Trial by Fire (book 2) - Jennifer Lynn Barnes

*** SPOILER ALERT***

If you haven't yet read Raised by Wolves you should not be reading this review. This is the second book in the series!

Overview:
Being a werewolf alpha is not easy. It is especially tough for Bryn, as the only female human teenage werewolf alpha in existence. The other alphas were not going to respect a puny human girl. The alpha's also had another reason to hate her: Bryn had walked away with a whole handful of what all male Weres wanted - female Weres, and formed the Ceder Ridge Pack. The alpha that hated her the most was Shay's, the older brother of Bryn's best friend Devon and the alpha of  Snake Bend Pack. This was why Bryn immediately knew that it was trouble when one of Shay's wolves, Lucas, ended up battered and beaten at her doorstep. He had came to her to ask her to claim him into her pack, because not only was Shay using him as a punching bag to expel his pent-up frustration, he also loaned him to a coven of psychics for some unknown reason to be tortured. The other alphas, except Callum, were at a hair's trigger to attack her pack and forcefully claim her female Weres. Other than Shay, there was also a strong psychic coven wanting to get Lucas back.. Bryn was given seven days to return Lucas to them, or the coven will attack Bryn's pack with full force.
The only one she can get advice to help her out of this sticky situation was Callum, but he cannot directly help her because an alliance between alphas will also trigger the other alphas to fight them. However, this was achieved especially by forbidding Bryn to do something, because whatever Callum forbids her to do, she will purposely do it.

 Review:
I had loved the first novel of the series, Raised by Wolves. I like this series because other than the exciting plot and intriguing, fun characters, the lead character, Bronwyn. Her temperament was also amazingly like mine. We are both stubborn, have problems obeying parental authorities, and dripping with sarcasm. I'm still totally in love with this series. The only bone I have to pick with it was that this book was a bit thinner than the previous one. I just can't get enough of it. Also, I really missed Callum. Despite what Ali and Bryn thinks, I still think Callum thought of Bryn as his own daughter, even though he always have the heart to let Bryn get hurt on the way for the sake of the greater good. I really miss the Bryn-defying-Callum scenes that had filled most of the previous book, but now it only got a few pages of it since they now have their own territories and Were's don't make it a habit to cross each other's. Luckily, there was still enough Bryn-defying-Ali scenes. This book was also filled with more tension than the previous one because the threat showed itself immediately after the book started, while the previous one had dragged with Bryn's training in the middle part. The memories of Callum and Bryn of their time together when he raised her was quite sweet.

Five hearts for a second round!! Another change that I liked was that this book had a lot more mystery than the previous one. When you think about it, Shay is a real genius, and a real evil mastermind. His plots to getting Bryn's head on a platter had layers and layers and layers, just like an onion (or an emotionally complicated ogre), and with every layer, there's a fail-safe that ensures that with every layer of the plan that Bryn managed to come out unscathed, there will still be some way he can benefit from it. It makes my blood boil just thinking about him. I'm really hoping that it was Devon who managed to kill him at the end of the series and replace him as alpha. It would hurt Devon to kill his own brother, but Shay totally deserved to be kicked in the a** by his little brother. Plus, I really think other than Callum, Devon was the one with the potential to defeat Shay in a hands-on battle. Callum won't do it, so it had to be Devon. I'm just hoping that Devon won't turn into a second Shay for Bryn to deal with.
It warms my heart how Ali loved Bryn much more than her husband, insufferable as she is. In the first book, it was Bryn who caused their divorce, and Casey still hated her for it. In this book, there seemed to be some subtle suggestions that Ali may be moving on to Lake's father, Mitch. Will this cause Casey to team up with Shay to get to Bryn, just for maximum angst? Probably not, but you can't deny there's the possibility.




Thanks for listening to my opinions!

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Raised by Wolves - Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Overview:
Bronwyn Alessia St. Vincent Clare, or as she preferred, Bryn, was like a present day Mongli, because she was, as the title suggested, Raised by Wolves. She's like a modern day Mogli, only that she was not raised by the common wolves, but werewolves. After her family had been killed by a Rabid (a lone werewolf who was a crazy) when Bryn was four, the alpha-werewolf of the largest werewolf pack in North America, Callum, took her in as her own and initiated her as a member of the pack. Even though he gave her to Ali (Alison, the human sister-in-law of a werewolf of the pack) to be raised, Callum was her legal guardian and treated her like his own daughter. He cared for her and taught her all the skills needed to survive pack-life and to defend herself when facing a werewolf. But even though Bryn was part of the pack, she had learned to close off her pack bond since she was a little child because she liked her freedom and autonomy (werewolves had to follow everything the alpha ordered. It's in their instincts), and also because she is one rebellious kid.

Review:
This book gets a five heart rating from the get go! I loved the idea of being Bryn, cause in my own fantasy land, I would be raised by werewolves. I also liked her because in some ways, she was a lot like me. She did not like to follow the rules Callum set. Callum always said she was a difficult kid to raise. And if you asked my mother, she will totally say the same thing. I also have this thing of doing exactly that when ordered not to do something. My curiosity just got the better of me. Which was just the problem Bryn had that lead to the discovery of Chase.
Other than those reasons, this book was wonderful and compelling all by itself. It was very fast-paced, had lots of action, and had made me cracking up all the time with Bryn's sarcasm. Also,  this book described werewolf pack-life in such detail which no other book that I've read had done before. In a way, this can be Pack-Life Survival 101. There are two main rules that can be seen over and over again throughout the book, which are females are to be protected, and alpha is to be obeyed.

I absolutely adore the baby twin werewolves, Kaitlin and Alexander (Ali's newborn baby twins), especially Kaitlin. Babies were already cute, but combine babies with puppies and you've got an irresistible combination. Not to mention that as I'm reading this I keep looking to my son playing with his toys on the ground and giggling to myself as he does the same things as the babies in the books. It felt a bit sad though, that Ali left her husband because it will always be pack-first with him. It's the nature of the werewolves. I felt heartbrokened when I heard that they had been crying for a solid hour when Ali packed them up and moved them together with Bryn. But then, they became so adorable again when they nibbled Bryn in their wolf-forms to wake her up. And even though Callum ordered Bryn to be beaten up to satisfy pack justice, I always thought, and still think so, that he's the good guy. Even though he lacked facial expression, I felt from the story that he cared for Bryn as his daughter/sister. He knew her mind very well and dealt with her every time she stepped out of line, which was almost all the time. He always had her best interest in heart, even if he did not reveal it. I love this book so much.

Thanks for listening to my opinions!

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