The Will and the Wilds

December 2022 Reading Wrap-Up

It’s January now, which means December is over. And with it, my (frankly pathetic) amount of reading, as well. Seriously, I did not read nearly as many books as I’d wanted to. As I had aspired to.

But, it can’t be helped; I was once again dealing with stuff, and there were also a lot of familial holiday obligations. Let’s not dwell on what could have been any further – time to get into the StoryGraph statistics.

😐 Moods: Even though I only finished one book last month, I did read a lot of pages from other books that I either DNF-ed, or just haven’t finished yet. The moods from December were mysterious and adventurous, the latter being a mood I frequently feel whilst reading, or looking for books to read. Mysterious is also a relatively frequent mood for me. It makes sense; after all, every adventure needs a bit of mystery.

🎭 Genres: The genres are also not a surprise. I read a ton of YA, and fantasy has always been my favorite thing to read about. Romance is a common genre paired with these two as well, even if I don’t care for it as much, so no surprise there either.

👢 Pace: The pace of the novels I read (or tried to read) in December was slow, which explains why I (1) had so much trouble getting through the books I was reading, and (2) why I DNF-ed more books than I was able to finish. I should just steer clear of slow-paced books when I see them then, huh?

🔢 Page Number: Despite only finishing one book – and one that was just under 300 pages at that – I read almost 600 pages last month. So I still read a fair amount, even if I (very unfortunately) didn’t finish every book I tried to read.

📖 Fiction/Nonfiction: 100% fiction this time around, as per usual. I’ve said it before and I’ll probably say it again: I don’t read nonfiction very often.

📄 Format: All Kindle e-books this month. I don’t care for audiobook format.

⭐ Rating: I only finished one book last month (The Will and the Wilds by Charlie N. Holmberg), so I only rated one book last month. And it was 3.5 out of 5 stars. I just thought the book was okay, so that’s why.

📉 Pages Read Daily: The line graph on the right indicates how much I was reading every day, if I was able to read at all. As you can see, it really dips and then goes at a complete straight line at 0 pages near the end of the month, because I was busy for the holidays.

Annnd that about wraps it up for December! Not as much of a productive month where books (or this blog) are concerned, but I have faith I’ll do better this month. I’m already starting off pretty strong, so hopefully I can keep up this momentum. We’ll see what happens.

I’ll be doing a yearly reading wrap-up for the whole of 2022 very soon, so keep an eye out for that if you like my monthly reading wraps. It’ll probably be something pretty similar, but on a slightly bigger post. Otherwise, join me next blog post for more bookish things!

Book Review: “The Will and the Wilds” by Charlie N. Holmberg

A chill wind makes its way through the wildwood, whispering of misfortunes to come.

About The Will and the Wilds

Length: 265 pages

Genre: Fantasy, Romance

Release Date: January 21, 2020

Book Description

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.

My Review

Star Rating: ★★★✯☆ • 3.5 / 5 stars

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.

Sooo… I liked this book, but I didn’t love it. But it gets 3.5 stars because I’ve given books I’ve liked less 3 stars. It’s not a bad book by any means, though, and I’ll definitely be getting around to more books by Ms. Holmberg. Her prose and writing in general is pretty amazing, and is one of my favorite parts about the book.

What is a soul if not an extension of the heart? Grandmother once said to me. To lose one’s soul is to lose what makes one human. It’s no better than death.

I found that the MC, Enna, to be not annoying, so I’ll definitely give the book that. Especially since so many female protagonists are like that nowadays. Maekallus, one of the two love interests and another main character, also pleasantly surprised me by not being toxic – once actual emotions started happening on his end, that is – and he was actually pretty insecure and kind. Especially since he’s essentially an emotionless demon. He’s actually called a mysting, but mystings are basically totally demons, so he’s a demon.

Anyway, back to the relationship talk. Enna was actually the more toxic of the duo, with the way she flip-flopped between the two love interests, and how she gaslit her mentally incapacitated father (which I did not approve of. At all.), as well as one of the love interests. (Which I also didn’t like.)

It is painful for mystings to cross oon berry. Weaving a circle of thorny plants around your home will act as a proficient safeguard.

The plot and world also felt a little underdeveloped, and I really wanted to know more about the human world and The Deep. I would’ve loved to have a map or two. The climax was also kind of “meh,” but it was primarily a character and emotional driven story, so I’ll let it slide.

Something that I really, really liked though, were the little notes underneath the chapter headings about the mystings and their realm. I also liked how it quickly became obvious that they were Enna’s notes (as well as her grandmother’s). It made me want a bestiary of all the creatures and stuff, with drawings to boot.

I did enjoy this book overall, however, and I have a feeling that people who liked the author’s other stuff will like this. It also had Among the Beasts and Briars (by Ashley Poston) vibes, but not quite as good, so if you like that type of fantasy novel, you’ll probably like The Will and the Wilds.