Reviews with content warning for Blood - For the Throne

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For the Throne by Hannah Whitten

28 reviews

mckiheather's review against another edition

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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camiandkitread's review against another edition

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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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whatiskatelynreading's review

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful medium-paced

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

4.0

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readingwithkaitlyn's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense 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? No

3.0

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sirkeili's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Because this book's plot is a direct recap and continuation of the first novel, I immediately jumped back into the world of the Wildwood Wolves and the Shadowland Kings.

Neve's strength throughout the book was unmeasurable, and her wit really drew me her as a character entirely. I could see how much she and her sister's fierce and deep love for one another was a driving force. Yet she comes to terms with her own shortcomings, and embraces who she is, and ultimately I found her development and growth to be the most compelling.

I had initially suspected Solmir would have a bigger part to play, as they seemed to really focus on his possession of Arrick towards the end of the first book, and his relationship to Eammon's parents fate as the Wildwood Wolf and Second Daughter throughout. He became a surprise favourite, as I started out sort of expecting this redemption arc, but still kind of wary of his method to begin with. As he slowly became more vulnerable to Neve, I slowly found myself being won over by him, and he ultimately pulled a Eugene and I was a goner.

I also really enjoyed Red and Eammons flirty behavior, when they were not intently focusing on helping Neve. It was nice to see their relationship flourish and grow, and it felt organic and yet fortified all the same.

I wasn't as interested in the Raffe segments, but I was happy to see that he too was able to find happiness in Kayu. He deserves it for the hell he was put through, honestly, that and a solid nap.

Overall, it was heartwrenching to watch Neve fight her way back to her sister from the Shadowlands, and Red doing the same from above, and both aching to just be together again. The fact that they sacrificed something so precious to be reunited with their loved ones was a bittersweet victory, but a victory nonetheless.

The surprisingly sweet meet-cute ending for Solmir and Neve makes me hope they can finally experience peaceful life together now. I hope to see them again someday soon. ❤️

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lizgriffinwords's review

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adventurous dark hopeful 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

It’s impossible to distill into words how much I loved this book. How Neve’s immense guilt and self-criticism wreath through my bones like smoke and thorns. How Red inspires me. How everything Eammon does endears me to him even more, my tall, broody Treebeard boy.

This book fulfilled all my expectations and THEN some. I’ll read everything Hannah writes, forever.

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beccaand's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

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

4.0

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readwithde's review

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adventurous dark emotional inspiring medium-paced

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

4.25

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blewballoon's review

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adventurous dark hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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.

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bookforthought's review against another edition

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adventurous dark slow-paced

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

4.0

For the Wolf was one of my favourite reads last year, so I was really looking forward to the second book in this duology. In fact, For the Throne was probably one of my most anticipated reads this year.

This second book picks up right where the first one ended. I didn't re-read For the Wolf before starting this one, but it might be worth doing if you have the time as, outside of the main characters, I had a hard time remembering who was who for a few chapters.

The book mostly follows Neve, Red's sister, while she is stuck in the Shadowlands with Solmir, but there are also some chapters in Red's POV as she struggles to find a way to save her sister and even some showing Raffe's POV. Neve was by far the most interesting character, and I loved getting to know her more deeply than before, exploring her complexities and witnessing both her incredible strength and her touching vulnerability.

The author does an amazing job with the atmosphere. It was dark and chilling and just absolutely perfect. I could almost feel the Shadowlands as Neve and Solmir made their way through them to try and destroy them and the Old Kings. I also really liked the original way in which some classic folklore tropes and elements were woven through the story, and the addition of the gods was a very welcome one for me.

Action on the surface wasn't quite as captivating as that in the Shadowlands for me, and I did find that rather a lot of it was too slow-moving to really hold my interest. I still love Red and Eamonn, but some of the other characters failed to really grow on me and, by the end, there were a few too many couples going around. Some of the surprising twists were also not so surprising after all, which was disappointing as I love being surprised!

Still, I really liked the ending and was very satisfied with it as a conclusion to this duology even if this second book didn't quite live up to the first one for me. Hannah Whitten was a fantastic discovery and I look forward to reading many, many more of her books in the future.

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