Trial by Fire

Bryn is an anomaly: the only human acting as alpha and leading a pack of werewolves. It's a tough and lonely job, with many difficult decisions to make with startling consequences. When Bryn finds another alpha's Were, named Lucas, bloody and mid-Shift on her doorstep, she doesn't know what to do. On the one hand, she wants desperately to protect him; on the other, she can't just claim one from another alpha's pack. The boy blacks out right after telling Bryn that she's his last hope for protection. But what is the boy running from? It turns out Lucas was under the lock and key of a coven of psychics. Now that he's escaped, they're hunting him, and anyone who gets in their way. As the threats begin to pile up, Bryn must decide what her priorities are. Herself? Her love? The pack? Or something else entirely... ----- I don't usually like werewolves. After Twilight, werewolves and vampires were written about like crazy, trying to get the Twilight junkies hooked on the same topic in a different series. It didn't work. This book however, was nothing like Twilight, which I was glad of. I hate copycat books; I crave originality! First off, the idea of Bryn being simply human threw me. Human? As in, she can't change at all, and she doesn't have the built-in Were instincts? She can't turn into anything, no; however, she does have those instincts, because she was raised by werewolves. The book stated, clearly, several times, that Bryn was just human; however, that couldn't seem to compute in my brain. How could she be alpha without being a wolf? For much of the book, I was wondering if I was mistaken about her not being Were, because she was alpha. However, by the end of the story, I truly got it: Bryn is not a Werewolf. The only thing that convinced me entirely was the fact that she asked her guardian to turn her, in time. ----- I enjoyed the aspect of the psychics. That is one thing that will never be overdone for me; because there are so many ways to do it. Writers who choose psychics as their topics have such an opportunity to make it new and original. Jennifer Lynn Barnes did a great job with that. I liked how they were a 'coven' of psychics; it reminded me of witchcraft, although there was technically none of that. The concept of the powers that the leader of the coven possessed made me think, which I enjoyed. How could someone have so much power that they could physically and psychically influence another person's way of thinking? Just a little bit, I could understand; but to the extent that they would kill? Very interesting to contemplate. I especially found the twist ending with the psychics and Ali, Bryn's foster mom, to be incredibly interesting. ----- This is the first book in the Raised by Wolves trilogy that I've read; it's the second in the series. I wish I'd gotten to read the first book prior to this one, but I didn't. There was so much back story, from what had happened in the first novel, and from even earlier, that I sometimes found it difficult to keep up. There were also a lot of names, some of them similar; Ali, Bryn's foster mother, and Alex, a werewolf, for example. Although I could call to mind each character by their names by the end of the story, when I was actually reading, it took me some time to be able to associate the name with (my version of) the face. Barnes did a good job of helping the reader (especially one new to the series, like me) to remember the characters; I just found the sheer number of people to remember could get somewhat overwhelming. ----- I found this book enjoyable, though perhaps not as much as I'd expected, after reading some reviews on it. I enjoyed the storyline and the ideas; werewolves overall just aren't my cup of tea. It was a well-written book with no visible writing errors. I would give it a rating of four stars. It's not quite at the level of enjoyability that some previous four-star books gave me, but I did still like it. I would recommend this story for anyone looking for some romance, tough decisions, and magic where it's least expected.

Good