LitPick Review
Maggie the magpie (spare the cynical comments, please) has always lived a peaceful, if boring, life at the Triple bar T ranch. The reputation of a magpie - empty-headed chatterboxes! - makes it hard to gain friends. Except for the old crow, Jackson, who tolerates her enough to actually come to like her. After a tragic accident, Maggie leaves the ranch in search of the huge, blue-furred wolf who saved her life, to try and start anew out in the big, wide, scary world. Blue Boy, for all his gruffness, takes a liking to Maggie and, when his new pack is started, Maggie is right up there with new pack members Frick, Lupa, and Alberta. Right up there, in fact, through fire, death, and the moving of the pack. As the wolves settle down, it appears that all their troubles are over. However, they are just beginning. Blue Boy’s firstborn son, Lamar, is more of a daydreamer than a leader. And when he secretly falls in love with a coyote, things begin to go downhill. Can Lamar, with the help of Maggie, please his father as well as his heart? Or will he lose his pack as well as his love?
Opinion:
What’s not to like? Well-written, developed characters, a great plot in general. I hadn’t expected the story to be from the point of view of a magpie, since it is about wolves, after all. But that plot twist made the book even more special and unique. There were some graphic parts, with no restraint in mentioning blood and describing kills, but if anything, that added to the book, giving the feeling that the world they now live in - Yellowstone park - is a hard, tough place to be. This is a book that I’m definitely keeping to read for years to come.
