Name: The Wolf and the Woodsman
Author: Ava Reid
Publisher: Del Rey
Date published: June 2021
Genre: Fiction, adult, fantasy, romance
Pages: 418
Rating: 4/5
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. 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, 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.
- From Goodreads.
This was a well-told story with a wonderfully detailed world, an intriguing plot and real characters. I liked the way the author used real world history and religion as a basis to create their world and plot and also added their own unique details to it. It was very well crafted and you could tell a lot of time and care had gone into telling the story. I also liked that the main character travelled quite a bit so we got to see a lot of the world that had been created and the characters that lived in it.
The plot was interesting and took several twists and turns that I was not expecting. There were times I felt a little less invested and could not follow along as easily with what was happening, but mostly I enjoyed the story and liked how it developed and felt generally satisfied with the ending. I also liked that throughout the story mostly Évike, but other characters too, told stories, stories from their religions or their history or legends. It added more depth to the world and story and made the book feel like an ancient adventurer's story, passed on and retold over the years.
I really liked the romance between Évike and Gáspár and was invested in them both as individual characters and together. There were moments when I did not love how their relationship developed or I felt something that happened between them did not impact me as much as it should have, but overall I did really like the two of them and wanted things to end well for them.
Overall, it was a very immersive story, told with descriptive and almost poetic writing, that felt very emotional and real, even with the magical elements, which were very creative and exciting to read. I would definitely recommend it if you liked Uprooted by Naomi Novik as it certainly had the magical, dark forest, complex word building and compelling relationship elements that book has too, although this book still feels like a unique story of its own.
