantasy window dressing.In summary, I'm not mad. I'm just disappointed.
Trigger Warnings: physical abuse, verbal abuse, torture, murder, attempted murder, death, removal of limbs, self removal of limbs, self harm in order to perform blood magic, misogyny, racism, girl-on-girl hate, forced starvation, death/slaughter of animals, forced imprisonment, Antisemitism, cultural genocide and ethnic cleansing, graphic descriptions of vomitingThere is a pronunciation guide and character guide in the back!!! I really appreciated having a glossary with pronunciations next to them! I’m not entirely familiar with Hungarian folklore, history & Jewish mythology so it was nice to know how to pronounce things, places and people.The writing and the atmosphere reminded me of Juliet Marillier & I absolutely LOVE Juliet Marillier. So if you like her writing, the steadiness of her plots and her characters, I think you will really like this book!!One of my favorite things about this book was it's discussion on religion. There is a major war that is happening between the Régország (where our characters are from) and Merzan (a neighboring nation) and at the same time there is a religious war going on in Régország between the Yehuli, the Patritians and the Pagans. (and if I don't know my Eastern European history well, the Yehuli reflect Jewish people, Patritians reflect Christians, and the people who are from Keszi or any of most of the outer villages reflected Pagans ((But Ima do more research from Ava Reid's interviews/discussions of the book to see if she touches upon this & if I'm wrong Ima come back and correct myself)). I tend to be a fan of books discussing religion, the purpose of it, the characters doubting and questioning the things that they have been brought up to believe, and learning about different religions and asking questions. So I liked seeing the questioning that Évike and Gáspár had on each other's beliefs and their morality (especially with their wildly different backgrounds and where they are in their lives when these two are forced to meet).The Romance: This was true “hate to love” that morphed into “We don’t understand one another, yet we do, we jus think about things differently enough that this shouldn’t work and we both know that this will end in disaster???” There was a constant push and pull between the two that they kept inserting between the two of them cause they knew that they really SHOULDN’T fall in love with one another. But I loved the PINNING that was happening. If you have ever read any of the book in Juliet Marillier’s Blackthorn & Grim trilogy, then you KNOW about the pinning that is in those books between Blackthorn and Grim and Évike and Gáspár have some the same vibes. But there is a LOT of back and forth between them because of all of the secrets and the information that Gáspár held back from Évike (but I was here for it). I was a little upset at the end because it is VERY VAGUE if they're going to get married or not, and just have bastard children and jus the OVERALL question of "what are they gonna do now?" So I guess you can decide what they're gonna do
