Synopsis:
Basuin doesn’t know what to believe in anymore. All Basuin knows is life as an army captain and the pain, loss, and disgrace it has brought him. Demoted and humiliated by his legion commander, he is led into the forest for one more mission: capture a god.
But when his commander uses innocent wolf pups as bait, Basuin dies saving them. The Wolf God, impressed by his sacrifice, deifies Basuin to protect the forest and its beautiful, sharp-tongued god from the legion’s deforestation.
To the Forest God, Basuin is nothing more than one of the men sent to burn her forest down. Betrayed by humans too many times, she rejects him, working alone to protect the spirits of the forest as her home disappears around her. To save the god he is growing to love, Basuin must untangle the feelings between them. Otherwise, they’ll burn together.
Genre: Fantasy
Publisher: Solaris Books
Pub Date: 26 March 2026
This book was sent to me as an ARC for free by @SolarisBooks
Review:
Basuin was a war hero. Now he is just another soldier, sailing to an island on a final mission. The gods still live on this island, and when his commander sets fire to part of the forest, Bas chooses to save two little wolf pups but perishes in the process. In a twist of fate, he is claimed by the Wolf God and reborn as a protector of the very forest his army is trying to destroy.
This is a book filled with tension, rage and also love. Moore’s writing is quick and effective, serving up a vibrant atmosphere and brilliantly capturing the frenetic pace of Basuin’s mind. I’ve seen some people saying it’s repetitive, and it is at times, but I found it to be a great tool to really understand our MC.
We explore a lot of themes here, namely, can a person change? What if that person has only known war and violence? Can they become ‘good’? Can they heal from their trauma? Basuin’s inner world surrounding his PTSD and mental battle between rage and love was really interesting to read.
We also have the underlying theme of ecological destruction. The gods are bound to the land, to the forest. If you destroy that forest, you destroy them. This narrative pins together all the different parts of the plot.
I have mixed feelings about some of the characters, namely Ren. While I commended her pacifism, it was also the most frustrating part of the entire book for me. I also felt like she could have had more agency, especially in the latter half of the book.
Overall I had a great time with this one, and enjoyed its gritty exploration of trauma and redemption. The parts that worked well, were brilliant, and I do recommend this to anyone who is after a darker forest fantasy with some real emotional depth.
Pages of Emma 
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