Trial By Fire by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Title:  Trial by Fire

Author:  Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Genre:  Young Adult

Publisher:  Pan Macmillan (Imprint: Quercus)

Publication Date:  1st August 2011

ISBN:  9780857380784

Stand alone or series:   Raised by Wolves #2

Pages:  304 pages

Book Received from:  Pan Macmillan (Publisher)

First Lines:  "No more school, no more books, no more teacher's dirty looks..."  For a two-hundred-twenty-pound werewolf, Devon Macalister had a wicked falsetto.

Possible Spoilers if you haven't read Raised By Wolves

Synopsis:There can only be one alpha.

Bryn is finally settling into her position as alpha of the Cedar Ridge Pack—or at least, her own version of what it means to be alpha when you’re a human leading a band of werewolves. Then she finds a teenage boy bleeding on her front porch. Before collapsing, he tells her his name is Lucas, he’s a Were, and Bryn’s protection is his only hope.
But Lucas isn’t part of Bryn’s pack, and she has no right to claim another alpha’s Were. With threats—old and new—looming, and danger closing in from all sides, Bryn will have to accept what her guardian Callum knew all along. To be alpha, she will have to give in to her own animal instincts and become less human. And, she’s going to have to do it alone.
Bryn faces both the costs, and the rewards, of love and loyalty, in this thrilling sequel to Raised by Wolves.

My Thoughts:
Thanks to Pan Macmillan I was lucky enough to receive Trial By Fire, the second book in the Raised by Wolves series.  I had the first one Raised By Wolves sitting on my shelf for some time, so it gave me a good excuse to pick it up and read it first, since I hate reading books out of order.

I really have grown to like the main character Bryn.  I will say this right now just to get this off my chest.  For some reason I don't really like the full name Bronwyn for the main character.  I don't know what it is but I really feel like Bryn suits her better.  No offence to all the Bronwyns out there, I just really don't think the name is 'wolf girl' material. Sorry.

Anyways, Bryn is now the alpha of the Cedar Ridge Pack which is odd since, well, she's not a werewolf.  There are problems, when a boy, Lucas turns up on her doorstep broken.  When she is left little choice but to take him in things get a lot more interesting.  Callum takes a step back and will not give Bryn advice how she should go about this wolf, fearing their democracy may blow up in their faces, which is fair enough BUT I felt, for someone who had a hand in raising Bryn that it was unfair for her to not at least have a small amount of support lean her way from him.

Chase, Devon and Lake are my absolute favourite secondary characters.  Their personalities compliment Bryn's well and they work great as a team, even when things seem to be coming unstuck.  After Bryn becomes Alpha to her young pack, Chase, Devon and Lake step up to help her cope.  I mean, a 15 year old girl dealing with wolves learning to be.. well wolves would be a hard thing..  but Jennifer does a fantastic job in portraying how well Bryn deals with everything that is going on.  With outside threats coming from humans with 'knacks', and other packs bombarding her from the side, you'd think she'd crumble under pressure.

As far as this being the second book in the series, I feel it's well and truly outdone the first book.  I fell in love with Bryn and the cast of characters in Raised By Wolves, and Trial By Fire just reinforces the fact I'm going to love book three Taken By Storm.