As some of you may know, I have an obsession with Macs (even though I have yet to own one… I still love them and use one whenever I get the chance, and will be getting one as my next computer). So when I saw this contest, I just had to enter! While I was entering, I checked out the blog that is hosting the contest. Its called Week in Rewind. This guy knows his stuff! If you want to know some of the latest news in movies, check this blog out!
Oh, and here’s the link to the contest!
Has anyone heard of Kelley Armstrong before? Well, until he wonderful people at UndeathMatch sent me a copy of her book Bitten, I hadn’t either. When I got it, I thought “Great, another book hoping on the “Wereworlf/Vampire train” (not that I would mind another enjoyable read about either of the aforementioned topics, I just feel that the media has been inundated with a million books trying to grip the coattails of the Twilight series’ success) but I thought I’d give it a shot anyways.
To my pleasant surprise, Bitten was fantastic. I was hooked from the first page and read the entire book in about two days. I literally couldn’t put the book down for hours on end. The vivid characters and scenes kept my interest while Kelley’s descriptive way of writing without being too wordy made it easy for me to stay captivated page after page, chapter after chapter.
I fell in love with Elena and could relate to the struggles she felt trying to fit in with the human world. She was fighting forces most don’t encounter (I’m not a werewolf, so the need to run away in the middle of the night to change is not something I relate to), but at the very core of her being there was this human side that had all the same needs, wants and desires as any human woman (or man). She wanted love and acceptance, not just by her family but by the general public as well.
One advantage that Bitten has over the Twilight series is the appeal to an adult audience. In short, the sex. Twilight, until the last book, lacked sex (although the sexual tension throughout the first three books kept most readers hooked). In Bitten, there is no shortage. It’s vivid, steamy animalistic sex that draws the reader in with the promise of more.
The men in Bitten were also something to talk about. Strong, mysterious, dark, attractive men who know what they want and are willing to take it. They are described in such intense detail that it’s easy to visualize these incredible specimens.
The best aspect of this book is, in the end, the story. This book is not just another supernatural fantasy novel. This story has aspects of multiple genres rolled into one. There’s romance, drama, comedy, suspense, fantasy (of course), and mystery. The story moves from one genre to another seamlessly with the underlying mystery being the common thread holding the story together.
All in all, I LOVED this book and can’t wait to continue reading this series and I will be picking up Stolen, the second in the series, very very soon.
A little about the Women of the Otherworld series. Kelley Armstrong did something very different with this series. For each book, she changed the voice depending on the story. What I mean is that Elena is not the main character in in all 10 books. For example, the 3rd and 4th books in the series, Dime Store Magic and Industrial Magic, are both in the voice of Paige who is NOT a werewolf. She’s a witch. Elena does come back, as well as a host of other characters ranging from ghosts and demons to necromancers! When the question was posed to Kelley about why she changes narrators from one book to another, this was her response on her website “For me, then, changing narrators isn’t a marketing ploy—I’m told repeatedly that I’d sell better if I didn’t! Instead, it’s all about keeping it fresh and challenging, which is very important to me as a writer. I love what I do, and I don’t ever want to lose that.” To read more about Kelley Armstrong’s books, visit her website, check her out on Facebook or follow her on Twitter!
ps, Kelley’s having this amazing contest because one of her books, The Summoning, is being released online for free!! Check it out! Enter the contest and best of luck!!!
Whitney Barrett