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3.5 �

I was far better at killing things than keeping them alive. Good thing I never planned to have children.

Bitten isn't my usual urban fantasy fare because it's about werewolves. Nevertheless, I was drawn into this long 436-page book by the slow unveiling of main protagonist Elena Michaels' personality and history. She's a misfit desperately attempting to blend into the rest of humanity. Elena is not an admirable character but having her first-person POV mitigates her less than attractive traits.

Human rules confounded me... The problem came with human interactions. My childhood had been pretty screwed up. Then, when I'd been on the cusp of being an adult, I'd been bitten and spent the next nine years with werewolves.

Maturity is highly overrated.

The werewolf mythology in Bitten differs from others I've come across in urban fantasy. Werewolves are very small in number and thus hide their existence. Only males could be born as werewolves, and most first shift with the onset of puberty. Then there's Elena, who is the only female werewolf, courtesy of an unwanted werewolf bite. (This is a plot contrivance, as clearly more female shifters could be made.) There is only one Pack in the country, led by alpha Jeremy, who is based in rural New York.

I didn't deserve Jeremy's kindness. I knew that. I suppose that was why I always questioned his motivation... When I'd realized there was nothing bad in Jeremy, I'd latched on to another excuse: that he was good to me because he was stuck with me, because he was a decent guy and maybe even because he felt some responsibility for what his ward had done to me. I wanted him to enjoy my company, but couldn't believe in it because I didn't see much in myself to warrant it.

Elena's responsibility within the Pack had been to keep track of the mutts. These are the werewolves who are nomadic in nature or who do not want to accede to the alpha's authority. Unlike other werewolf UFs, being a werewolf is more than just a human who is inordinately concerned with where they fall in the pack's dominance structure. Armstrong's werewolves have more of an animal nature, something Elena mightily struggles against and which is why she lives in Toronto with Philip instead of with the Pack.

Philip wooed me with all the patience of someone trying to coax a half-wild animal into the house and, like many a stray, I found myself domesticated before I thought to resist.

But as Elena just can't escape her dual nature, she can't ignore the Pack's call when there is trouble from rogue werewolf mutts. But returning to the Pack means seeing Jeremy's ward, whom Elena wants to resist.

“You forget, darling. I am the local psychopath.�

Here I had a wonderful man who cared for me and I was screwing around with a self-absorbed, conniving monster who'd betrayed me in the worst possible way.

Jeremy wouldn't have contacted Elena if it weren't an emergency. In short order, the stakes become very high because the mutts have joined forces and are seeking to topple Jeremy...

Pretty much until the last twenty percent, I was quite content and thinking of giving Bitten 4 stars. The pace was a bit slow but I had enjoyed the organic revelation of Elena's personality and her issues and that of the other key characters. But in the final stretch, Elena acted TSTL, sigh. I was already reading an atypical-for-me female UF character so I didn't appreciate being pitched off of the fence I had been straddling. The ending also had two oh-so-convenient assists instead of going in a more logical way. Oh, well, Bitten was still a good read and I'll check the sequel.


#2 Stolen 3.5 �
#6 Broken 3.5 �
#7 No Humans Involved 3.5 �
#10 Frostbitten 4 �

Men of the Otherworld #1 3.5 � rounded up
Tales of the Otherworld #2 3.5 �
Otherworld Nights #3 3.5 �