For the Wolf by Hannah Whitten is not really a retelling of Little Red Riding more of a cash in the popularity of retellings. There’s a girl named Red who wears a red cape and a Wolf in the woods sort of, that is the only things in common with the fable. The story was an almost DNF, the beginning is really slow and the world building is hard to understand, but I stuck to it and it did get better. This novel is being set up as a series and was happy to see that in the epilogue the story is heading in the most interesting direction. Neve Red’s sister really steals the spotlight ad I thought was the far more interesting character. I will list some of my own bias for this story and take this what you will – I don’t like blood magic, let me rephrase I don’t like magic that is released by cutting wrist hands, and this is the only type of magic being released. For me it is a bit of a trigger warning, I said the same thing in my review Children of Blood and Bone (Legacy of Orïsha, #1) Adeyemi, Tomi, I don’t think it effected my review but I just think my reader’s of my review should know. I ended up liking the history of the Wilderwood not at first but how it was explained about midway through. The ending was exciting and well thought out. I did love the bond of sisterhood aspect in the story the most.

The Plot: Red and her twin Neve are on different paths, Neve is the heir to me queen as she was born first and Red being the second sister of twin is to be sacrificed to the forest and the wolf in a chances that the five lost Kings will return. The woods are haunted and only let the Sister with a mark through. Red is still haunted by the one time she was in there before. Neve fights with her mother the queen not wanting Red to go, but the queen will not listen and send Red to the forest as Neve plots to retrieve her sister and will go to extremes to get her back. Red finds an old house the the forest led her to then closes up once she there then finds the wolf (who is not a wolf at all or someone that can even turn into a wolf that tells her to leave, red after the big ordeal is stubborn and says she’s staying. Red finds out the forest is indeed haunted with shadow people who possess trees and that Red’s blood is special and the forest wants it, where the Wolf’s blood keeps the shadows away.

What I Liked: The bond of sisterhood is a theme through out and I love it. I really liked Neve’s storyline and the sacrifice she’s willing to make to save Red. The legend of the Wilderwood was really good when fully explained. The ending was both exciting and emotional, I enjoyed the lead up to it as well.

What I Disliked: Blood magic cutting your self for one spell is okay but cutting yourself and fling blood multiple times, not for me. The action, the magic, and the exposition scenes were really hard to follow especially at the beginning. It did try to throw in elements of Little Red Riding Hood it could have easily thrown in something, but no attempts.

Recommendations: This book starts off as a dud then gets a lot better at the end, not enough to give it a recommendation to read. This book already has a sequel called For the Thrown I think the book is heading in the right direction, I might be interested in trying the sequel sometime. I rated For the Wolf by Hannah Whitten 2 out of 5 stars it was close to two and a half stars.