A beautiiful novel about a young wolf who needs to prove herself to her pack. A great, educational read cant wait for the next one! ( )

So I'm going to side with several people here(and Goodreads), if just because I was young when I bought this book and for awhile there was no sign of another book online or anywhere else. I've not checked if it took years or if it was my own young incompetence, as I checked the new book area and stores that sold the first so surely I was not stupid. I asked about the next book, etc. I will say the experience this book gave me was infuriating. It was good, sure, not a bad read, but now holds a bit of resentment like some really badly done sequels hold.

I read this book assuming it was stand alone, a book that didn't end vague and confusing. For all the good this book does, it sure does stab you with an ending that goes lolnope, read the second book to see how this wraps up. There are more than two books that I've heard now, and I do desire to know how it "ends", but have so little desire to truly read the next two or so books.

My experience with seeking book #2 was a fruitless search, and yielded me anger, a reread of this book only further pissed me off and made me mad. Pardon my language, but the cliffhanger-natured ending was one of the worst I have ever experienced.

I just checked and if I am reading right, this one came out in 2008, while book two was 2011, maybe I'm crazy but this book was meant to hitch and pull in younger readers to teenagers, while I cannot fault the writer if rl stuff interfered, I will say that is way too long to hold a teenager's breath in your hands and then drag out releases. I waited and searched for two years and then quit. I hated the first book so much I wore the last few pages out rereading it in anger.

I have never had such an experience with a book. I've never had a book cop out on me and crap on me like this one has. I've had bad disappointments, I've had dead characters resurrected by love tropes, I've had cliche romances and unhealthy Fifty Shades bull all shoved down my throat, but this is the one that was so bad to me, it wasn't good.

Maybe I could recommend this book now, now that the next two books are out, but in 2008, not 2011 and 2013, I'd have told you to put it back down. It's not a good book unless the other two are out, and I've not read the other two, so this could be a slide downward instead of a fun ride into another book of fun. It feels to me like if I ever do read the Wolf Chronicles #2 and #3, I might feel less resentment, but if the dates are really that far apart, I understand why so many years ago I had anger at this series that has only barely faded. ( )

As someone who isn't of the millions of dog-lovers in the world, I had less of an affection for this book and more of an understanding of it. To love this book I think you must be more than just indifferent to dogs.

I could not find my suspension of disbelief for how intelligent these wolves are; I don't think animals' minds process in the same way as ours do and cannot appreciate when a human makes it seem so. If this writer, who has a lovely story and good ideas, were to make the narration and actions closer to how a wolf might think, I could get behind it. As it stands in the canon of YA fantasy works, I am less than impressed and feel there are many issues that should have been resolved and ideas that might have been more carefully planned and developed. ( )

Had I read this 10, 8, even a few years ago, I might have rated it higher...then again, since I'm sure I'd found Tamora Pierce, at least, quite some time ago, maybe not. Not bad, but nothing special in the realm of human-animal magical communication/friendship/whatever, not all that original or well-written, but again not terribly-written and while it shares many common elements of this sort of book, it at least isn't too much like any one book in particular, as far as I can tell. Probably good for younger readers though, and for teens I'd sooner recommend Tamora Pierce's Immortals series (of which Wild Magic and Wolf-Speaker would have most in common with this series). Or, actually, a closer match is Michelle Paver's Chronicles of Ancient Darkness series, which is better-written, more inventive, and has an altogether more complete world, plot, and cast of characters. Paver's books also feature a human-wolf pair, a prehistoric world, magic, etc--but, as I've said, better. I know this is a review for Hearst's book, but I don't plan to read the next in the series, and anyway, whether you keep on with this series or not, you'd best take a look at Palmer's series if you haven't yet.

Oh, and though it features cheetahs rather than wolves, Tomorrow's Sphinx, by Clare Bell, is another YA book of a similar breed, and well worth the reading (as are her other books). ( )

Had I read this 10, 8, even a few years ago, I might have rated it higher...then again, since I'm sure I'd found Tamora Pierce, at least, quite some time ago, maybe not. Not bad, but nothing special in the realm of human-animal magical communication/friendship/whatever, not all that original or well-written, but again not terribly-written and while it shares many common elements of this sort of book, it at least isn't too much like any one book in particular, as far as I can tell. Probably good for younger readers though, and for teens I'd sooner recommend Tamora Pierce's Immortals series (of which Wild Magic and Wolf-Speaker would have most in common with this series). Or, actually, a closer match is Michelle Paver's Chronicles of Ancient Darkness series, which is better-written, more inventive, and has an altogether more complete world, plot, and cast of characters. Paver's books also feature a human-wolf pair, a prehistoric world, magic, etc--but, as I've said, better. I know this is a review for Hearst's book, but I don't plan to read the next in the series, and anyway, whether you keep on with this series or not, you'd best take a look at Palmer's series if you haven't yet.

Oh, and though it features cheetahs rather than wolves, Tomorrow's Sphinx, by Clare Bell, is another YA book of a similar breed, and well worth the reading (as are her other books). ( )