Thank you to NetGalley, West 44 Books, Rosen Publishing Group, and Maija Barnett for the opportunity to read In the Minds of Wolves in exchange for an honest review.

In the Minds of Wolves is a HiLo novel-in-verse, meaning low readability, but high interest. This follows the perspective of Hazel, a recently turned werewolf. Of course, she cannot show herself to her sister or father. They wouldn't believe it! So she tries to leave hints that she merely ran away.
Pack life has its challenges, as does shifting. Among their challenges is the battle for land. The werewolves aim to keep their forest land from being developed by a major company. When Hazel's sister gets a job with the development company, she struggles with the balance and loyalty between family and pack.

The perspective of this novel is unique in its element in that the reader is already in the perspective of Hazel as a wolf, as opposed to drawing out a turn as a key aspect of the story. It focuses on pack life and the family left behind. While it covers some more basic elements of werewolf living and lore, the pack aiming to keep the development company from destroying their land is an interesting economic aspect to the novel. It makes exploring the werewolf perspective fun and accessible for teen readers, while also keeping an air of seriousness regarding family and corporation elements.

After reading a number of other novels by Maija Barnett, I knew this one would be a must-read as well. Thoughtful and crafty, this makes for an intriguing, accessible werewolf novel for a young adult audience.

Thank you so much to Rosen Publishing/ West 44 Books and Netgalley for the ebook to read and review.

Hazel is a newly turned wolf, having to adjust to the new way of living. But the pack have an ulterior motive for having turned her. There’s a resort being built on what little is left of their land and they needed her help to get access to the buildings and blow it up.

This was quite intense from the way that Hazel got treated, to the plans they had made to destroy an entire resort building and the people within it. Then for all her training and things she had to do in order to become an actual wolf in their pack. They didn’t make it easy and though she got choices they weren’t the choices she wanted nor enough time to settle with the choices.

I liked the creation of this wolf pack world, hidden in the shadows of the coastal woods and how they’d been made up from fractured human beings to a fractured wolf pack family. There was so much detail about their lives and the ways they did things, and the way they transitioned back to humans. It was really very well crafted and thought out.

This would be a really great read for young adult audiences, from the gripping story, the wolves and their pack, the environmental storylines, the messed up families and the coming together and the rise of a she wolf. I really enjoyed the story it was very creative and so unique, it’s done in the wonderful verse style which really worked for this story so well.

this was a strong fantasy psychological thriller novel, it had that element that I was looking for and enjoyed from this type of book. The characters were everything that I wanted in this and had that element that worked in this universe. It was a strong psychological element that I wanted and was engaged with the suspenseful atmosphere that I was hoping for. Maija Barnett wrote this well and was glad I got to read this.

We are following hazel who has been bitten by a wolf, she’s a wolf throughout the month and turns human one day. Her pack want to destroy a construction development to save the land but her family also work there too so it’s between helping her new family or her old family.

The story itself is told in a unique way as we are all in her thoughts everything that is happening we are witnessing as we read. And we learn about basically the kinds of wolves no pun intended. As we are watching her adapt to it all.

It was unique and interesting short read, and I did read it pretty fast to be fair, ended nice and was a standalone. But with it being so short we aren’t really able to fully invest in the characters for me as I like a bit more hence why it’s 3 stars

An excellent, fast-paced read for young adult audiences and lovers of nature. A call to environmentalism and care for forests is strong in this story. Lyrically stunning, with a clear and consistent first-person narration that barrels the story forward while holding interest. The different connections between the different characters brought great balance to the range of emotions. Highly recommended!