Week 39 Review: The Wolf and the Woodsman

From Goodreads:

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. 

My Review:
This book was incredible! This world with gods that were flawed, giving humanity flaws, being overtaken by this very strict, requiring sacrifices from the worshipers religion...yeah, I couldn't get enough of it! Especially since Évike and Gáspár were on opposing sides! 

Évike doesn't fit with her village, she doesn't have the powers that are gifted by the gods. So when the Woodsmen come for the next tribute, they give her up. I loved her journey, of magic, of her feelings towards her village, towards Gáspár, and learning her heritage! It was so great! 

I was really rooting for them! They were in an awful spot. I wish that they'd though better of the plan to kill the creature, because killing it to defeat one bad guy, when it was helping many? Yeah, that wasn't good math. And when things went down, just made it even worse! 

That ending was just perfection! To watch the bad guy being taken down like that, to use what her father taught her against someone who had treated people of her father's culture like that was just incredible! And the set up for the future, yeah, it worked so well! 

Loved reading this book, and I can't wait to read the companion novel set in this world! 

Author: Ava Reid
Read: September 27th, 2023
Source: Library 
Reason Why: Sounded really great, and it's a SAC 2023 Book! 
Publisher: Harper Voyager
Published: June 8th 2021

5/5 Hearts

5/5 Books

5/5 Stars