Review: Wolf by Wolf by Ryan Graudin

   Title: Wolf by Wolf
   Series Title: Wolf by Wolf #1
   Author: Ryan Graudin
   Published by: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
   Published on: October 20th, 2015
   Rating: 5 stars

Summary:

"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?"

My thoughts: 

“Once upon a different time, there was a girl who lived in a kingdom of death. Wolves howled up her arm. A whole pack of them--made of tattoo ink and pain, memory and loss. It was the only thing about her that ever stayed the same. Her story begins on a train..”

Words fail me at this moment to tell you about the awesomeness of this book. 

Alternate history at it's best. I love reading books which are solely written with the question of "what if" like 'what if Hitler had won the war?'. Anybody got goosebumps yet. I got them when I read it. 

In a alternative 1956, where the Nazis have won WWII and Germany and Japan are the two major ruling powers in the conquered world, the story follows the story of Yael our MC, who is an escaped concentration camp prisoner who was experimented on. This vile experiment gave her the ability to skin shift or in other words she can change her appearance. To celebrate the alliance between Germany and Japan, a yearly motorcycle race across Europe and Asia- a cross continental race is held. In 1955, Adele Wolfe is the only female to ever win the race and had the rare chance to dance with Hitler himself at the victors ball. So, Yael is on a mission for the rebel resistance, impersonate Adele Wolfe to infiltrate and win the race and get close to Hitler at the Victors Ball so that she could kill him herself and give the resistance the fuel it needs for uprising against the Axis. Meanwhile, she also has to deal with her Adele Wolfe's twin brother- Felix Wolfe's sudden appearance at the race as one of her competitors and Luka- another competitor who has a romantic history with Adele from the last year's race. Second Operation Valkyrie depends on Yael succeeding and killing Hitler in front of the whole world through live telecast during the Victors ball.

It was action packed, fast paced, super interesting, full of adrenaline pumped narration. The story is set in present with flashbacks, telling the story behind the five wolf tattoos on her arm. Each wolf named after a person from her childhood journey to her joining of the resistance. Each wolf's help and guidance molded her into the person she is today, tells the story of her past.

There is an abundant use of metaphors and I am sucker for metaphors so this books is like a dream come true for me.

I loved-loved-loved this book. I love how Yael is portrayed. How she handles both Felix- Adele's loyal brother and Luka's advances. AHH I love it. This is a two book series, so there's another one to come yet. I can't wait to read the sequel.