i've had a difficult time gathering my thoughts about this book. about this entire duology, really. the first book changed me a bit, you know what i mean? one day your compass is set to its true north but then you finish a book and it's gone askew. i think that's one of the things i love most about books and story, that you can be on a steady path through life and then a new book can alter the way you move, the way you think, your entire direction. sometimes you feel the shift and sometimes its imperceptible, but it's usually so infinitesimal as to go unnoticed until you realize that your horizon has slid, and maybe this direction is new but it also feels better.

that was forestborn for me. it changed the north of my compass by a few degrees and i felt how precious that was.

so when i was approved for an advanced copy of wildbound, i was a bit scared. it felt too big, which sounds downright melodramatic but maybe not if you have a love for the way that people share themselves through words on a page. or if you have anxiety, like yours truly, because everything seems too big then also. 

but alas, my compass has been left further askew and i couldn't be more grateful for it. wildbound was wonderful. really, really wonderful. the messages of family, friendship, climate change and ecological preservation, identity and healing inner wounds - they're all themes which were laid in the foundation of forestborn and have been expanded into the profound arc of wildbound.

and the character development! the authentic voices in both rora's and helos' perspectives! the emphasis on not just romantic love but also the deep love that intertwines friendships! the highlight of softness within masculinity!

ah, i can't wait to read this duology again.