A review by jandi
Pyotra and the Wolf by Elna Holst
3.0
* Thanks to NetGalley and NineStar Press for providing an advance copy for review purposes *
Pyotra lives in the Siberian taiga with her grandfather and her little "duckling" brother. She is not particularly keen on wolves, since her mother passed away after being attacked by a pack of them, so she is intent on revenge when she catches a wolf holding on to her brother on a hole on the edge of a frozen lake. After taking care of her brother wounds, Pyotra follows the wolf into the wilderness with the purpose of killing it. But things are not what they appear in this retelling of Prokofiev's famous musical tale.
I really enjoyed the first part of the book as it brings to life the Siberian winter - you can feel the cold and the perils of the chase. The second half does suffer a little as the romance aspect is over emphasized (* note there are explicit sex scenes *), and a Big Bad Villain that would feel at home in Stieg Larsson's books appears, but does not have enough room to show us his motivations beyond a short nod to Hitchcock. The ending feels rushed, with additional characters and points of view thrown in at the last minute, and not enough time to really flesh them out.
Pyotra lives in the Siberian taiga with her grandfather and her little "duckling" brother. She is not particularly keen on wolves, since her mother passed away after being attacked by a pack of them, so she is intent on revenge when she catches a wolf holding on to her brother on a hole on the edge of a frozen lake. After taking care of her brother wounds, Pyotra follows the wolf into the wilderness with the purpose of killing it. But things are not what they appear in this retelling of Prokofiev's famous musical tale.
I really enjoyed the first part of the book as it brings to life the Siberian winter - you can feel the cold and the perils of the chase. The second half does suffer a little as the romance aspect is over emphasized (* note there are explicit sex scenes *), and a Big Bad Villain that would feel at home in Stieg Larsson's books appears, but does not have enough room to show us his motivations beyond a short nod to Hitchcock. The ending feels rushed, with additional characters and points of view thrown in at the last minute, and not enough time to really flesh them out.