Bitten by Kelley Armstrong

“The show's writers had peppered the piece with words like "savage," "wild," and "animalistic." What bullshit. Show me the animal that kills for the thrill of watching something die. Why does the stereotype of the animalistic killer persist?

Because humans like it. It neatly explains things for them, moving humans to the top of the evolutionary ladder and putting killers down among mythological man-beast monsters like werewolves.The truth is, if a werewolf behaved like this psychopath it wouldn't be because he was part animal, but because he was still too human. Only humans kill for sport.” 

Bitten is the first book from the woman of the otherworld series,right from the beginning I was hooked, the plot is fast moving and engaging and the characters are well defined and entertaining  I couldn't wait to keep reading to find out what would happen.
Elena is the only female werewolf in the world, she was turned by someone she loved and trusted against her will. It has taken Elena a lot to come to terms with her werewolf side and deal with her past. When we first meet her she has left her pack and is trying to live a normal human life with her human boyfriend, however when the pack needs her help she can't say no and she is thrown back into everything she tried to forget.

As I said before I was hooked from the first page, Elena is sexy, fierce and wonderfully funny, everything you want from a heroine. Clay is a cold hard killer with a charming personality  he'll do anything to protect the ones he loves, he's a loveable rouge.  The chemistry between her and Clay is hot and passionate, its definitely a love/hate relationship. Armstrong has created characters full of flaws and that connects you to them even more and makes you root for them throughout.

A book that is full of action and characters that will endear you to them, a real page turner that will keep you absorbed from start to finish.

 

Stolen by Kelly Armstrong

“Using supernatural beings to build the perfect weapon? Intriguing idea."

"Not really," I said. "They did it on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. A sub-par season. I slept through half the episodes.” 

Stolen is the second book in the Women of the Otherworld series by Kelley Armstrong. 

Stolen follows the story of Elena Michaels who we first met in Bitten. Elena is a werewolf sent to investigate someone selling information on ‘werewolves’, however she finds her contacts to instead be witches who want to warn her about an organisation capturing supernatural species, such as witches, vampires, half-demons, shamans and werewolves to experiment on them.

The story was intense, dark and packed with a lot of gruesome scenes, death, torture, sadism. Elena goes through a lot in this book and what makes the darkness easier to read is Elena’s calm attitude throughout that somehow she will survive this. During her captivity we get to see a glimpse into her past and a little understanding as to why she is so scared to give herself fully to Clay.

I felt like there were some gaps in the story, certain things could have been explained better and at some points I think it lacks emotion that would have been expected and even though we do see a vulnerable side to Elena during her captivity I would have liked to see her reaction to when she gets out but it’s a little glossed over. Also it’s a little bit slow to start whilst you are getting introduced to everyone. Saying this I can understand that as it’s only the second book in a long series and a lot of the characters you meet here have their own stories to tell.

Overall I really enjoyed this book and I’m looking forward to reading the next. I would definitely recommend this series to anyone who likes paranormal/supernatural stories.