Book Review of Raised by Wolves by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Title: Raised by Wolves

Author: Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Release Date: June 8th, 2010

“Adopted by the Alpha of a werewolf pack after a rogue wolf brutally killed her parents right before her eyes, fifteen-year-old Bryn knows only pack life, and the rigid social hierarchy that controls it. That doesn’t mean that she’s averse to breaking a rule or two.

But when her curiosity gets the better of her and she discovers Chase, a new teen locked in a cage in her guardian’s basement, and witnesses him turn into a wolf before her eyes, the horrific memories of her parents’ murders return. Bryn becomes obsessed with getting her questions answered, and Chase is the only one who can provide the information she needs.

But in her drive to find the truth, will Bryn push too far beyond the constraints of the pack, forcing her to leave behind her friends, her family, and the identity that she’s shaped?”

Summary by Goodreads

My Review: I was lucky enough to get an advanced copy of this signed at BEA by Jennifer Lynn Barnes herself and I was really excited!  This is one of those books that I have been waiting for, I mean Melissa Marr has a quote on the front cover, and I love her!  So, if she read it and liked it, I had no doubt that I would as well.  One of the things I did like about this book is that Bryn is a human literally being “raised by wolves,”  she lives among the werewolves, but she is not one of them.  It is interesting to get a perspective on “pack” life through the eyes of a human and not a wolf.  Don’t let Bryn being a human fool you, she is not helpless.  She trains every day with these wolves and has learned to fight with them and against them which makes her one lethal girl.  Living amongst the wolves has also given Bryn an appreciation for them, but she has not succumb to them.  The pack are all mental connected to each other and Bryn has spent her whole life fighting to keep her mental shields up for fear of losing her independence.  She is a fighter and stubborn which makes it fascinating to see her interact with werewolves who are not used to a human standing up to them.

Within the pack Bryn’s best friend is a male purebred named Devon.  He is coined by Bryn in the book as a “metro-sexual” which just made me giggle when I tried to picture a werewolf caring that much about hygiene and labels.  As I read the story though Devon became a favorite of mine, he was constantly quoting movies and Broadway shows or putting his own spin on them.  For example, my favorite quote of his in the book is “Oh, I see how it is.  Baby finds her Johnny Castle, and all of a sudden, she forgets about the small matter of her BFF?”  The way he talks just amused me so much I loved to see what was going to come out of his mouth next.

Another character I loved was Callum, he just reminds me of a werewolf version of Yoda.  Not physically, Callum is a big guy, but mentally he knows a lot about what is going on, but is always cryptic with his answers and methods.  There were points in the book where I was not so sure how much I liked him and I could not tell which side he was playing for, but it was almost better that way.  As a reader I liked trying to figure him out with Bryn and not know exactly what was going to happen next.

At the heart of the story is the relationship between Bryn and Chase and it is almost electric.  You could feel the energy between them pulsing through the pages of the book and I was always left wanting to see them together more.  By the end of the book there are still some questions left unanswered and some issues unresolved, but I closed the book happy with how it concluded for now.  I read on Jennifer’s site that there will be a sequel called Trial by Fire coming out in 2011, so I am looking forward to that.  This is a great book about pack life, relationships and self discovery I highly recommend it