No tale had ever told her she could rely on the generosity of wolves, the eaters of grandmothers and lambs and piglets, the trickers of blue-eyed girls in carmine riding hoods.

But she had a debt to pay, and she would pay it.

2.5 stars. I'm so sad that I didn't enjoy this the way the first half of the book made me think I would. Because it was a really good first half! But unfortunately, the story really fell apart for me in the latter half, there were some storytelling choices that I just personally really dislike, some things that made me ??, and just generally, I didn't get the story that I thought I was getting from the synopsis.

First, the good. Really lovely writing and atmosphere. The little I know about the original story comes from Wikipedia, but I immediately fell in love with the setting, the story and the protagonists. It's rooted in the real world, but like any good retelling, there were glimmers of fairy-tale-esque details. I felt firmly rooted in the Siberian taiga. I flew through those first several chapters. Pyotra's first meeting with Volk, the chase, the push and pull, and kind of back and forth they had as they slowly began to learn about each other? I loved it. I would have adored it if the entire book was about them in the forest, developing a romance and understanding one another.

That isn't to say I dislike the actual plot of the book, which has to do with family and bonds and a rescue mission. What I didn't gel with was how it was told. Starting in Part Two, we began to get a lot of other POVs, and it felt super clumsy and strange, and I just wasn't as interested in those characters as I was in Pyotra and Volk. I rarely enjoy getting the villain's POV in books; letting the reader know everything the villain is doing while the heroes search them out is not a narrative choice I love. And that was what we got here. Not only the villain, but a bunch of secondary characters as well. I feel like if they were going to take up so much of the story, they should have been on page from the beginning, or we should have known of their existence sooner. As it was, it felt so tonally weird, to just have that shifts. I did end up liking a couple of those characters, so it wasn't all bad, but again: they took up so much space and time. A lot of the plot things were a bit muddled and confusing, and it lost me several times. I ended up being too confused to actually enjoy myself. :/

Romance makes up a big part of the story, though idk if this would actually be classified as a romance. Which is a shame; for me, at least. I really liked Pyotra and Volk's relationship, and I have a feeling I'd have enjoyed this more if it was a straight up dark fairy-tale romance. The fast pace of the relationship didn't really bother me (I tend not to mind insta-love in fairy-tale/fantasy settings) and they had some great moments. It did get a little... intense? I can enjoy shifter romances, but abo is my least favourite trope of all time, and while it didn't go there, it didn't not go there? Aha.

Definitely not a bad book; just not quite what I thought it would be, and not totally for me.

☆ Review copy provided via the author. Thank you!

Perfect for a winter read! I felt the Siberian chill in this atmospheric queer retelling of Peter and the Wolf. The plot unfolds slowly and mysteriously as we get to know Pyotra, a young woman who has lost most of her family except for her dear brother and her grandfather. She is surviving as best as she can until she is faced with a wolf, unlike any other she has seen. What follows is a quietly beautiful and sometimes steamy love story with plenty of twists and turns. I really loved Pyotra and Volk’s story as well as a few of the side characters who are introduced later in the story. I highly recommend this for people who enjoy WLW romance, retellings, and mystery.

Thank you to the author for an eARC in exchange for an honest review. Look for my Instagram post and blog review as it gets closer to publication date.

I received an ARC I'm exchange for an honest review.

This is a sapphic retelling of the Russian fairy tale Peter and the Wolf. I love queer retellings of classic fairy tales, so I was excited when the author contacted me about this!

We follow Pyotra as she hunts down the wolf that attacked her little brother with every intention of shooting it in revenge. Except the wolf didn't attack him, she saved him, and the wolf isn't an ordinary wolf, she's Volk, a werewolf. Pyotra comes to this conclusion over the course of the beginning of the book, and we see their relationship develop as they hurry back to help Pyotra's brother. No spoilers for the rest of the book, but I enjoyed it!

It is well written with likable characters. 4 stars because I found the beginning quite slow, but the pace picks up later on.

This is released in February, check it out!

* Thanks to NetGalley and NineStar Press for providing an advance copy for review purposes *

Pyotra lives in the Siberian taiga with her grandfather and her little "duckling" brother. She is not particularly keen on wolves, since her mother passed away after being attacked by a pack of them, so she is intent on revenge when she catches a wolf holding on to her brother on a hole on the edge of a frozen lake. After taking care of her brother wounds, Pyotra follows the wolf into the wilderness with the purpose of killing it. But things are not what they appear in this retelling of Prokofiev's famous musical tale.

I really enjoyed the first part of the book as it brings to life the Siberian winter - you can feel the cold and the perils of the chase. The second half does suffer a little as the romance aspect is over emphasized (* note there are explicit sex scenes *), and a Big Bad Villain that would feel at home in Stieg Larsson's books appears, but does not have enough room to show us his motivations beyond a short nod to Hitchcock. The ending feels rushed, with additional characters and points of view thrown in at the last minute, and not enough time to really flesh them out.

I love it! Unique, sensual, and with a sense of humor. Filled with "a disparate assortment of characters" you can't help but love and root for.

Elna Holst’s retelling of Prokofiev’s classic tale takes the good old trope of enemies to lovers to new heights in this meeting of hunter and hunted, of predator and prey, where the lines between woman and beast first blurs and then blends until the reader is no longer sure where one entity ends and the other begins.

We are introduced to Pyotra–a loyal granddaughter and sister living in a small village in the taiga; and Volk– the mysterious werewolf of the tundra, a fairy tale made real. Two strong women with their own share of vulnerabilities. In a genre populated with “strong” women that borders on questionable morality, it is refreshing to meet two fierce creatures, that are also gentle at heart. I normally don’t go for insta-love but I’m all for seeing the main characters end up with each other. It is such a joy to see this couple work out how a relationship between woman and wolf could work. It was a lot of fun to witness their banter, and their chemistry just sends up hot sparks even in the frozen tundra setting.

Longer version of my review here: https://princessandpages.wordpress.com/2021/03/10/pages-review-pyotra-and-the-wolf-by-elna-holst/

Rating: 3/5

Pyotra and the Wolf is a Russian inspired queer retelling with a f/f relationship front and center! The beginning of this story is my favorite! It's so atmospheric and the character introduction is so strong!

While shapeshifters and werewolf romances are not usually my favorite thing, Pyotra and the Wolf managed to keep me intrigued with the relationship!

Content Warnings for graphic violence and on the page sex.

The second half of this book is the main reason why I had to lower my rating. Things just got so clunky and jumbled, new perspectives were added that threw me off, and I felt like the ending was a little rushed.

All-in-all, Pyotra and the Wolf managed to surprise me and I think it was a solid romance for me not vibing with the tropes used! If you enjoy sapphic romances and/or shifter romances than give this one a try!!

Thank you to Netgalley and the Publishers for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review!

Pyotra and the Wolf was a fascinating story. Elna Holst stated that "Peter and the Wolf" was the inspiration for the novel. I found a bit of that but mostly I found a Russian werewolf story. The story was original and unpredictable. The main characters, the titular named Pyotra and the Wolf, were complex. The atmosphere, contrasting from the tundra to a small Russian town, was well written. I enjoyed the book and would recommend it.

Elna Holst is a chameleon. She’s like a talented forger (albeit with honest intentions), dressing up her writing in the original author’s. In a couple of strokes, she carried me away into Jane Austen’s world with Lucas , and just as easily I just spent a few days in Siberia with Pyotra and her wolf. The way Holst describes the scenery, the sounds, the lights (or lack thereof, in the constant night), the pervasive cold. That last one in particular, the cold, which only highlights how warm Volk (the wolf) is.

Pyotra and the Wolf is a sapphic retelling of Sergei Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf, one of the musical tales I have listened to most, first as a child, then as a parent. I loved all the ways Holst made the story hers. In her version, Pyotra lives in a remote settlement in Siberia. Since wolves killed her mother and sorrow took her father, it’s been her, her grandfather Boris and her much younger brother Sergei. When she arrives home to find a wolf holding her brother’s neck in their jaw, fury takes over and she gets ready to shoot, only to be inexplicably moved by the wolf’s eyes. The wolf runs away and Pyotra goes after it. She finds out soon enough that this wolf is no ordinary wolf.

I’m late to the Elna Holst party. I read one of her Tinsel and Spruce Needles Romance novellas a couple of years ago, which I enjoyed, but I wasn’t wowed at the time. Since then, and in rather quick succession, I’ve read In the Palm, Lucas and now this latest novel, and Holst is now definitely in my favourite authors’ hall of fame.

Each book I read becomes my new favourite. They’re so brilliant I’m not sure I have the words to explain why. They delight me, they disturb me, they make me feel smart. I wrote in my review for Lucas that it made my brain cells dance with joy and Holst did it again.

Both Pyotra and Volk are delightful characters. Pyotra is a badass, a young woman who won’t let fear dictate her life, especially not when it comes to taking care of and protecting her brother. I loved seeing her character grow, question what she thought she knew about life, family, duty. She’s stubborn and driven in the best way, ultimately. Volk is fascinating for completely different reasons. Who would have thought dual personalities, human and wolf coexisting, could be so sexy? That’s another thing I loved about this book, how sensual and sexual it is.

On a side note, as someone with sensory issues, I’ve been very surprised recently – first in Aurora’s Angel by Emily Noon, now in this book (both about shapeshifters) – to realise that an overdeveloped sense of smell can be sexy, like really really sexy.

When they first meet, Volk is in wolf form and I know this will sound weird but the chemistry is already palpable. There’s a reason Volk was close to Pyotra’s house, and it has everything to do with chemistry. As they get to know each other, the chemistry keeps growing, taking many forms. Volk wants Pyotra in different yet similar ways depending on whether she’s in her human body or in her wolf. Pyotra loves both the wolf and the woman.

While the pace didn’t work as well for me in the last third (approximately) of the story and the thrill wasn’t as high, it picked up again towards the end, bringing the story to a close on an ideal high note.

The ease with which Elna Holst plays with the English language fills me with glee. That she does so while telling compelling stories makes it even more perfect.

ARC provided to Les Rêveur for an honest review.