The Wolf and the Wildflower by Ella Fields is a new standalone book that takes place in the Fated Fae universe, aka the same world used in The Savage and the Swan. While it is a standalone, characters from that book are featured in this one, including Scythe, Fang, and Dade. It takes place roughly around the same time as The Wolf and The Wildflower, as the war is still happening between the Gold Fae and the Red/Blood Fae. But we also learn that wolf-shifting faeries are not something unique to the Red Fae; those across the sea are also able to do so. So, it was interesting coming back to this world and seeing it through a different perspective as one of the main characters is from across the sea, while the other is Scythe.
Synopsis
“Run from me again, mate. I dare you.”
When I was young, I was told that my true love would be a faerie king. I didn’t heed the warning.
I tumbled into love as soon as our eyes first met, unaware that he wasn’t what he seemed.
My king wanted marriage, power, devotion, and a family. He had all but one, and as our kingdom stood upon the precipice of ruin, the weight of failure tore us apart.
Though it was not the war but his betrayal that sent me running to a foreign land.
And straight into the arms of a one-eyed warrior.
The wolf was a weapon of heartless destruction, a rogue without a real name, and nothing I was allowed to want.
A week spent within his city and the walls of his threadbare home was all it took to irrevocably change everything.
And nothing at all.
For there was no escaping the life I’d once thought I’d cherish forever. My kingdom was dying and my king would soon start searching for his missing queen.
Attempting to keep all I’d found in the heartache he’d caused would only create more.
So I fled from the wolf who hadn’t learned my true identity, and I returned to my kingdom with a silent vow to heal my torn heart. I would try to forgive my faithless husband and accept my bloodstained future.
But those meddlesome fates had other plans.
The warrior I’d left without warning was born a hunter and conditioned to be a monster. An alpha in his own right, he would accept nothing less than what he hungered for.
Even if the battle of his life delivered our hearts to their doom and our kingdoms to their knees.
Book Details
- Published: December 7, 2022
- Page Count: 377 Pages
- Genre: Paranormal Fantasy, Romance
Thoughts on The Wolf and the Wildflower
As mentioned, this book is about Scythe, one of Dade’s legion commanders, and Aster/Astrantia, an Emerald Fae from the other side of the sea. Aster took off from her husband after learning that he cheated on her, claiming he was trying to secure an heir with someone else as she had not provided him with one in the last eighteen years of their marriage. According to what we’ve heard, it’s not for a lack of trying. Aster ends up hooking up with Scythe immediately after meeting him at a bar. However, she doesn’t end up leaving the following morning. She ends up staying for almost an entire week before finally revealing to Scythe that she’s married and needs to return home.
According to what we know in this universe, when mates first have sex, they end up having marathon sex for days. Given that they spent almost every second of that week having sex, starting in his crash apartment and then in his secluded cottage. The two also felt extremely close to each other right away, so I knew right away that these two were mates. Besides the fact that they are the main characters, each has POVs in this book.
I’m not going to share a lot of spoilers that aren’t discussed within the first third of the book. So, I don’t feel this is really a spoiler. Scythe has only one green eye, and the other was brutally removed. We also learn that the Jade royalty that Aster married into usually has one green eye and one blue eye. Considering, Scythe is missing an eye and that the humans that her nation is at war with want to kill all Fae, I immediately realized that Scythe is a missing heir. Especially since Aster was told she would find true love with a faerie king. She mistook it for Rorn Jade and ended up marrying him at the age of seventeen. But seeing that Scythe is her mate and the true heir to the Emerald throne, it wasn’t really a surprise that it turned out to actually be him. It wasn’t even hinted at subtly, he gets called out on that fact during the battle that happened at the end of The Savage and The Swan (early on in this book) by a human.
The only thing that was a mystery was when would Scythe and Aster actually admit the truth to each other. That she was the queen and he was the true heir that she was supposed to be with all along. Granted, he was 13 at the time and she was 18, when Rorn took the throne. So, it wasn’t like she exactly would’ve realized at the time especially considering what happened to Scythe. Again, not going to share spoilers on the actual reveals. But they weren’t a secret to the reader.
So, in a way, this book besides being centered around cheating also used the miscommunication trope. To say it was annoying at times was an understatement. Plus, I hate the cheating trope. And I only marginally cut Aster any slack for her cheating, because her husband refused to grant a divorce after she found out he not only cheated on her but impregnated that individual.
To say I hate Rorn is an understatement. Especially when we learn what he did by the end of the book. His treatment of Aster was horrible; the same as how he treated his mistress (Carelda). The dude wanted his cake and to eat it too, when the cake wanted nothing to do with him. If he had just let Aster go, that would’ve solved so many things. Not to mention, it would’ve prevented a lot of things that happened. I’m not a massive fan of how Aster and Scythe chose to deal with him in the end. I get why they went the route they did, but it was unsatisfying at the same time. Rorn reminds me of Tamlin from A Court of Thorns and Roses in a lot of ways.
I’m curious about what book is going to be released next in the Fated Fae series. There are hints in the epilogue on what’s coming, but not specifically on who. I would love Fang and Olivanna’s story, though we know they aren’t mates. And at this point, I don’t want to see her reunite with her true mate as he knocked her up and then wanted nothing to do with her and her son decades afterward. So, I doubt they will be the next main couple.
Overall, I give The Wolf and The Wildflower a 3.5 out of 5-star rating. There was a lot I enjoyed in this book but the amount of miscommunication was frustrating. Not to mention, we went through CHAPTERS of Aster withering away with nothing really happening as we waited for time to catch up from before The Savage and the Swan and afterward where this story resumes. I also liked that we got glimpses of what’s happening between Dade and Opal, and how they have continued after the events of their book.
Love ya,
Mae Polzine
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