Book Review: Bitten by Kelley Armstrong

Bitten by Kelley Armstrong

Blurb:

Elena Michaels seems like the typically strong and sexy modern woman, She lives with her architect boyfriend, writes for a popular newspaper, and works out at the gym. She's also a werewolf.

Elena has done all she can to assimilate to the human world, but the man whose bite changed her existence forever, and his legacy, continue to haunt her. Thrown into a desperate war for survival that tests her allegiance to a secret clan of werewolves, Elena must recon with who, and what, she is in this passionate, page-turning novel that begins the Women of the Otherworld series.

My Review:

A year ago Elena Michaels left Stonehaven, Bear Valley, New York, and her werewolf pack behind to live a normal life. But it's not easy being a werewolf in Toronto. She has to sneak away in the middle of the night to Change and go for runs and hide her secret from her live-in boyfriend, Philip.

 The Elena gets a call from her pack Alpha, Jeremy Danvers telling her to come home. Elena resists at first, knowing that returning home to Stonehaven will just dredge up the past again and simultaneous remind her and make her forget why she left in the first place. It will also mean seeing Clayton Danvers again - her former lover who bit her and turned her into a werewolf. 

But Elena is needed back at Stonehaven. A mutt (non-pack werewolf) has killed a woman - and she won't be the last. As Elena reluctantly returns home she falls back into her old patterns and routines. Unbeknownst the to the pack, the troubles they're about to face is bigger than one errant mutt - and not all of them will make it out of the uprising alive. Will Elena realize she needs the pack - and Clayton - as much as they need her? Or will the mutt uprising drive her away from her old life forever?

Let me start by saying, I watched the television show before reading this book. Yes, there are differences between the two, but I believe they're both great despite (or maybe due to) those differences.  

Elena is a strong female lead, her difficult upbringing saw to the strength she would embrace as an adult. I really liked this spin on werewolves, where Elena was the only female werewolf in existence. It made her sound more unique, one woman among the men. 

I love Clayton, and watching Elena try to deny her feelings for him as she tried to tell herself being with him was just returning to the familiar and nothing else was realistic. I also love the rest of the pack members, although I'm sad that Logan has a much smaller role in the book than he did in the show and also Jeremy seemed warmer on the show - albeit at times I wasn't sure he was trustworthy on the show. 

Overall, this book was as easy to get hooked on as the show and I didn't want to put it down.  Despite it being a rather long book I didn't feel like the story dragged or got boring at all. Bitten is filled with action and sexy shirtless werewolves and I found myself loving it even more than Charlaine Harris's True Blood series! This book is definitely a must-read for Urban Fantasy lovers! 

My Rating:

★★★★★

5 of 5 Stars!