Review: Raised by Wolves by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

From the author's website:
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?

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Raised by Wolves started off by grabbing my interest and holding it for almost the first half of the book. Then it lost me. I liked the premise, a human girl raised by a pack of wolves. I liked the secondary characters - from her Alpha, Callum, to her adopted human mother, Ali, and her best friend, wolf Dev. She's a spunky kid who constantly pushes her boundaries.

Callum is hiding a secret, and once she figures out what (who) it is, she's determined to get answers to questions she's been holding inside since she was four. She's immediately drawn to Chase, a bitten wolf. And that's where things start to get out of control.

I loved the first half of the book - Bryn was a cute heroine, her pack dynamics were interesting, and I liked her best friend, Dev. Then she meets Chase, and I was still into the story. But then Ms. Barnes hurries the story along, where I was enjoying the characters and scenery and the plot was slowly unfolding, suddenly things rush forward and it felt hurried and disjointed from the beginning of the story. It almost felt like two different people wrote the first and second half of the story - I didn't care for her friend Lake, and Dev, who felt like such a huge part of the beginning of the story, disappeared and then suddenly reappeared in time to fight the villian. The end was nice and I was glad the author let us see into Callum's motivations for his actions, but I would have liked to see more about how the principal characters were adjusting than just a general status report.

I'd be curious to revisit these characters in a few years and find out how things turned out.

Reading level: Young Adult
Hardcover: 432 pages
Publisher: EgmontUSA (June 8, 2010)
ISBN-10: 1606840592
ISBN-13: 978-1606840597

My Rating: