Finished: For the Wolf (Whitten) A spellbinding fantasy tale of royal twin sisters born in the kingdom of Valleyda. The first born sister, Neverah (Neve), is marked, by tradition to carry on as the next queen. The second born sister, Redarys (Red) is known as a Second Daughter, and is promised as a sacrifice to the wolf who is one with the mystical forest known as the Wilderwood which borders Valleyda. Second Daughters of royalty have been sent to the Wilderwood for centuries on their nineteenth birthdays as sacrifices in hopes of the return of the five kings of the land who had ventured in to make their own bargains with the Wilderwood hundreds of years before, never to be seen again. Neve, desperate to save Red from her fate, begs Red to run away with, Arick, the young man who loves her, but Red feels a guilt and responsibility to go...ever since the girls, at the age of sixteen, had gone in anger to the edge of the Wilderwood and taunted it with stones after finding out their fates. Red, having fallen and cut herself with her hands landing on the side of the Wilderwood, had been suddenly infused with a bit of the magic of the forest. She had felt the pull of the Wilderwood ever since and knew it was her duty to go, especially to protect her own sister against any uprising should she refuse. After the ceremony to send her away, Red barely makes her way through the Wilderwood, as the forest is decaying in many spots and would love just a spot of her blood to help. When she makes it to the wolf's home, rather than a lair, she finds a small castle with a keep. Making her way in, she meets the wolf and finds that he is nothing more than a man! Or is he? He's actually a man whose own parents bargained long ago with the Wilderwood to give their lives to the forest to keep the dark shadow monsters away from humans forever. To do this, his parents had become one with the forest, i.e., the Wilderwood had infused itself into them both. Only their magic or their blood could heal any breaches in the forest made when the evil shadow monsters, and coincidentally, the five kings, tried to escape. Having given their lives protecting the Wilderwood, their son Eammon then became the next wolf, and had subsequently been protecting the forest all this time. (Apparently the magical words for wolf and warden were so similar that the myth was born that the wardens were wolves.)  Eammon, however, cannot hold off the dark forces for long by himself and the Wilderwood is quite happy to have Redarys there to help him. Naturally, Red and Eammon have an instant attraction, but neither wants the other to be hurt or sacrifice anymore, so a war of wills ensues. Meanwhile, in Valleyda, Neve, who wants only to figure out a way to get Red back, has put her trust in a very suspicious priestess, Kiri. Kiri insists that the only way to get Red back is to weaken the Wilderwood by stealing as many of the white sentinel trees that make up the forest as they can. Kiri doesn't tell Neve that it will be darker magic that accomplishes this AND that hurting the Wilderwood will ultimately hurt Redarys as well. To get her plan going, though, Kiri sees to the death of Neve and Red's mother, the queen, making way for Neve to be queen and under her control. So, the twins unknowingly work at cross purposes...Red helping Eammon try and stop the breaches in the Wilderwood made by the missing sentinels, and Neve helping Kiri with her magic to weaken the forest. What Neve doesn't understand is that weakening the Wilderwood to release the kings will also release all the shadow monsters who have been kept at bay for all these centuries. The book is the first in a series, apparently, and comes to a huge battle climax between Eammon, who has taken back all of the powers within red from the Wilderwood to save her, and the one king who had eeked his way out through Kiri's magic and taken over the physical body of Arick, who had tried to help Neve save Red. There is a happy ending for some, but the futures of many left up in the air which seems will be continued in the next book. I loved this book and it was so nice reading a book set in a fantasy world again. It's been awhile! Looking forward to the sequel! :-)