Thank you to Tor Teen for providing this book as a digital galley in exchange for an honest review!
One Sentence Summary:
In the sequel to Forestborn, Rora and Helos now have to thwart an upcoming war while maintaining their lives and those of the ones they love.
My Review:
WHEN I TELL YOU THIS IS BEYOND GOOD. I, a Forestborn stan, am telling you that THIS IS EVEN BETTER. Forestborn is a 10/10, but Wildbound is a 20.
First up, our characters. The characters were already one of my favorite parts of Forestborn because I loved Rora’s arc and struggle with selfishness and survival, but OH MY GOD. First of all, we get the POV of Helos in Wildbound. I am to my core a Helos fan, and I LOVED getting to see more of him and Finley. The main struggles for these characters are heavy (TW for depictions of battle scenes and PTSD from Helos), but the author handles them so well in a way that’s so heartbreaking. You can tell that Elayne Audrey Becker is truly amazing at her craft, which is shown easily in the way her characters seem to peel off of the page while reading. I actually cried like four times in half an hour and I have no regrets.
Next, our lovely relationships. I loved just how many people got to connect in Wildbound. Obviously we have the romances between Rora and Weslyn and Finley and Helos, but we also have the sibling relationships between the princes and shifters and the friendships between Rora and Finley and Helos and Weslyn. The way all of the characters interacted warmed my cold, dead heart to the point of melting (the aforementioned four rounds of tears). It was so heartbreaking seeing how these characters were affected by the war with Eradain, but again, Becker did a PHENOMENAL job with the story and controlled my heart with these relationships, platonic, familial, or romantic.
One thing I love about Forestborn and Wildbound is that the executions of their plots are complex, but the concepts are pretty simple. Even when I don’t know what’s going on, I know that I don’t have to worry because Becker is a strong writer and the plot isn’t impossible to follow! This book is longer than Forestborn, but I’d say it reads faster because everything in the book is so relevant. I don’t have much to say beyond that I loved it!
I can’t recommend this book enough, but I think fans of Nicki Pau Preto especially would love this book. It’s another one where you can just feel the dedication and mastery of writing emanating off of the page, and they don’t make unnecessary decisions for the fun of it, which is a lovely quality in an author with the capacity to destroy your heart. Forestborn and Wildbound are both incredibly immersive fantasy books in one of my favorite series ever. ❤
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5
The Fiction Feature 