Book Review: Bitten

I finished this book some time ago and had written a review but it wasn't what I wanted so I waited until I got my spark to change it up. It might be blah now, but it was worse before.

Title: Bitten

Author: Kelley Armstrong

Pages: 436

Rating: E for Exceeds Expectations

Review: I want to feel the excruciating pain of the Change. Be able to run free, and smell things from a mile away. Feel the fear of humans and creatures alike. Taunt them, play with them, let them know that I am able to kill every last one of them without a swift, easy movement. I want to be part of the Pack. Hunt down Mutts who are causing enough trouble to deserve death. I want the curse. I want to be a Werewolf.

Elena is not a teen like other heroines in most novels. She’s in her thirties so that’s a change, possibly for the better. Her mind is not being plagued with thoughts of high school crushes and what she should wear tomorrow and if Bobby is into her and will ask her to the Winter Formal. She grew up with a rough life. Her parents died when she was young and she was moved from foster home to foster home, never finding a place that would keep her long enough. Until she was bitten, then she found a family. The Pack. All she wanted was the perfect life. A life she never had. Kids, a husband, a job. Everything everyone dreamed of. But she can’t. She’s cursed.

Elena is living with her boyfriend Phillip when she receives an urgent call. Mutts are attacking the people in Stonehaven, the land where Elena used to live with the Pack and they need her help to track them down. But not only does her “family” live there, the one who changed her does too. It would be impossible to miss him, even with a bag over her head. You may have guessed it already, but this novel is also a Romance Novel. About 25% of it.

Now, aside from the awesome wolf scenes. There is the occasional human scene where we get to learn more and more about Elena as a person. I do admit that these scenes were a bit slow, I, myself, would rather read about her messing with some human and attempting to kill some evil doers. But a novel can’t be all fun and games. We have to learn about some things the hard way.

But, perhaps that is just me. I’d rather read the werewolf side rather than the human side because I’m a guy. During her werewolf moments it is more about the adrenaline and the hunt. Where her human side is more about the emotions. Not to mention the steamy sex scenes where the guy is described yet not the girl. Talk about let down. Not in a pervish way. I’m a guy, I’d rather read about girls. Not graphic but whatever.

Kelley Armstrong’s writing was a bit of a mix for me. Like I said, when she was in werewolf mode everything was exciting. Only to be brought to a more calmer side during her human mode. It changed too much for me to fully understand and grasp her style. There wasn’t really a consistency with her writing. But how she wrote the story itself, I actually like it. Except for the ending. While it is shocking, it was just another girl novel for me. The way that a certain character was treated, left behind and forgotten broke my heart. Not because I’ve been there before, perhaps it is, but because I feel for people like that. Just because she had a connection with one person doesn’t mean that she should just forget the other.

Perhaps, that’s what threw me off at the end. Aside from the writing, the romance scenes and the ending, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I just don’t think it’s one of her best works though.