Raised by Wolves

Felt kinda slow to me in the beginning
Was an okay book

Bryn survives an attack by a rabid werewolf, a wolf that attacks humans at a whim, but is left an orphan because her parents weren't so lucky. Bryn is adopted by the alpha Callum who saved her and is gifted to a human member of his pack, Ali. This is the story of 15 year old Bryn, her dealing with the attack that lead to her adoption as well as dealing with the fact that she belongs to a pack with many rules she doesn't like.


I have read some reviews on Goodreads, mind you I read them when I was about 200 pages into the book because I was ready to give up, and I have to agree with some of the readers that there are some issues with the way the story is being told. The first 200 pages could have been edited way down because it was really slow. Too much fluff that really didn't need to be in there to get us to some good stuff. Bryn is spunky but also likes to push adult buttons. I personally can't stand kids always trying to do the opposite because they just don't like following adult's rules in real life... can you imagine having to read 400 something odd pages of it? MAN! But at any rate I kept going. No I didn't like the one word sentences/phrases ie. blood. blood. survive. mine. mine. pack. pack. It got to be a bit much. I didn't like how the story dragged for the first 200 pages. I didn't like how Bryn was instantaneously drawn to Chase, her love interest in the book. It wasn't the instantaneous love, which by the way was never flat out defined as love in other words the words were never said, however, it was that the reason for the attraction the pull was never really explained thoroughly. The author tried to make sense of it in the end and gave a good reasoning for the pull and connection but not the explanation for the over powering, you are the one and no one else attraction that emerged so suddenly after meeting this guy one time. For most of the book I was trying to figure out if they really were into each other that way or if this was another mysterious twist. I felt this way even when they were hugging. It just felt odd.

What I did like:
a. The author developed several complex characters; Bryn, Callum, Ali, Lake, Chase, Devon.
b. The story picked up drastically in the second half and made for a good story.
c. I really started to dig Bryn's special gift.
d. I liked how the author introduced some of their social issues and how the characters dealt with them.
e. I really liked how the author brought it all together in the end and very nicely if I say so myself...I just did :-).

This was the first werewolf story I've ever read besides in Twilight and we get a peek into werewolf society in those books. I have to say this book peaked my interest in reading other werewolf books. All in all I enjoyed the second half of the book a lot and probably give this book a 3.5. I haven't decided if I'll be reading the sequels to this book yet. If I do it will be a while. So read at your own risk. Everyone has different likes and dislikes... One of my favorite authors gave this book 5 stars and called it the best book ever. So who knows you might feel the same way too!

Re-read 6/28/19
It's almost 9 years since I read this book and since my previous read was also another YA novel by Barnes, I can really see the similarities in character and writing between the two. This time around I didn't fully re-read Raised by Wolves because as I mentioned in my The Fixer review, I'm not the biggest fan of Barnes' writing and don't connect with her characters as much as I'd like. I skimmed for the most part and read in full my favorite bits which always gave me a good thrill - Bryn's character read more bratty than leader this time around but her character development is by far my favorite aspect of the whole book, if not the whole trilogy. First time around, it was enough for me to feel like this was a five-star read, but not this time. I'm rating this a 3.25 star read and I won't be re-reading the sequels any time soon.


Read 7/26/10
After hearing an ominous knock from the door, everything seems to fast-forward for four year-old Bronwyn who gets saved by a pack of werewolves after seeing her parents brutally murdered by a Rabid. Under the protection of the pack Alpha Callum, Bryn is theirs as much as the pack is hers. Growing up with the Stone River Pack means acquiring the pack mentality of when to submit to dominance, the Mark (three cuts on your waist) and the pack-bond (mind connection between all the pack members). When Bryn starts to notice the over-protective, cautious ways some pack members are being, she decides to investigate and what she stumbles upon breaks open a whole web of secrets that unravel with the presence of a new pack member. A boy named Chase.


Tough-as-nails Bryn makes a deal with her Alpha Callum to get to have supervised visitations with Chase because of mystery she's desperate to solve about her parents murderer. Is the Rabid really dead? Or is he continuing his tortuous ways and killing others?


Associated with the dominance and protectiveness over their few females, the Stone River Pack runs on a system of need-to-know. Being raised in such an environment, Bryn had to learn their rules and the power of the Alpha's law. Jennifer Lynn Barnes did a great job of creating this unique world ruled by werewolves and bringing in Bryn's past from the very beginning as a thoughtful tragedy and giving it depth throughout the entire novel. The characters in Raised by Wolves each have their own attributes that make them endearing and genuine. Halfway through I found the climax to be a bit dramatic but only to be added to the hype that made up the ending. Bryn was a strong-willed character with a mind of her own; not falling under the pressure of the constant compulsion that the dominance dictated unless she willing chose to do so. Barnes made almost every little detail connect to something bigger as the mystery of the Rabid unwound itself. The connection that Bryn shares with Chase is thoroughly analyzed in the second half, but I would like to have seen what connects them personally. Nonetheless, being such a thrilling, kick-ass novel, I would highly recommend it to all who like to see the heroin triumph.


Grade: A-