Review: Bitten by Kelly Armstrong

Title: Bitten
Author: Kelley Armstrong
ISBN 10: 0452286034
ISBN 13: 9780452286030

About the book (from Goodreads)
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.
Writing with the visceral power of Anne Rice, Kelley Armstrong has created a fascinating story of a woman struggling for her identity.

Author Biography: Bitten is Kelley Armstrong's first novel.

Genre: Urban Fantasy
Series: Women of the Otherworld, book #1
Published: 1st October 2001
Publisher: Plume
Website: Kelley Armstrong
Excert: Prologue

My Review
Elena Michaels is the only female werewolf in the world. She was bitten and betrayed by her former fiancé Clay and is trying to make a normal life for herself in Toronto with her human boyfriend.

Called back to the pack to help deal with a Mutts problem, Elena hopes everything will be done in a couple of days so she can return to her normal life. However, once at Stonehaven she finds herself immersed in the werewolf way of life, seeming to fall once again for Clay. Elena deals with everything thrown at her in the course of dealing with the Mutts who are killing humans.

Elena is a great character to read, she is strong and smart yet vulnerable in many ways. She engages with the pack well and is not afraid to admit her own faults. She clearly does not want to admit she enjoys life as a werewolf, at least when it’s just the pack.

I grew to really like Clay, he is a lovable bad boy who has eyes only for Elena. The pack leader, the ever calm Jeremy, is a great character but he has his own vulnerabilities. I liked the other pack members too, who all seemed a believable group who complimented each other very well.

The detail given on pack and werewolf behaviour was well woven into the story and seems to increase my enjoyment of the plot not detract from it. I found the general werewolf view of women as sex or dinner as quite difficult, but the Pack’s attitude towards Elena was clearly much more respectful and equal.

I really enjoyed Bitten and am looking forward to reading more of Kelley Armstrong’s Women of the Otherworld series.

"Waiting on" Wednesday #2

Waiting On Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine which spotlights eagerly anticipated upcoming releases!

Is it really time for "Waiting on" Wednesday again already!! I came across this one when searching around on Goodreads, I liked the cover and also thought the book sounded good when I read the blurb!

Title: Nightshade

Author: Andrea Cremer
Series: Nightshade #1
Genre: Young Adult Paranormal
Publisher: Philomel
Release date: 19th October 2010

Book description (from Goodreads)

While other teenage girls daydream about boys, Calla Tor imagines ripping out her enemies’ throats. And she wouldn’t have it any other way. Calla was born a warrior and on her eighteenth-birthday she’ll become the alpha female of the next generation of Guardian wolves. But Calla’s predestined path veers off course the moment she saves the life of a wayward hiker, a boy her own age. This human boy’s secret will turn the young pack's world upside down and forever alter the outcome of the centuries-old Witches' War that surrounds them all

Teaser Tuesady #2

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

In my edition this is on page 72, I'm reading the UK version so the page numbers are probably slightly different!

"I opened my eyes, thinking.  Most gentry were too technologically inept to function seamlessly in the human world, yet he had navigated it well.  He'd has a car back at the bar, one we'd passed over in favor of letting me drive.  He'd also had a wallet and cash to pay for drinks and condoms.  And if he was checked into a hotel, he had to have a credit card.  Credit cards were traceable.  If he had a dual life in our world, I should be able to find out something."

In My Mailbox #1

In My Mailbox is a bookish meme hosted by Kristi @ The Story Siren and inspired by Alea @ Pop Culture Junkie.

Today is the first time I've tried this one! All the books I've got are bought or library, no wins or anything this week. The descriptions are all from Goodreads.

Bought

Darkfever by Karen Marie Moning
Fever #1

MacKayla Lane’s life is good. She has great friends, a decent job, and a car that breaks down only every other week or so. In other words, she’s your perfectly ordinary twenty-first-century woman.
Or so she thinks…until something extraordinary happens.

When her sister is murdered, leaving a single clue to her death–a cryptic message on Mac’s cell phone–Mac journeys to Ireland in search of answers. The quest to find her sister’s killer draws her into a shadowy realm where nothing is as it seems, where good and evil wear the same treacherously seductive mask. She is soon faced with an even greater challenge: staying alive long enough to learn how to handle a power she had no idea she possessed–a gift that allows her to see beyond the world of man, into the dangerous realm of the Fae….
As Mac delves deeper into the mystery of her sister’s death, her every move is shadowed by the dark, mysterious Jericho, a man with no past and only mockery for a future. As she begins to close in on the truth, the ruthless Vlane–an alpha Fae who makes sex an addiction for human women–closes in on her. And as the boundary between worlds begins to crumble, Mac’s true mission becomes clear: find the elusive Sinsar Dubh before someone else claims the all-powerful Dark Book–because whoever gets to it first holds nothing less than complete control of the very fabric of both worlds in their hands

From the library

Storm Born by Richelle Mead
Dark Swan #1

Just typical. No love life to speak of for months, then all at once, every horny creature in the Otherworld wants to get in your pants...


Eugenie Markham is a powerful shaman who does a brisk trade banishing spirits and fey who cross into the mortal world. Mercenary, yes, but a girl's got to eat. Her most recent case, however, is enough to ruin her appetite. Hired to find a teenager who has been taken to the Otherworld, Eugenie comes face to face with a startling prophecy--one that uncovers dark secrets about her past and claims that Eugenie's first-born will threaten the future of the world as she knows it.

Now Eugenie is a hot target for every ambitious demon and Otherworldy ne'er-do-well, and the ones who don't want to knock her up want her dead. Eugenie handles a Glock as smoothly as she wields a wand, but she needs some formidable allies for a job like this. She finds them in Dorian, a seductive fairy king with a taste for bondage, and Kiyo, a gorgeous shape-shifter who redefines animal attraction. But with enemies growing bolder and time running out, Eugenie realizes that the greatest danger is yet to come, and it lies in the dark powers that are stirring to life within her

Night Shift by Lilith Saintcrow
Jill Kismet #1

Not everyone can take on the things that go bump in the night.

Not everyone tries.

But Jill Kismet is not just anyone.

She's a Hunter, trained by the best - and in over her head.

Welcome to the night shift

One Lovely Blog Award!

I won an award from Danielle at Romance Book Junkies,I'm very happy to receive the One Lovely Blog Award so thank you Danielle! My blog is still really new but I'm enjoying working on it a lot!

This is how the award works:
Accept the award, post it on your blog together with the name of the person who has granted the award and his or her blog link.
Pass the award to 15 other blogs that you’ve newly discovered.
Remember to contact the bloggers to let them know they have been chosen for this award.

Here are the blogs I'm going to award the One Lovely Blog Award to (in no particular order!) I just wish I could do more than 15 as it was hard to choose!

Supernatural Shark
The Bookish Snob
Larissa's Bookish Life
Among the Muses
Bitten by Paranormal Romance
Book Faery
All Things Urban Fantasy
Not-really-Southern Vamp Chick
Parajunkee's View
Romance Book Junkies
Rex Robot Reveiws
Smexy Books - Romance Book Reviews
Urban Girl Reader
Paranormal Heaven
Books With Bite

Follow Friday #2 and Book Blogger Hop #1

A week has passed since my first Follow Friday already!! Still finiding my feet with my blog too.



Follow on Friday is hosted my Rachel at Parajunkee.com

To join the fun and make now book blogger friends, just follow these simple rules:

Follow the Follow My Book Blog Friday Host { Parajunkee.com } and any one else you want to follow on the list
Follow our Featured Bloggers - edgyinspirational.blogspot.com
Put your Blog name & URL in the Linky thing.
Grab the button up there and place it in a post, this post is for people to find a place to say hi in your comments
Follow Follow Follow as many as you can
If someone comments and says they are following you, be a dear and follow back. Spread the Love...and the followers
If you want to show the link list, just follow the link below the entries and copy and paste it within your post!
If your new to the follow friday hop, comment and let me know, so I can stop by and check out your blog!




For the first time this week I am also taking part in in the Book Blogger Hop hosted by Crazy-for-books to explore all the great book blogs out there!

This week's question comes from Libraryscatbooks!

How many blogs do you follow?
I follow about 75 which are almost exclusively book blogs! I try to visit them as often as possible!
Happy Friday!

Review: The Devilin Fey by Jess C Scott

Title: The Devilin Fey
Author: Jess C Scott
ISBN-10: 1453718958
ISBN-13: 978-1453718957

About the book
A paranormal romance novella of two stories, featuring an incubus and succubus. Story #1 features a demure young woman unleashing the "devil in" her, through the intimacy with an incubus. Story #2 features a voyeuristic succubus driven by jealousy and a dangerous fixation. GENRE: Paranormal Romance / Urban Fantasy / 33,000 words REVIEWS: "Devilishly delicious." - Horror Author, Andy Love "I really enjoyed this story of an incubus and the woman he transforms...the author really hits her stride in paranormal stories." - Review @ Bitten by Books "A very passionate and strong paranormal love story that ignites the feeling of intimate sensation that heats up the room. [The pages] were filled with passion, adventure, mystery and a love that pulls at the heart strings." - Review @ Addicted To Romance.

Genre: Paranormal Romance
Published: 27 May 2010
Publisher: CreateSpace
Source: Received from the author for review
Website: Jess C Scott
Excert: Excert

My review
The Devilin Fey is a novella made up of two stories - “The Devilin Fey" and “Tongue Tied”. Both focus on life as a succubus in one way or another. (Note there may be a couple of spoilers below)

The Devilin Fey features Catlin Fey who at the start of the book is planning on a scathing article about Zac Walsh, best selling author of “Seduction 101: All The Dirt on Women”, she want’s to highlight the damage his ideas are doing to society. However she ends up falling for all his lines, and nothing like in her dreams. The man in her dreams is so different, she finds out why when she goes for a walk to the beach and see Lucius in his true incubus form, wings and all. She should not have been able to see him like that!

Catlin gradually notices some strange changes after a few encounters with Lucius, she can read peoples desires and know their love history. She goes on a journey which lets out her inner devil, human by day succubus by night, having revenge on Zac on the way.

I enjoyed The Devilin Fey, I like the way Catlin took becoming a kind of succubus in her stride, simply adapting to it and finding Lucius along the way!

Tongue Tied is a short story about a lesbian succubus who finds something different about Adriana and watches in on her life to find out if her instincts are right. This is the only story I’ve come across so far with a gay succubus, I’d kind of expected the usual going after men but Tongue Tied made a refreshing change. However, if you don’t like F/F stories then this one may not be for you.