Book Probe

Raise By Wolves was my first werewolf-based novel I had read. Jennifer Lynn Barnes did a fantastic job at defining, capturing and explaining the essence and mannerisms of a werewolf and their pack (the social, the physical, their hierarchy system, etc.). She explored it successfully, and that, in my eyes, was compelling. However, with its sequel Trial By Fire, I didn’t enjoy it as much, until...a Glee reference came out of no-where! Actually there was quite a lot of the book I did admire: Jennifer’s writing, the characters, the way the plot had unfolded. But I just felt that Jennifer could’ve taken a different approach in this sequel.Bryn spent fifteen years of her life being raised by a pack of werewolves. Unusual, right? Wrong! It is even more unusual and harder that Bryn at age sixteen has become the only human, female, alpha pack leader ever, and of the newly formed Cedar Ridge pack. This means she has the responsibility for keeping an entire pack of werewolves safe and well. And they could just kill her as they desire to get a new pack leader. But that is not the case. The pack are part friends and family.Bryn struggles throughout the course of the novel with her responsibility as an alpha, which also means she has to deal with the other packs who are lead by goal-driven, ruthless male alphas who want Bryn to lose her status as an alpha because she is (1), human and (2), female even if that means killing. Shay, [the brother of Devon, Bryn’s best friend (and my favourite character)], is the alpha of that other pack -- a power hungry individual who doesn’t just want Bryn dead and her pack, but rather the female werewolves, the gems of the werewolf community.Bryn just doesn’t have Shay to deal with, but the threat of a coven -- family/group -- of psychics with powers, that are somehow tied into the ‘Why?’ of why a battered teenage boy werewolf has appeared in Bryn’s territory asking for her protection. And for Bryn, things get more complicated when she can’t claim and save him without agreeing with Shay and possibly starting a war; with Shay and the psychics.Being alpha is not an easy task. Even more when you do not look like an epitome of an alpha pack leader. Bryn proves that it is not what you are that makes you a leader, but rather who you are and your ability to deal with threats and ability to lead.Introducing this new ‘species' really of psychics, a coven, to be a threat for Bryn, I believe Jennifer just wanted to throw in another paranormal element. I would’ve enjoyed it more if it was more a werewolf-only world which instead of the psychics they could just be normal human hunters who hunt and kill werewolves, because they’re rabid and “animals”. But still, I liked some of the psychic abilities the new characters had which brought a twist to the story, and now thinking about it, it did integrate well into the ability that Bryn has with connecting with the pack etc..Where Raised By Wolves was more a book filled with information on the werewolf-creature and hierarchal in-pack, Trial By Fire dealt more with pack politics (the laws between the packs and the alpha pack leaders). This just influences the likeness for Jennifer Lynn Barnes’s werewolves.Trial By Fire was a compelling sequel. Although Raised By Wolves is more informative as a set-up for the events of that in Trial By Fire, Trial By Fire can be read on its own or read first. All I wonder is what’s going to happen in the next book in the series now, as Trial By Fire did not end on a cliffhanger but rather ended with a subtle finish.