I've read the first book in this duology last year and was, frankly, not impressed. It was one of my most disappointing fantasy reads of the year. Why read the second one then, you ask? Well, because there were things I actually had high hopes for in a sequel. The general ideas, the atmosphere of the Wilderwood and the shadow world beyond it are intriguing. And most importantly, I was hoping for Neve, the sister of book one's protagonist, to be in the spotlight this time around.

And she was, and it was a good choice! Neve is by far the better protagonist, and the duology is better for shifting focus towards her. Red is still a big part of it of course, and I did like that the sister relationship finally took center stage. But Neve as a character is simply much more complex and intriguing, whereas Red rarely goes beyond "I love my sister. I love my husband." The characterization, or lack thereof, that I criticized in book one is sadly still apparent, with most of the characters having about one personality trait and seemingly existing purely for romance.
The new love interest, Solmir, is vaguely more interesting than Eammon was in the first book (and still is this time around), but the romance in general suffers from the same problems: When this guy is literally the big bad evil and the protagonist has absolutely no reason to feel anything but anger and disgust for them, but still notices how hot they are on basically page 1, then it's just stupid. It's fanfiction. It's not how enemies-to-lovers works, and it takes away from their story as a whole. Add to that the "magic is best transferred through a kiss" that is this books "we sadly totally have to get married for the magic now" and I'm wondering again if this is supposed to just be a list of cringey old romance tropes ticked off one after the other.
The introduction of a new character purely so that one part of the supposed love triangle can be easily discarded (because gods forbid there is actual depth and conflict) is basically all you need to know about the level of character and romance writing. All of the four central relationships are m/f, too, but to each their own, I guess. I find this a little boring, but it's an author's own choice that has to fit their ideas.

The pacing is, once again, subpar. I was really hoping for some improvement because you COULD definitely tell this story in an engaging and exciting way, and I think a lot of it comes down to poor editing. There are so soooo many passages of characters just having conversations about things that already happened, or conversations that are used to further 'character development' in a blatant tell-don't-show kind of way. Why? Half of these conversations lead to nothing and aren't necessary for plot nor characters, they seem like fillers. Red's part of the story was mostly filler, too, and I wouldn't have minded skipping most of her chapters. The ending could have been exciting, but was lackluster and suffers from the same "let's build up unsurmountable obstacles just to solve all these problems in six second through neverseenbefore magic" that the first one did.

The world building is more nuanced this time, with really cool ideas for this admittedly creepy shadow world Neve is bound to. The magic is still nothing more than a deus ex machina, there to do whatever needs doing right now, but I don't need thought out magic systems in every single book, so that's fine. The names used for this fantasy setting are A Choice (Floriane....), but that's simply a matter of subjective tastes.

I think the one thing that really dampened my reading enjoyment as a whole was that this book simply does not have a voice. The writing isn't bad, but I often wondered if the author didn't really decide on the tone of her own story. There is lyrical fantasy prose, then one page later an ages-old god calls a young woman a "bitch". There are about ten different, often nonsensical in-universe-curses ("kings on shitting horses" being the most prevalent one, or the really weird "kings' kneecaps", just to name two), mixed in with an overabundance of "fuck"s. The characters talk like modern teenagers - and I mean all the characters, both the young protagonists and the ages old beings. There is no actual voice, no tonal consistency. This might also add to the generally fanfictiony feel of the whole book.

So yeah, I was hoping for more, for improvements in storytelling, pacing, character writing and general writing, but this is sadly more of the same. I'm sure it'll have lots of fans, but sadly I cannot count myself towards them. Probably won't read the author again.

Thank you so much Little Brown Books UK and Netgalley for sharing an advanced copy of For The Throne with me.

I ADORE IT!

I could not wait to read this book and oh my Lord it did not disappoint.

While I didn't find it as cohesive as the first novel, I will put this down to the fact that there are a lot more POVs in this book, I still loved it. I would also recommend re-reading For The Wolf before diving into this as I was left slightly confused in some places.

This novel is a REAL enemies to lovers with the enemy getting the girl in the end. I mean, I loved Eamonn but Solmir is a different beast altogether. Bless you, Hannah for creating him.

While I did find the first half of the novel to be a bit more messy than her first, by the time we got to 50% the story had really hit its stride. I am devastated that it is only a duology because I want to stay in this world forever.

The ending broke my heart a dozen ways but thankfully the epilogue fixed it right back up.

I cannot wait to read Hannah's next release!

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with this eArc!

An amazing sequel, I adored the first book and this most definitely lived up to the hype!

I loved For the Wolf and was so excited to read this one too! I loved it just as much! I really enjoy her writing style and world building. The characters Neve and Solmir were well written and start out as enemies, but I enjoyed their chemistry! This duology was great if you love dark fantasy! I can’t wait to read more books from this author!

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in return for my honest review.

"This magic she'd braided into herself was a selfish kind. It didn't allow for all the different strands of love she ached with."

I really loved For The Wolf, and it ended up being one of my favourite books of last year, so I was very excited for the sequel. And while it was captivating, gorgeous, original, sumptuous and beautifully written (as expected from Hannah Whitten), I felt there was just something missing from this book.

I loved everything that happened in the Shadowlands. The banter between Neve and Solmir was fantastic; I love the enemies-to-reluctant allies-to-lovers trope, and it was done very well here. It felt believable, Solmir's redemption arc didn't feel fake or rushed in any way. I love a complex villain and I'm glad we get to understand more about him and his motives in this book, instead of having him as just some terribly evil character like he was in book one. All the history of their world, the discussion of the Old Gods, the Kings and their plans, the stories Solmir tells Neve... all brilliant, and so enthralling.

Where it fell flat for me was the switch from Neve's POV to Red and Raffe. This was an issue I also had in book one, with the flitting back to Neve when we'd been with Red, but while that did further the story, some of Raffe's parts in For The Throne felt redundant and boring. I also hate when a multiple POV book takes you too far from the main action abruptly - going from life-endangering moments where Neve and Solmir are confronting a literal god to being dropped with Raffe who's worrying over who he loves, or Red who's tending to a seasick Eammon felt jarring at times.

Having said that, this was a wonderful conclusion to the duology and I enjoyed it immensely. I enjoyed the ending, how to was left open and wasn't all wrapped up neatly in a bow - such as real life! (view spoiler)

I really loved the sneak peak of Whitten's next book at the end and am very intrigued by it! I'll definitely be reading that in the future.

This duology is an absolute wonder.

I loved For the Wolf so much that I was a little worried For the Throne wouldn’t live up to it. Boy, was I wrong.

Hannah Whitten’s writing style is absolutely gorgeous. She weaves such a beautiful atmosphere that you truly feel like you’re standing in the Wilderwoods or the Shadowlands. I really loved the Shadowlands—they were super creepy and cold. If For the Wolf feels like Spring/Summer, For the Throne feels like the dead of Winter.

I had been a little concerned that I wouldn’t love Neve and Solmir as much as Red/Eammon, but I spent most of the book squealing excitedly when they so much as looked at each other. Individually, they were both really interesting characters. Neve’s sheer determination to save everyone and everything, at her own expense, was so reminiscent of Red’s and I just love them so much. I absolutely loved Solmir and I feel like we got to see how tortured he was really well through Neve’s eyes. Their romance felt very authentic. It wasn’t insta-love and it wasn’t without struggle.

I really loved that this book was more multi-POV than For the Wolf. It was really well balanced and I loved all of the POVs equally. In general, the pacing was absolutely spot on. All of the reveals seemed to happen just when I had to put the book down and I was just desperate to keep turning the pages.

I would read a million more pages about these characters quite happily. Hannah Whitten has quickly become one of my favorite authors and I can’t wait to read everything she has coming next.

Content warnings: Violence, blood, death, imprisonment, bones, illness, body horror, mentions of forced marriage, parental abuse.

I loved For The Wolf and whizzed through it when I recently purchaxed it so I was so excited to get this and it didn't disappoint. Well written with a completely enchanting storyline and well developed charcaters that I adore. I love retellings and this series is closely becoming one of my favourites I loved it,

I will update the review with a link to our blog closer to publication date.
I'd like to thank the publisher Orbit and netgalley for providing me with an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review.