Bitten by Kelley Armstrong

I feel like I'm supremely late on the uptake with this series. Originally, I was going to read this book for a challenge, but I didn't finish it in time. I had bought it forever ago from a used book store and I was happy to finally read one of the books I already own. 

Ever since her parents were killed in a car accident when she was five, Elena Michaels has longed for a normal family life. Smart, beautiful, and engaged to be married, Elena hopes to fulfill that dream when disaster strikes. Not only has her fiancé lied about his secret life as a werewolf, but he's made her one, too. She has no choice but to join him at Stonehaven, the upstate New York home of an elite pack of werewolves.

In an attempt to break away, she moves to Toronto to lead a normal life. Working as a journalist, Elena now lives with her new architect boyfriend, works out in the basement gym of their high-rise apartment, lunches with girlfriends from the office, and once a week, at four in the morning runs naked and furred through a downtown Toronto ravine, ripping out the throats of her animal prey. But when a band of outlaw werewolves threatens the Stonehaven pack, Elena's feral instincts drive her back there to join the defense. What follows is a war for territory, for pride, and ultimately for Elena herself.

I'm afraid this review will be awfully short. Despite sleeping until 10am this morning, I am still exhausted from the last few weeks...and I've taken Benedryl which knocks me for a bloody loop.

In any case, this book wasn't bad. I haven't read many vampire or werewolf books, so I can't say that I know how it rates next to other books of the same variety. I'll be honest, there was a little too much description of wolf fighting and playing for my tastes. It just got sort of dull after awhile. I understand the author was probably trying to build a relationship between the characters, but the fact remains that wolves don't have the depth of expression that humans have and it got rather routine.

I liked Elena all right. The first half of the book I wasn't crazy about any of the characters. They just seemed too smug and cookie cutter. At the end, when worlds collide, as it were, I found myself finding Clay far more endearing. It was like a switch turned on and all of a sudden he was trying to be likable or something. Still, the characters lacked soul for the most part. I felt like half the book was spent explaining stuff.

Also, the explaining got old after awhile. I felt like there was lost of background information, but not much reason for it. Pointless stories. I guess it was to flesh out the characters, but I would have preferred current actions to speak for themselves.

Overall, the book was sort of choppy and generic. I liked it, and there was lots of promise in this book... but I'm not in a hurry to read the next.

Bottom Line

Overall Rating: 3 / 5

Buy or Try? Try
More? 1 / 12 in the Women of the Otherworld series...different characters

Content

Plot: 2 / 5

Setting: 3 / 5

Characters: 3 / 5

Style 
Pace: Middlin' to Fast 
Descriptiveness: Prose
Fantasy factor: Magical Realism

Amazon.com link