Unleashed

October 15, 2011
After her mother's death Katelyn trades in Los Angeles for a backwoods Arkansas town where everything, all the way down to deaths, is wolf-themed. Going from the city to tiny Wolf Springs is a huge transition for Katelyn. In her grandfather's corner of the Ozark Mountains, cell-phone reception is spotty and legends are plentiful. As the new girl, Katelyn takes the spotlight over from the last big news in town--the mysterious death of a local girl, believed to have been killed by animals in the woods. The mystery is transparently (and humorously) built through a book on the town's history that is missing a page: the one in between a warning of a creature in the woods more fearsome than the wolves and the line, "And thus it remains that our good company shuns the wooded hills." While Katelyn is courted by standard paranormal-romance suitors, it's her relationship with new BFF Cordelia Fenner that takes center stage. Even though Katelyn is being attacked and hunted, it's Cordelia's plot (which directly references the Cordelia in King Lear) that slowly takes over the novel. From the town-history book to the Shakespeare parallel, the story has little time for subtlety. Instead of solving the mystery, the ending adds additional complications for the sequel to tackle. Enjoyable enough, but it doesn't stand out from the pack. (Paranormal romance. 12-17)

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

February 1, 2012

Gr 7 Up-When an earthquake-related house fire takes the life of her mother, Katelyn finds herself uprooted from California and thrust into a new existence: an isolated cabin with her grandfather in the Ozarks, a small high school, and dire warnings to stay inside after dark, punctuated with a teen's recent mysterious death. She does find a friend in Cordelia, who becomes her partner on a local history project that turns up accounts of an area called Hellhound. After a second attack by a canny blue-eyed wolf results in a bite, Kat suffers strange symptoms. Cordelia seems to know all too well what Kat is becoming, but she risks her own life divulging secrets and promises to see her through her ordeal. This first book in a series will probably hook the rabid readers of paranormal romance, but the more discerning might find flaws in pacing, some lack of atmosphere, and mixed success at characterization. They will, however, enjoy both of Kat's romantic options: Justin, with powerful animal magnetism, and Trick, artsy and intense, who may have his own secrets. Readers who prefer female leads who fight their own supernatural demons to those who just kiss them will like Katelyn's ultimately personal involvement in the secret werewolf community of Wolf Springs, AR. After a slow start, the action and momentum build, but the lack of resolution feels like a cheat. Still, those who persevered will be howling for the next installment.-Suzanne Gordon, Lanier High School, Sugar Hill, GA

Copyright 2012 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 1, 2011
Grades 7-12 Holder and Vigui', authors of the popular Wicked series, lope into werewolf territory with the first book in the new Wolf Springs Chronicles. After the sudden death of her mother, Californian Katelyn McBride is uprooted to tiny Wolf Springs, Arkansas, to live with her grandfather. The town is edgy after the mauling death of a young girl, and Kat is warned to never go outside alone. After she barely escapes from a terrifying attack by a huge blue-eyed wolf that bites her leg, Kat starts to experience odd symptoms and confides in a friend, who reveals what readers have long figured out. As the days click toward the full moon, suspense comes not in the question of whether or not she is a werewolf but rather in what kind she is. The authors are clearly having fun, packing in lots of tongue-in-cheek lupine references, including a local retreat where businessmen find their inner wolves. The abrupt conclusion that leaves central mysteries unsolved will have readers howling for the next installment.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)

January 1, 2012
After her mother's death, Katelyn moves to Wolf Springs, Arkansas, to live with her grandfather. As Katelyn adapts to small-town life, the supernatural secrets of Wolf Springs are unveiled after a student is killed. Crisp narration keeps the book going, but quicker plotting would have raised the stakes.

(Copyright 2012 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)