For The Throne

4/5 stars

Red might be willing to walk into the mouth of a monster, but Neve was going to find a way to make the monster choke. She could fix this.

After the events of the last book we find Neve trapped in the Shadowland with Solmir, one of the famed kings who set the events of the final confrontation in motion. Now, the two enemies must work together, not only to get Neve back home but to finally vanquish the remaining Kings who wish to unleash destruction unto the world. Meanwhile, Red and her allies are searching for a way to help Neve get home.

I would like to start this by quoting my review for the first book: "For me, this could be fixed by making Neve the protagonist". They asked what I would do if I didn't win... I GUESS WE'LL NEVER KNOW. I was correct in this, she was the superior protagonist. Red who? I only worship the altar of Queen Neverah. Her character was far more interesting than her sister. She was consistent, brave, willing to open up and repent for her mistakes. Most importantly: far more decisive than Red ever was. A queen through and through. She was going around stabbing gods and righting wrongs in a nightgown lmao. SHE BECAME A GOD. Not only that but she was far more cunning than almost all the other main characters.

I found the first book too long, with scenes that bogged the book down. While I would trim this one a bit, the action kept me reading. It tooks me weeks to finish For The Wolf while this one took me around a week. The plot here is far more interesting and I think it's because there were finally some explanations as to what was going on, who were the Kings and what was the Wilderwood. This is why I was so annoyed by all the miscommuncation in the first one. You need to reveal something to keep the audience engaged. Where was this energy in book one? Where was the drama? THE HIGH STAKES??

Now, my favorite bit of this book was the romance. I was very curious as to how the author was going to spin this, since Neve and Solmir would not be in good terms, and I was pleasantly surprised at how well it worked out. While it still was a bit insta love, I think having them interact before in book 1 and then go through high adrenaline and conflict situations made this seem more believable and organic than whatever Red and Eammon have going on. There's also the fact that at the end of the book they don't just end up together at first and everything is magically fixed. I liked that they spent time apart, processing all the events of the book and growing as people. Unlike whatever the hell Red had going on with her wolf. Girl you're barely 20, what are you doing marrying the first supernaturally inclined man you see, he's shit at communicating. They had some of the best lines in this book. I was screaming, crying, throwing up, etc while reading. The author put her whole Whittenussy on Neve's POV. My mind was telling me to give this 3.5 stars, but my pussy heart said to round it up to 4 JUST for these two and their adventures.

The sister's relationship was also very sweet and believable. They did seem to share the same love for one another and their scenes together were full of heart. I did like Red and Eammon's relationship slightly better in this book, probably because they were finally interacting and actually talking. I did not care for anyone else tbh.

Now onto what I didn't like. Same issue as last book, it didn't need to be this long. I was honestly upset when I realized that besides Neve's POV this book also had Red's AND Raffe's POVs. Why couldn't it be like in For The Wolf, with a main narrator and interludes with the other sister. The Shadowland plot was far more interesting than anything else, it did not need to be stopped for multiple chapters just to show what the woods squad was doing bcs it was a load of nothing. At least Red being a narrator made sense, that's her sister and their connection was important to the plot, but RAFFE?? Every time it was one of his chapters I was like: Raffe is here? Raffe... get the fuck out of here. His chapters were always the same too. Think about Neve. Remember how Neve never said I love you back. Wallow. Realize Neve will come back changed. Have Red say he will be a good friend to Neve. Stare at Kayu. Repeat.

This book did not need a new character. Kayu was uninteresting, cliché even. She brought nothing to the book except for a way to cleanly tie up loose ends. The plot could have moved without her, just with Raffe. And her betrayal was SO OBVIOUS. Saw that coming miles away. It wasn't shocking, it did nothing for the book. When Kiri called Red the dumb sister... I felt that. They really were shocked that Kiri had set them up, come on guys. Her and Raffe getting together was quite obvious too, but with the added insult that they didn't even have any real chemistry. Their relationship was more insta love than Red and Eammon lmao. Fife was there, I guess. Lyra was under utilized. Also what's up with the author and pairing everyone up. Fuck Arick I guess

I enjoyed this book but I still felt frustrated about certain events. I feel like this needed a bit of a clean up or a tighter grip on what the actual important bits were. I will say this: it was way better than the first one. Like skip the first one, read a recap instead and dive right into For The Throne. I gave For The Wolf 3/5 and I'm happy that I can give this one more star.

To finish this up, I would like to impart some knowledge. Did you know that fridge in Spanish is "nevera"? Yeah, so imagine my face whenever someone called her Neverah. Long live Queen Fridge.

Read this a few months ago. The second book in the Wilderwood series is greatly improved from the first novel, which although was not a bad story I still felt it suffered from boring archetypical characters and an under explained world/magic system. In contrast, this novel had far more interesting main characters whose stories developed with the plot. Even the side characters and enemies in the Shadowlands were intriguing. The only downside to this was there they may have been too many characters, as Whitten introduced many point of views and not all felt needed or developed. Additionally, it is only once you read the second novel that you are told the full backstory of the magic system, woods, and kings, which made the story far more understandable and therefore enjoyable. A good way to end a duology!

I wasn't looking forward to this book because everything to do with Neve was my least favorite part of the last book, and I kind of hated her going into this one. I was pleasantly surprised. The main supernatural setting of this book feels so different from the last, much darker and less like a classic fairy tale. I still enjoyed the chapters that focused on Red and her gang more, it was lovely to be with those characters again and I think the new additions worked well enough. Some plot threads from the last book took some unexpected turns in this book, and some of the events/plot that popped up in this one threw me off, but overall I think this was a good conclusion to the duology and I wasn't unhappy with the ending.