Charlie N. Holmberg

A spellbinding story of truce and trickery from the Wall Street Journal bestselling author of The Paper Magician series. Enna knows to fear the mystings that roam the wildwood near her home. When one tries to kill her to obtain an enchanted stone, Enna takes a huge risk: fighting back with a mysting of her own. Maekallus's help isn't free. His price? A kiss. One with the power to steal her soul. But their deal leaves Maekallus bound to the mortal realm, which begins eating him alive. Only Enna's kiss, given willingly, can save him from immediate destruction. It's a temporary salvation for Maekallus and a lingering doom for Enna. Part of her soul now burns bright inside Maekallus, making him feel for the first time. Enna shares Maekallus's suffering, but her small sacrifice won't last long. If she and Maekallus can't break the spell binding him to the mortal realm, Maekallus will be consumed completely--and Enna's soul with him.

The Will and the Wilds

Sheena

Rating: ★★★★☆ (4/5 Stars)
Title: The Will and the Wilds
Author(s): Charlie N. Holmberg
Character(s): 
― Enna Rydar: 20 years old, Brunette, Blue Eyed
― Maekallus: Red, Yellow Eyed
Setting: ―
Tag(s): Romance, Fantasy, Supernatural
Content Rating: PG
POV: First Person (Heroine)
Smexy Level: Subtle
Favorite Quote(s): 
― "Beware the narvals, formed from the spilled blood of bastards. They feed upon souls, and will steal one with a willing kiss."
― "Little mortal, you’ve just half a soul left. Be careful how you divide it."
― "What is a soul if not an extension of the heart?"
― “I am the afterlife. I was created by death. I am the end. When I perish, I am gone.”
Overall Opinion:
To think that a kiss, a small and brief kiss, could change one's soul and pushed the characters towards a life or death predicament when a sudden bargain is made. The author was able to graced us with a whimsical fantasy novel that she was able to bring to life with her easy going writing style, unique and diverse characters and intriguing plot. From page one, the reader is brought into this fantasy world filled with mortals and mysting, and the stone that alters the lives of Maekallus and Enna forever. Despite how much I adore this read I will notate that I wished the author would have touch more base on the Deep (a supernatural realm so to speak) and the creatures that lurked around Wildwood. That was an element of the story that initially drew me in and I was slightly disappointed she deferred from providing more details in regards to that aspect when it was obvious the romance portion was the main focus of the plot, causing that to be pushed aside. Which wasn't bad mind you but I was left wanting to learn more about the mythical creatures that lurked through the woods, their history and horrid behavior. Nevertheless, it was an enthralling supernatural and fantasy read that ended on a high note (finally an ending I can stand by) in which case I would recommend to just about anyone to pick this up and give it a go. You won't be disappointed.

Amira BEN

Micol Scalabrino

I struggled to finish this book. I did not like it in the end and I kept hoping to see some development, instead I was given a plain plot and characters. Nothing much to say, I will definitely read something else of this author because I actually liked her writing style, it was just the story overall that was not for me. 

Only thing I can save is the world building that was good overall, not really complex but not completely plain.

Final vote: 2/5

Ebook provided by NetGalley in exchange of an honest review.

Sheila Goicea

I received an ARC of this book from 47North via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you! In no way does this affect my rating or review.



All included quotes have been taken from an ARC and may not match the finished publication.

Content Warning: Gore, Death, Mental Health

  Without a soul, she doesn't have a will.

The Wild and the Wilds is a story about how a soul ultimately defines the line between the human and the monster. The town of Fendell is situated on the edge of the Wilds—a large, magical forest teeming with foul mystings. Mystings, monstrous creatures not unlike tricksters, goblins, and such, are not to be trusted. Enna and her father live in the Wilds. Having lost her mother before she was even born (view spoiler)[(her father had to cut her out of her mother's body) (hide spoiler)] her mother was attacked and killed by a pack of ruthless mystings. Her father, having traveled to the monster realm to find a charm to keep her safe, lost his mind in turn.

  Mankind cannot linger in the monster realm, just as mystings cannot abide here long. Our worlds are too different, and they reject those who don't belong. My father stayed too many hours in the monster realm, and in exchange, it claimed the sharper bits of his mind. And so he retired here with the Telling Stone, learned to grow mushrooms, and the rest of our lives have been uneventful.
 
With her father's intermittent lucidness, Enna must take care of them both. Recently, mysting appearances have been more frequent. Enna knows, because the charm her father gave her tells when a mysting is near. After a direct attack on their house and Enna being marked by a Gobler, Enna turns to desperation and summons a mysting to help her against the Gobler threat. A humanoid/equine creature known as a narval appears, and she strikes with him a deal—he will hunt down the Goblers threatening her, and she will give him two war medallions of her father's in turn. 

Soon after, Maekallus finds the Goblers, but is defeated, cursed, and trapped in the human world to die. Enna finds him, deteriorating quickly, as her world won't allow him to live for long. To save him, she offers him a kiss. The tricky thing about a narval is that they steal one's soul with a willing kiss. Enna kissed Maekallus willingly, and her soul fractured. 

Healed for now, Maekallus—the soul eater—begins to lose his monstrous form, and Enna begins to hollow out from the missing pieces of her soul. The two, working together for their own purposes, begin to work together to solve their predicaments. Can the curse be broken to send Maekallus back to his home? Will Enna's soul remain fractured forever? With the threat of the mystings all around, searching for the charm Enna possesses, their time is wearing thin.

  But for every mysting who's willing to cooperate, there are five others who will eat the flesh off your bones, if you but give them the chance

The Will and the Wilds is undoubtedly an intriguing story. I was sucked in the the plight between these two characters immediately. The uniqueness of this story is apparent, as it's not just a story—it's also a lesson. The concept of one's soul is discussed frequently, and how it makes us who we are—human. Humans with a will, at that. If that soul is taken away, or broken, what would happen? While these musings got me thinking, I couldn't help but notice the lack in world-building. Here is an incredible forest, the Wilds, a monster realm, in a seemingly Medieval era with little to reference it all by. These details aren't exactly necessary since they aren't the main point of the story, but are needed to make this story great, in my opinion.

Despite the world building, I appreciated the attention that the author delegated to these characters. Watching Enna slowly descend as her soul became more fractured, whilst Maekallus ascended towards a pure form of humanity kept these characters in a pendulum-like-state with Enna's soul anchoring it all at the center. Mystings are creatures born from ill-does of humans. Throughout the entire story, Maekallus character is represented as something impure and inhuman, but moves to become something whole. All-in-all, I thought this was a very creative, unique, and thoughtful read.

Vulgarity: Mild.
Sexual content: Kissing.
Violence: Moderate with some gore.

My Rating: ★★★1/2

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Jelke Lenaerts

I RECEIVED A GALLEY OF THIS BOOK THROUGH NETGALLEY.

I think this book just wasn't for me. The plot was very interesting and unlike anything I've read beforebut somehow I was never truly invested in it. The writing was also unique and fit the story very well. It also made for a very atmospheric read. The world and lore of this book was the most interesting part. For the first half of the book the plot was pretty weak. Luckily it picks up more in the second half. The characters were a bit blant to me and didn't go through a lot of developement. It was also a pretty quick read. But yeah, it never really captured me or really intrigue me. Some solutions felt a little bit easy. So yeah, I would still recommend this book but it didn't really do much for me. Oh yeah, this book mostly focusses on the romance and I feel like it was a bit lackluster for it being the focus. It just felt pretty generic, which is a dissapointment as the setting is so unique and unlike anything Ive ever read.

Alexia Cambaling

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Many thanks to NetGalley and 47 North!

The Will and the Wilds is kind of a Beauty and the Beast type of story without the kidnapping and Stockholm Syndrome. It’s about a girl, Enna, who’s haunted by mystings, the strange creatures who come from a different world called The Deep. She has something that they want so her and her disabled father’s life are in pretty constant danger since they live in the wildwoods where apparently a lot of mystings appear. To combat this, Enna summons a mysting named Maekallus to dispose of the mysting trying to kill her. His price? A kiss which can steal her soul.

The Will and the Wilds has a lot of interesting ideas. It’s a standalone book which has a smaller scope, which I think worked in some ways but really could have been expanded further. It has sparse world-building, which I guess does makes sense considering the scope, but I did wish it was expanded further.

While the world- as in the world which Enna lives in- wasn’t described in detail, The Deep kind of is. The world-building in this book was very focused on the mystings, the creatures who cross The Deep into the mortal world. It did make sense for the world-building to be more focused on that aspect because of the plot, I still wish we got a better sense of the world Enna lived in. I wanted to know more about it, especially in light of her desire to be a scholar.

Speaking of which, I thought that her dreams and ambitions got a little sidelined. Like, why did she want to be a scholar? Please give me more besides her consulting her grandmother’s notebook. Sometimes, there would be some passing reference to her wanting to go to the library or talking about scholars, but the narrative kept its focus on the romance. I also wanted more on the concept of souls. Like, what is the nature of souls in this world? Why don’t mystings have souls?

The villain was also practically a non-entity in this book. They get mentioned but don’t really appear until like, the last moment so it wasn’t as strong as it could have been. I didn’t feel the urgency in defeating the villain- the only urgency I felt was regarding Enna’s soul and Maekallus’ stay in the mortal realm. The conflict felt like it took a backseat to the romance.

As for the romance, I did like it. It was very Beauty and the Beast, only the one “captured” would be Maekallus who needs Enna to survive. The romance was a bit of a slow-burn and developed throughout the course of the book. There’s a subplot involving a village boy which kind of went nowhere and I wish was better executed, but it’s okay. I consider this more of a fantasy romance so I’m glad to see that the book does have a Happy Ever After.

Overall, I thought The Will and the Wilds was good. A bit of a mixed bag, yes, but still good overall. I can recommend it if you like smaller-scope fantasy with romance.

This review is also on  The Bookworm Daydreamer

Heather Harrington

**I received a copy via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review**

Enna has lived her whole life in fear of the mystings that roam the woods near her small village. When one of these monsters breaks into her home and attacks her for the mysterious stone she wears around her wrist, Enna decides to take matters into her own hands. She summons Maekallus, a trickster Narval, to track down the Gobbler who attacked her, but she soon learns his help is not for free. His price? Just one kiss from Enna. The catch? She'll lose her soul.

After the pair strike a deal, Maekallus gets trapped in the mortal world which slowly starts to eat him alive. Only a willing kiss from Enna can help slow the process and save him. Although it's a temporary solution for Maekallus, the more pieces of her soul she offers up, the more he starts to feel emotions he has never felt before. If Enna isn't able to find a way to break the binding spell on Maekallus, he'll be consumed completely taking her soul with him.

I thought the premise of this was really solid, but I didn't fully love the execution. I felt the romance between Enna and Maekallus fully took over the plot, and the mysting army that the pair were supposed to be fighting sort of fell by the wayside. I also didn't feel any chemistry between them, so the romance just didn't seem believable to me. I wish we learned more about the Deep, the land of the mystings, and just more about them in general because all the different varieties seemed so interesting. Despite that, I did think the world was fun to read about and it was definitely very whimsical and a bit dark, I was just hoping for slightly more.

Southern Today Gone Tomorrow

Written by Charlie N. Holmberg, The Wills and the Wilds (coming out Feb 2020) follows Enna, a girl who lives in a world with monsters called Mystlings and is the only person (thanks to a stone) that knows when they are near and what they are. As the mystlings start to seek her out for this stone, she summons one of them to protect her in a bargain. Little does she know what the bargain drags her into.

This is SUCH a good novel. Really, so good. It is well written, and while there ends up being some romance, the novel isn’t about the romance. It’s about learning and doing everything you can to live while still keeping secrets.

Our “helper” Maekallus is an interesting and intense character on his own. This is the mystling who makes the bargain with Enna. All he really wants is to eat her soul.

Enna is the kind of character that I want to see more often. Her main motivation is saving herself and keeping her father safe. How the author reveals information is well paced and kept my attention for the entire novel.

This is a book where none of the characters are without flaws. Sometimes, they just don’t have redeeming qualities. But there are a whole variety of characters and interesting foils throughout.

The only thing I wish, is that we got to interact a bit more with some scholars, well one in particular, that Enna ends up meeting.

If you enjoy fantasy, and if you enjoy romances that are of the Beauty and the Beast variety, this is a great choice for you. If you don’t like either of those, but you enjoy some odd creatures and fight scenes, this might still be worth a shot for you.

I did receive a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The Will and the Wilds

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