Book Review: Bitten by Kelley Armstrong

Review: Bitten
Series: Women of the Otherworld – Book 1
Author: Kelley Armstrong
No. Of Pages: 448
Release Date: 26 February 2004

Elena Michaels is your regular twenty-first century girl; self-assured, smart and fighting fit. She also just happens to be the only female werewolf in the world...

It has some good points. When she walks down a dark alleyway, she’s the scary one. But now her Pack – the one she abandoned so that she could live a normal life – are in trouble, and they need her help. Is she willing to risk her life to help the ex-lover who betrayed her by turning her into a werewolf in the first place? And, more to the point, does she have a choice?

My Thoughts:

Bitten was interesting, compelling but hollow. I got through it fairly quickly, and enjoyed every minute of it, but even now as I try to call up its contents, there isn’t much that stuck.

We are told the story through the eyes of Elena a werewolf who is trying to lead a human life. Elena has a human boyfriend who doesn’t know what she is, keeps a normal job and lives a relatively normal life, except of course for the midnight runs...on four legs.

All is well and good until she gets a call from Jeremy, the person who cared for her when she was first turned into a werewolf. He needs her help in tracking down a rogue werewolf. They had an agreement that he wouldn’t call her unless it was absolutely necessary, so she knows that this is urgent.

Elena hops on a plane, much to her reluctance and is off to the backwoods of New York to help out where she is needed. Before Elena left it was her job to keep track of the mutts (non-Pack wolves) and track them down when they started causing trouble, like occasionally making a human into a snack.

As soon as Elena arrives at Stonehaven – home to Jeremy – she runs smack bang into Clayton her ex-lover, and the man who bit her in the first place, and the way she sees it, ruined her life. Clayton is the complete opposite to her boyfriend, Phillip. He is arrogant, demanding and selfish, but he loves Elena, and wants her back.

So on top of an interesting tracking mystery and a fair bit of detective work, we also had the pursuit of Elena by Clayton. What I loved about their relationship was that it wasn’t perfect. They were constantly fighting and would come together in moments of passion. They could back each other up and looked out for each other when it was needed.

Elena was head strong and smart. She does a couple of stupid things, but they work out. She also knew when to stop which was refreshing. Although sometimes she wanted to go and kill someone for annoying her, she knew when to back off.

I loved the style of Bitten most, it was like Elena was talking to the reader, just little comments. Like a time freeze on TV when the main character stops to talk to you. Although Bitten had a little too much back story, it kept me engaged for the entire time and I really enjoyed the beginning to what seems to be shaping up as a good series.

Also in this series:
Stolen
Dime Store Magic
Industrial Magic
Haunted
Broken
No Humans Involved
Personal Demon
Living with the Dead
Men of the Otherworld
Frostbitten
Tales of the Otherworld

Also Reviewed by:
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