Wolves, Boys, & Other Things That Might Kill Me by Kristen Chandler

By: Kristen Chandler

ISBN – 978-0-670-01142-1

Publisher: Viking

Published: 2010

Hardcover: 371

FTC-FYI: Borrowed from the library

Let me just get this out of way… I buy most of my books through Amazon, and they email me suggestions. This was one of them. I’m sure I read the description of the book too fast to notice that it’s not about what I thought it would be about. And, I mean, boys turning into wolves. :) Even though I did like this book, I did have to hang in there a while to appreciate it. The story took quite a while to develop. KJ is a 16 year old from a small town in Montana, near Yellowstone. She lives with her dad. He runs a fishing/seasonal guide store, where she helps out. KJ’s mom died when she was a baby, so Dad is very over protective. I had a hard time with their relationship. You’d think it would be good, but it isn’t. Her dad is mean at times, gives her the silent treatment, and they don’t speak for days. Also, the kids in her school are ruthless to her, and really for no good reason.

Things start changing for her when Virgil comes to town. It starts events that get the story going, although again, it takes a while. Virgil starts her thinking about the wolf problem in the area. The Federal Government relocated wolves back into the park because they had died out, and also to help control the elk population. This makes the wolf-lovers happy, but the ranchers and farmers angry. Virgil is in town with his mother, Eloise. (Who I really liked.) Together they go observe the wolf packs in the area. I thought the parts with the wolves were fascinating. Alpha female issues were pretty cool. I wanted more of the wolves.

Virgil (who takes amazing pictures) and KJ are asked to start a column. “Wolf Notes” gets stared and right away it starts an uproar in the town. They also start to like each other, and a few funny things happen. Some dangerous events take place, and the story picked up for me about mid-point. While KJ’s intentions are there, she does get blamed for incidents that were no way near her fault, however, her heart is in the right place, and she is determined to fix the situation.

3 stars

I probably wouldn’t read it again, but I would read more from this author. I didn’t think it ended with a sequel looming, but I would read it.

Warning: there is a few instances of language