Wolf by Wolf by Ryan Graudin Series: Wolf by Wolf #1
Publisher: Little Brown Books (2015)
Hardcover (388 pages)
Rating:
Reading Challenges: Read 2016
Synopsis
The year is 1956, and the Axis powers of the Third Reich and Imperial Japan rule the world. To commemorate their Great Victory over Britain and Russia, Hitler and Emperor Hirohito host the Axis Tour: an annual motorcycle race across their conjoined continents. The victor is awarded an audience with the highly reclusive Adolf Hitler at the Victor's ball.
Yael, who escaped from a death camp, has one goal: Win the race and kill Hitler. A survivor of painful human experimentation, Yael has the power to skinshift and must complete her mission by impersonating last year's only female victor, Adele Wolfe. This deception becomes more difficult when Felix, Adele twin's brother, and Luka, her former love interest, enter the race and watch Yael's every move. But as Yael begins to get closer to the other competitors, can she bring herself to be as ruthless as she needs to be to avoid discovery and complete her mission?
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My Review
I had not heard a whole lot about Wolf by Wolf before it arrived in my November Uppercase Box. I have to say I put off reading it because I was afraid I wouldn’t like it. I needn’t have been worried though. Wolf by Wolf was a fun read and I really enjoyed it.
Yael was just a child when she was sent to a Nazi extermination camp with her mother. The doctor of the camp was working on some experiments and he chose Yael to be part of those experiments. Yael was injected with something that made her eyes, hair, and skin paler. She was becoming the image of the Aryan.
After the death of her mother, Yael managed to escape the Nazi camp thanks to the same injections the doctor had given her. Those injections enabled her to change her face, to become someone else.
Eventually Yael ran into a Resistance group. They took her in as an escaped Jew and, once they learned the truth about what she could do, she became their secret weapon. Now it is her turn to strike back at those who took her life from her. She could be the one to kill Hitler.
So Yael is going to take part in the Axis Tour, racing on motorcycle from Germany to Japan. She has to win in order to be in the Führer’s presence. This is Yael’s goal, to assume the identity of Adele Wolfe, the winner of the Axis Tour the previous year, and win again this year. This is her chance to change the world.
I really enjoyed this book a lot more than I thought I would. Reading about a motorcycle race sounds like it would be boring but it wasn’t too bad. Yael is almost always in peril. Besides other people wanting to win the race, Yael has to be Adele when Adele’s brother is around. That isn’t something Yael trained for.
The novel is fast paced and I kept wanting to see if Yael could really pull it all off. So much was hingeing on her. Obviously, I won’t tell you how it ended but I will tell you that I can’t wait to read the next book. It will be so interesting to see how things shake out.
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