Book Review: Wolf by Wolf by Ryan Graudin

Wolf by Wolf is an alternate history set in the year 1956 where the Axis powers won World War II. To commemorate their victory, a motorcycle race across Europe and Asia is held with the prize being a private audience with Hitler. Yael, having previously lived in a death camp, has the ability to shape shift (due to the experimenting in the death camp), and her goal is to enter the race as last year's victor, win and kill Hitler.

Rate: 5/5 stars

This book was FANTASTIC! If you didn't know, I love the WWII era, so that on top of a SUPER interesting premise, a shape shifting assassin, deeper running themes, interesting characters and relationships, plus a cross-continental motorcycle race made this book one of my favourites. This book also switched between two timelines seamlessly, and it was wonderful. Wolf by Wolf is an extremely underrated book, and I encourage you to read it!

Spoilers ahead.  

So as I mentioned before, Ryan Graudin did a fabulous job of switching back and forth between timelines. I loved seeing Yael's background in the labour camp and how she got to where she was currently in the story. But I have to say that I loved the race just a bit more. I just love the whole feel of it! The action, the scheming, the plotting, the secrets and the characters just made that part of the story amazing.

I really loved the interactions between Luka and Yael as we knew that there was something between Luka and Adele. It created this really interesting dynamic between Yael, as she tried to pretend to be Adele and did not know everything about her and Luka while simultaneously trying to not have any feelings for anyone in the race (especially not a German who she is supposed to hate after what she went through). While on the other hand Luka was in love/falling in love with someone pretending to be the girl he knew for last race. The theme that there are so many different sides to people emerged, and I was happy to have deeper meanings wrapped up in the story. I also liked how Yael was constantly fighting her demons, creating another deeper theme within the story.

The constant action in this book kept me at the edge of my seat and was another one of the reasons why I whipped through this book. The constant plotting and sabotaging was great! Some of my favourite action-y parts where when the racers had to escape from the Soviets they encountered, the sabotaging of Katsuo and his death, along with the part at the very end where Adele finally managed to kill "Hitler" who turned out to be another shape shifter. And speaking of the other shape shifter, that opens up a whole other can of worms for the next book. I can't wait to see what happens in Blood for Blood!

Overall this book was freaking AMAZING! I loved the characters, relationships, plot, action and the overall feel of this book! I NEED the sequel now!