Review--Trial by Fire by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

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.

Jennifer Lynn Barnes' Trial by Fire was a good sequel to Raised by Wolves. My memory regarding the first one was sketchy at best but the important details were brought up again and I was able to read smoothly through the book. And overall I felt it was okay, it was good just not as good as the first one in my opinion.

I guess there was just more to the storyline or something in Raised by Wolves. Trial by Fire has its storyline, Bryn is trying to adjust to her new role as alpha and has a lot on her hands. New threats and old threats attacking her and her pack left and right, she can't seem to catch a break. Being alpha is a lot harder than she expected. Even when Callum gives his cryptic assistance in mysterious ways, Bryn is still at a lost.

Bryn takes in a wolf who belongs to her old (and current) enemy, he claims to have been loaned to another group who has been abusing him as Shay had been. Now both Shay and the other group are coming a calling, they want him back and will do whatever it takes to get him, including war.

The beginning is what slowed me down the most, it definitely picks up in the middle or so for me. That's when Bryn starts taking drastic measures to protect her pack. The battle that looms when Bryn still refuses to relinquish the wolf after the given time was intense as well. There's more than one shocking situation that results from it. And the ending leads to an even bigger one.

So overall it was a decent read, probably much the same as I felt for the first book. I liked it, just didn't loooove it.

Overall rating 3.5/5 stars