Petru Popescu, Birth of the Pack

Birth of the Pack

Petru Popescu

Tor, Sept 2007, $12.95, 314 pp.

ISBN 9780765316417

Lily Willison has never gotten over the death of her father and she feels alienated from her mother who is seeing another man. She and her friends Nikki, Arielle, and Grazia call themselves the "weregirls", a name given to them by Lily's father. Nikki set up a soccer club and it is a success. Rich girl Andra Hewitt arrives on the scene and with the help of her father forms her own soccer team.

Andra wants Lilly to give her powers like she has but Lily doesn't know what she is talking about until her late father communicates with her that she has magic in her as do her friends and that they all have different were girls for a spirit guide. He tells her to enjoy the magic now that the weregirl has awakened inside of her but Andra, whose own powers have been brought to the surface unwittlingly by Lily, has stolen her magical mirror. The weregirls have to fight Andra and her evil powers that come form the evil Breed in a classic good vs. evil confrontation.

Although this is aimed at the teen audience, adults who like a good urban fantasy will enjoy reading BIRTH OF THE PACK. In addition to being a fun fantasy, Petru Popescu enhances the characterizations with the admiration for and grief of the loss of a loved one. The heroine is strong willed and independent, not wanting to be part of the in crowd but not really sure where she belongs. Her willingness to accept her powers and fight evil will endear her to the young warrior in all of us readers.

Harriet Klausner