Reviews with content warning for Abandonment - The Wolf and the Woodsman

I really want to hug Evike and Gaspar and just love them like they deserve. My precious cinnamon rolls.
The subplot of romance was really good and it was slow burn, and I loved it, but the fact that they don't actually end up together ruined me, I totally get it but 🥲🥲

Content Warnings

foldingthepage_kayleigh's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense 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

3.75

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internationalreads's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced

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

4.0

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andromeda_1998's review

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adventurous dark 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

4.75

After receiving the wolf in the woodsman in my illumicrate books I could not wait to read it. That edition is ✨STUNNING✨ But the normal book is gorgeous as well! The story of this book really met all my expectations! So what are the reasons I fell in love with this book:

Characters
Characters are really important to me, I can read a book with a weak plot as long as I love the characters but a book with sloppy characters is something I cannot stand…

These characters were well done, they had multiple layers to them. Faults, good traits, dreams and anxieties. They felt very real, did I like all of them? No, of course not but where they well rounded characters? Hell yess!!!

Worldbuilding
I am a sucker for rich world with a fairytale base especially if the fairytale’s are from Russian mythology. The world was really magical but with a lot of ruff edges. It’s very well done.

Plotbuilding
This is the category where the book lacks a little bit. I felt like Ava Reid wanted to bring to much to the table but it wasn’t possible to fit everything in the books 400 pages. I feel like it could have been better if some of the side plots would have been removed. One of my biggest critics is the lovestory. I shipped the couple but I would have loved more time with them. It feels like we do not get to see the love develop because Ava Reid doesn’t take the time she needs to conclude that part of the story. I would love to have seen more of the relations developments. But keep in mind that this is the only criticism I can deliver for this book.

Recommendations
Like a lot of others I saw the same vibe in this book as in the books of Katharine Arden and in Spinning Silver/ Uprooted by Naomi Novik. It has the same feeling but it doesn’t have the proza/writing flow as those other books. I missed that a little bit in the wolf and the woodsmen. But still I feel like this book could really be something for you if you liked uprooted, spinning silver and the Bear and the nightingale.

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oliverreeds's review against another edition

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dark tense slow-paced

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

3.0

this book was fine. i don't understand what all of the hype is about around its release because, while the characters and their relationships are well-written, the magic and world-building seemed a little scant. i have no doubt the author spent a ridiculous amount of time building lore and that is evident, but i didn't understand a lot of the lore. it felt like when a super smart professor is explaining a very detailed and advanced concept and just kind of expects you to know it. the history of the the world just didn't make much sense and wasn't explained as well as i wanted it to be. most of the book

is spent looking for this creature called the tulur? and maybe i just didn't read super carefully, but i had no idea what the tulur actually meant to the world until it died. and even then nothing seemed to have changed. there was still magic. the trees seemed to still be alive. so why was there such a thing about killing this bird. i didn't understand it

. i also didn't understand the way magic works in this story. the wolf-girls are (mostly) all born with magic- all except evike. great. that makes sense. but then

evike wants magic so she cuts of her finger as a sacrifice to one of the gods and he just... gives her magic? i didn't understand this. it didn't make any sense. and then without practicing using her magic, evike fully shatters an axe in the royal court without really knowing what the perameters of her magic or the cost of her magic. the rules seemed flimsy. especially when she saves Gaspar after they're attacked by the witch. how did she save him?? she can't heal people??

. i also thought it was interesting that there are so many religions (only three) but they all have their own magic given from their own god which seems to imply that all of the gods actually exist in this universe. this then begs the question: why is there so much hate? the hate the woodsmen feel towards the pagans never is fully explained. i kind of understand the metaphor the author was working with, but in general, it felt forced sometimes. like... why? the pacing of this book was also pretty slow. in the climax moments, i didn't feel like there was much of a climax.

like when evike has just been stabbed. i was like oh sh*t! but then she just like gets up? and walks to gaspars room and then she rests for like ten minutes and then she's just like fine. like she's having a full conversation when she was just on the brink of death. this also happens in the pagan battle at the very end. nandor has just pulled out evike's molars (by all means a traumatic and painful experience) and then after the whole gaspar nandor fight, she's just fine? she kisses gaspar but like she just had like buckets of blood in her mouth??? the severity of wounds was definitely something that didn't make much sense to me because a character would be seriously wounded (often to the brink of death) and then like have full on coherent conversations and then get up and walk around.

the first part of this book also read a lot like fanficiton (which i honestly didn't have a problem with. it was my favorite part of the book no cap) because it's all about the

slow romance between evike and gaspar so evike will like almost freeze to death or pass out or something and then gaspar (shocker) will save her or help her. like the amount of times evike ~almost~ died on the way up to find the tulur the first time was honestly wild.

but overall, the characters were interesting and i liked the in depth analysis of how religious bigotry effects people, romance, and governing states. i thought it was a good first book.

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sarahdh's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional medium-paced

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

4.0

A really interesting read! Very new for me but I enjoyed the characters and the storytelling. It did drag a little for me and I do think it could have been condensed a little. However, the last portion of the book picked up and I liked the ending. Could have done without some of the more gory aspects though. Overall it was an interesting enemies to lovers fantasy standalone and contained some really fascinating mythology.

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