Bitten by Kelley Armstrong

Bitten by Kelley Armstrong 

Series: Women of the otherworld (No.1)

Publisher: Orbit (6 May 2010)

Pages: 464

Genre: Horror/Fantasy

Source: Bought myself (Waterstones)

My Rating: 5 out of 5

Bitten features Elena Michaels, a very head strong women who outwardly appears to have a normal life. At least if you ignore the fact she has to change into a wolf once a month. After been bitten by her then boyfriend Clay years back Elena's life takes a drastic change much like her body, and not for the better. Despite leaving to start a fresh away from Clay and the other wolves in his pack, Elena finds herself pulled back into there world and into a war to survive which will test her convictions. 

What better way to start things off than with my favourite book by an amazing author. Bitten had me from the first page and was not going to let me go, brilliantly written and instantly addictive I really could not put this book down, taking very little time to finish it off. Elena is a likeable and relatable character who you really feel for as you learn more about her past, and I soon developed a liking for Clay as well. The relationship between the two is revealed slowly as the book progresses and the reasons behind Elena's coldness towards him becomes clear, but there is a real depth to there backstory and its evident from early on there there are residual feelings there. Although the relationship between them does play a big part throughout the story, this is far from being just romance. Instead it is a perfect mix of blood, sex and violence which keeps you guessing all the way through. 

I should note quickly that although this book is one of thirteen in the 'Women of the Otherworld' series Elena is not the focus of all of them which was a little bit of a let down for me as I enjoyed her storyline so much, but she is featured in the second book and then appears again later down the line before narrating again in broken and frostbitten. However during Stolen, the second book Elena narrates, you do start to meat the other characters who will later feature in the other books.

As a fan of werewolves anyway this was an obvious choice when I picked it up and read the summary. But these are not your ordinary werewolves, shifting fully into wolf form rather than ending up some kind of mutated mix, this was to a real plus and something a bit different which offered a nice twist on the more classic idea of a werewolf. 

This is not a light read for people who are after a quick read before bed, but I think most people would struggle not to get drawn into Elena's world. Overall this book is very much worth a read, it has a bit of everything and kept my attention beautifully.