Reviews with content warning for Death - For the Throne

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For the Throne by Hannah Whitten

23 reviews

leemazz01's review

adventurous dark medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

This book wasn't as good as the first one, in my opinion. It was incredibly predictable (I correctly predicted every major plot-twist and turning point about 50 pages into the book) and much slower than the first book. I also felt the tension between the two main characters of this book wasn't as good as that of the two main characters of the first book.

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kaiyakaiyo's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

this fucking sucked!

the first one was a drag towards the end, but I gave this a chance because I’d already purchased it & im too much of a perfectionist to DNF. what a huge mistake

this book is even worse than the first:

abysmal “enemies” to lovers romance - two power hungry terrorists pretending not to like each other for 400 fawking pages bc the author couldn’t make their hate convincing and the ACTUAL enemies to lovers happened last book mostly off-page
shitty, gross sex scene - why would they fuck in a bone jail where 4 evil shadow gods could see??????? why???????? soooo unnecessary when they were alone soooo many other times
the magical universe got more detailed and somehow worse. the fucking apples. trees that are keys that are elevators? arick being thrown in there for the hell of it. no rhyme or reason to the magical system or this light/dark dichotomy or why Kayu was at all necessary… this author just threw darts at some magical/religious symbols & stuck em in the book
Raffe was possibly the most one dimensional, repetitive char yet, and that’s a feat with how wooden Fife, Lyra, and every other char that isn’t Red or Neve is. We spent so much time in his head just to see him become a prop for not one but two love interests. Does he think of anything but women that are manipulating him?
Red and Neve are supposed to be some bootleg Elsa & Anna “mirrored love” but Neve spends 1.5 books disregarding Reds feelings, calling her a literal creature, and generally fucking up both their lives. Neve fucks a magical terrorist bc he has nice muscles meanwhile Reds man is at least trying to hold back evil creatures from the rest of the planet… what about them was “mirrored”? Neve was selfish and naive, and nearly always chose the thing that made everyone else suffer more… she didn’t love Red anymore than she loved anyone in this book and it renders the “mirror” completely bogus. Neve loved power & herself, wanted dick from Solmir, and used everyone else to get those things. Where does ~sisterly love wins all~ come in there? convos between the “sisters” felt like two strange girls chatting in a club bathroom. I don’t think the author knows what a sister is
You expect me to believe several people born and raised as royalty are this fucking inept at political subterfuge? the queen is missing and they just have Some Guy make excuses, which lasts for about 3 days. Kayu being there for a reason was the most obvious thing in the world; Raffe not noticing was purely shoehorning the romance in bc no way he’s that stupid. Then they leave the throne unattended for days to go on a boat ride to a place inhabited but their most manipulative and cunning enemy. Ocean-shaking earthquakes going on, but sure, no one is looking for the queen or her proxy! Nothing could go wrong, right??? then they are surprised Kiri has managed to convert the entire temple… as if she didn’t spend the whole last book converting the entire shrine AND neve… the entire cast walked into every single plot against them?????? eammon okay, he was born in the woods. but Neve is a queen in training. Kayu was born in what sounds like a cutthroat noble house next in line for the throne. Raffe is literally there STUDYING TRADE and diplomacy. how are they still that stupid??????
Don’t get me started on how Lyra is never called a race. Or Kayu. they are vaguely hinted at as having “dark straight hair” or “golden-brown skin with a halo of dark curls” but then the next char described is “a white man”. is the author afraid to say “Black” or “Asian”? I promise lightning won’t strike you if you actually name your attempt at diversity! it pissed me off because the author reused the same descriptions but found a million ways to describe a mousy brown white girl. if you think Black people don’t exist in your ye old poorly designed universe, maybe don’t include them as half-described characters for cool points

All in all a waste of my time. I wish there was a way to block anyone who recommended this to me. If there are any real sexy red riding hood retellings out there, please recommend me as a palate cleanse ! or books about human sacrifices turning into love interests. either of those tropes, but unlike this one I need the books to be good. tysm

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readwithria's review

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adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

For the Throne is the conclusion that the Wilderwood duology deserved! It’s full of love and magic, and I enjoyed it so much.

This book has a bit of a different feel compared to For the Wolf, but not in a bad way. It takes the world that the first book set up and expands upon it. There’s so much learning that happens, both for the characters and the reader.

I really enjoyed getting more of Neve’s perspective, and am glad that we still got Red’s pov as well. I also really liked learning more about the shadowlands. There’s still so much of the world that we didn’t get to explore, and I do wish there was a map, but this story wasn’t about those places so they didn’t feel missing from the books.

Hannah Whitten writes such great dark fantasy, I can’t wait to read more from her. 4 stars.

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katievallin's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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blissofalife's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I don’t often enjoy multiple POV but this series was done well. It wasn’t jarring to change narrators, and it was nice to be given the whole picture without any one character knowing everything. (Love me some dramatic irony) But where the first book seemed to be building building building, this one felt a little weighed down. Like there was too much exposition in order to make the climax make sense. (I’m still not sure what exactly happened in the end) but it was an enjoyable read with plenty of grey characters. I liked where everyone ended up, at the very least all characters were accounted for in the epilogue.

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alexijai98's review

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adventurous emotional tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

I have to get one thing out of the way first: the Wilderwood duology could certainly use a map. Usually, sequels end up being my favorite books in series/duologies, so I’m a bit disappointed in For the Throne. Other reviewers have said this, but the pacing was strange. The first 300ish pages felt like a slog, especially when the POV wasn’t Neve’s. The last 100 pages felt like a Sonic speed run to resolve all conflict,

including a classic “pair up everyone into couples.”

I also came out of this book more confused about the magic system than I was when I read For the Wolf. Maybe I just can’t wrap my head around it, but the rules of magic (especially towards the conclusion) felt inconsistent and hand-wavey for the purpose of moving the story along. For the Wolf is a fine sequel, but after seeing it hyped up by some of my faves on Tik Tok (bombastic side eye), I am a bit disappointed.

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alliebliterary's review

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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mckiheather's review

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

The story did a great job resolving what was left over from the first book, and it was very interesting to get to see so much from the “villain” characters (relatively speaking). It keeps your attention when stories don’t exist in black and white and this one is basically all in gray.

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lanid's review against another edition

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dark

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.5

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camiclarkbooks's review

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adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Hannah Whitten’s “For the Throne” is the nail-biting high fantasy sequel to “For the Wolf,” the best Beauty and the Beast retelling I’ve come across (and there’s a lot of Beauty and the Beast retelling out there).

The First Daughter is for the Throne.

The Second Daughter is for the Wolf.

Neve, First Daughter, finds herself trapped in the Shadowlands, the inverted kingdom inhabited by old gods and the evil Old Kings. While there, she forms a tenuous alliance with the rogue king Solmir in hopes of keeping the Old Kings from gaining any more power—and in hopes of finding her way back to her sister, Red.

On the other side, Second Daughter Red works tirelessly with her husband, the Wolf, and their friends to bring Neve back from the Shadowlands. With few clues on how to accomplish their goal, they’re forced to make new allies and visit old enemies to gain any information about how to rescue Neve.

“For the Throne” was a full-throttle adventure the whole way through. As excited as I was to keep flipping to the next page, to find out what was going to happen next, I found myself missing the quieter moments that were found in “For the Wolf.” Those introspective moments in the Wilderwood gave the reader a chance to get to know the characters and appreciate Whitten’s creative genius.

Although it was a necessary change, “For the Throne” lacked a lot of the charm of the first book because its primary setting of the Shadowlands was considerably more treacherous than the Wilderwood and the stakes were significantly higher in “For the Throne.” All in all, “For the Throne” was a good book, but “For the Wolf” was a great book.

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