Book Review: Bitten by Kelley Armstrong

Bitten: Number 1 in series (Otherworld)

Author: Kelley Armstrong
Publisher: Orbit (6 May 2010)
ISBN: 978-1841499185

From the back:

I've been fighting it all night. I'm going to lose ... Nature wins out. It always does.'

Elena Michaels didn't know that her lover Clay was a werewolf until he bit her, changing her life forever. Betrayed and furious, she cannot accept her transformation, and wants nothing to do with her Pack - a charismatic group of fellow werewolves who say they want to help.

When a series of brutal murders threatens the Pack - and Clay - Elena is forced to make an impossible choice. Abandon the only people who truly understand her new nature, or help them to save the lover who ruined her life, and who still wants her back at any cost.

My Review:

My friend gave me this book along with a pile of others she no longer wanted. I have to admit that I put this to the bottom of the pile thinking that I wouldn't be interested in it. I have no idea why, just that I didn't think it would float my boat as it were.

I have never been that fascinated with warewolves, vampires yes, warewolves no. I don't know why either, I guess that haven't been romanticised quite as much as vampires have I suppose. I always think it is wrong to enter into a book with negative thoughts, you know the "I'm not sure if this is my thing but I will give it a try anyway" yet I still do and obviously this is why it was lurking on my shelf for a while. I am making a determined effort to read what I have before I buy any more books and wanting something to read I picked this up. At the time I started reading this, I was daily vlogging and also posted a couple of photos of the book on instagram to be met with comments from many people saying that they loved the book and thoroughly enjoy Kelley Armstrong's work. The more I saw these comments, the more I wanted to press on with the book.

So what did I think. Well I have to say I did thoroughly enjoy it. It wasn't super gripping but enough to make me want to keep on reading to find out what happened, even though I kinda new what the end result was going to be. I liked the take on the warewolves not actually being 'bad guys' and I really liked the relationship development between the pack. I am not a massive feminist but I did really like the concept of the World's only female warewolf. This is something that I had never thought of before but I did like the way that this was woven into the story and that she was just as much needed as the male brothers. I sometimes think that this can be overworked into a plot but I think that the balance of female empowerment in a mans World was just right and added to the story rather than taken away. Other elements of the book that I really enjoyed are Elena's battle with does she let the warwolf side of her take over or does she try and focus more on her human side, can the two sides of her co-exist? There are some nicely woven in issues surrounding identity, denial and self acceptance and again this was very well handled.

I didn't realise that this was the first in a series, the way it is written to me it could quite happily be a stand alone book. I did really enjoy this book and now that I know it is a series I have put the 2nd on my wish list but I am not in a desperate hurry to go and read it. Should I be? Please let me know if you have read it and think that I should prioritise this read.