The Will and the Wilds by Charlie N. Holmberg

Title: The Will and the Wilds

Author: Charlie N. Holmberg

Release Date: January 21, 2020

Publisher: 47North

Genre: Romantasy

Source: digital, Kindle Unlimited

TW: dementia, body horror, death of parent, gaslighting, gore, injury/injury detail, confinement, death, violence

Synopsis

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.

Thoughts

This is the second book I’ve read by Charlie N. Holmberg, and she’s quickly becoming my favorite author.

Her world-building and hierarchy of the creatures within is so complete and presented the to reader without paragraphs and pages of exposition. Her characters are so well fleshed out you feel their growth, and your heart breaks for them and with them. Holmberg, so far, is an author that I find myself reading every single word because I don’t want to miss a single heartbeat of the emotions that drip from the pages. The way she writes is also so unique that you truly feel transported to another place and time. It has the style of period piece akin to Austen or Brontë but set in a fantasy world.

One of my favorite aspects of Holmberg’s heroines is that they’re strong mentally and emotionally, but when they hit bottom there isn’t a montage of them learning to fight with fist and sword, they break. They break and then they get back up. I often find myself hating when the heroine doesn’t just breaks down and cry because tears aren’t weakness, and I love that she embraces that.

This is also a story where I didn’t mind the changing of POVs. Usually, the POV of another character holds no interest for me as it rarely seems to move the story along in a necessary way—it’s just a secondary POV. However, the switch between Enna’s and Maekallus’s POVs adds to the story and doesn’t slow down the pacing. It’s necessary to understand the growth and changes of both characters.

I definitely recommend this book if you’re a fan of fantasy and romance. It’s also a nice break from the spicier romantasies out there without losing any of the slow burn or friends-to-enemies tropes that we know and love.