Showing posts with label Kelley Armstrong. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kelley Armstrong. Show all posts

Thursday 18 April 2013

Review: BITTEN

Bitten by Kelley Armstrong
Read by Aasne Vigesaa
Book 1 of Women Of The Otherworld series
Genre: urban fantasy
Format: paperback & audiobook

About Bitten:
I've got to get out of here - I don't have a lot of time left.

Philip doesn't stir when I slip from the bed. There's a pile of clothing tucked underneath my dresser so I won't have to risk the squeaks and groans of opening drawers and closets. I pick up my keys, clasping my fist around them so they don't jangle, ease open the door and creep into the hallway. My legs now itch as well as hurt and I curl my toes to see if the itching stops. It doesn't. It's too late to drive to a safe place now-the itching has crystallized into a sharp burn. I stride out onto the streets, looking for a quiet place to Change.

Young, beautiful, and successful, Elena Michaels seems to have it all. Her happy, organized life follows a predictable pattern: filing stories for her job as a journalist, working out at the gym, living with her architect boyfriend, and lunching with her girlfriends from the office. And once a week, in the dead of night, she streaks through a downtown ravine, naked and furred, tearing at the throats of her animal prey.

Elena Michaels is a werewolf.

The man who made her one has been left behind, but his dark legacy has not. And though Elena struggles to maintain the normal life she's worked so hard to create, she cannot resist the call of the elite pack of werewolves from her past. Her feral instincts will lead her back to them and into a desperate war for survival that will test her own understanding of who, and what, she is.
Source: Info in the About Bitten was taken from GoodReads at http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/910160.Bitten on 03/10/2012.

Review:
I like the way Kelley Armstrong glossed over the darker and gorier side of "human nature" depicted in the story, like paedophilesm and torture. An aspect of this author's story telling ability which I fully appreciated!! However the story telling quality while very good, is just a hair short of masterful.I bought the paperback version of this book way back when I was on my "wolf shifter" phase a year or so ago, when most of the books I read involved wolves. However this book remained in my TBR (To Be Read) shelf, until I got hold of the audiobook format lately. But even with the audiobook format, it still took me a long time to get into the story. This book was such a slow starter that I actually abandoned it a few times before getting through the halfway mark. The story telling quality while good, takes a little getting used to.

What I didn't like about this book is the heroine making mistake after mistake after stupid mistake. After a while it gets really annoying. For somebody described as a top-dog predator, she sure does act like prey!
  • The owner of a strange big dog evenly tells you to withdraw your hand away from his dog repeatedly and giving off danger vibes, what do you do?
    • a.) Tell the owner that he is wrong and proceed to pet the dog.
    • b.) Go the safe route and do as he says.
    • c.) Stay still, not move a muscle and hope for the best.
Guess what our heroine did? Yep! You guessed it, choice a.! Thus the title of our book, Bitten.
And that is not the only TSTL (too stupid to live) scene that our heroine gets up to. Annoying!! And as if that is not enough, our heroine is also the undisputed crowned Ms. Denial Queen who can't see reality even if it bit her in the ass! So... I am expected to relate with this character who is determined to bury her head under the sand?!?...

I like the narrator though, her words are clear and distinct. No slurring nor mumbled words. Another thing likeable about this book is the world building. It's beautiful and intricate. Or maybe because I am a fantasy geek that this world of werewolves appealed to me even though it got a big gaping hole in it so wide, it could swallow a dinosaur! But that I choose to ignore. However after all that, you have to consider that this series has a huge following, so there must be something in it interesting enough to hold people's interest. In view of this, I presumed that this first book is not the best in the series and it gets better as the series progresses. Besides I like to be optimistic about a series which I already bought and is waiting in my TBR shelf.
Empirical Evaluation:
Story telling quality = 4
Character development = 2.5
Story itself = 1.5
Ending = 2
World building = 4
Cover art = 2
Pace = N/A (12 hours and 55 minutes of listening time)
Plot = 1.5
Narrator = 4

Overall Rating: 2 out of 5 cherries

Sunday 31 October 2010

MR. MAILMAN: loads and loads of oh la la!!!

Thank you to disney.co.uk for hosting a contest and making it possible for me to get my greedy hands on loads and loads of oh la la!!!! Couldn't wait to find it in my mail!! *jumping up and down* This wait is worth a Mr. Mailman feature! A kind of "blog meme" started by Juju over at Tales Of Whimsy.

About Mr. Mailman:
Mr. Mailman is a feature Juju decided to try. Periodically when there is a book in route which she is anxiously hoping to find when she gets home to her mailbox - Juju would feature Mr. Mailman.

Mr. Mailman is a hybrid of Waiting on Wednesday by Breaking the Spine and In My Mailbox by the Story Siren. Please feel free to grab the logo and feature your Mr. Mailman request on your site. Please leave a link to your Mr. Mailman request in the comments at Tales Of Whimsy.
Source: Info in the About Mr. Mailman was pinched from Juju's blog, the Tales Of Whimsy, on 04/12/09.

...So sometime soon I am hoping to find in my mailbox these following beauties (fingers crossed):
Halogen Oven

River Marked by Patricia Briggs
Book 6 of the Mercy Thompson series

Archangel's Consort (Guild Hunter) by Nalini Singh:
Vampire hunter Elena Deveraux and her lover, the lethally beautiful archangel Raphael, have returned home to New York only to face an uncompromising new evil…

A vampire has attacked a girls’ school—the assault one of sheer, vicious madness—and it is only the first act. Rampant bloodlust takes vampire after vampire, threatening to make the streets run with blood. Then Raphael himself begins to show signs of an uncontrolled rage, as inexplicable storms darken the city skyline and the earth itself shudders.

The omens are suddenly terrifyingly clear.

An ancient and malevolent immortal is rising. The violent winds whisper her name: Caliane. She has returned to reclaim her son, Raphael. Only one thing stands in her way: Elena, the consort who must be destroyed...
Source: Info in the above synopsis was taken from the author's website at http://www.nalinisingh.com/consort.html on 31/10/10.

Bayou Moon by Ilona Andrews
Edge Novels book 2
The Edge lies between worlds, on the border between the Broken, where people shop at Walmart and magic is a fairytale–and the Weird, where blueblood aristocrats rule, changelings roam, and the strength of your magic can change your destiny…

Cerise Mar and her unruly clan are cash poor but land rich, claiming a large swathe of the Mire, the Edge swamplands between the state of Louisiana and the Weird. When her parents vanish, her clan’s long-time rivals are suspect number one.

But all is not as it seems. Two nations of the Weird are waging a cold war fought by feint and espionage, and their conflict is about to spill over into the Edge—and Cerise’s life . William, a changeling soldier who left behind the politics of the Weird, has been forced back into service to track down a rival nation’s spymaster.

When William’s and Cerise’s missions lead them to cross paths, sparks fly—but they’ll have to work together if they want to succeed…and survive.
Source: Info in the above synopsis was taken from the author's website at http://edge.ilona-andrews.com/books/bayou-moon/ on 31/10/10.

Side Jobs (Dresden Files) by Jim Butcher
- A collection of short stories/novellas in the Dresden Files series.

Kitty And The Midnight Hour by Carrie Vaughn
Book 1 of the Kitty Norville series

About Kitty And The Midnight Hour:
Kitty Norville is a midnight-shift DJ for a Denver radio station?and a werewolf in the closet. Her new late-night advice show for the supernaturally disadvantaged is a raging success, but it?s Kitty who can use some help. With one sexy werewolf-hunter and a few homicidal undead on her tail, Kitty may have bitten off more than she can chew
Source: Info in the About Kitty And The Midnight Hour was taken from http://www.tatteredcover.com/book/9780446616416 on 30/04/2010.

Midnight's Daughter by Karen Chance
Book 1 of the Dorina Basarab Series
Dorina Basarab is a dhampir—half-human, half-vampire. Subject to uncontrollable rages, most dhampirs live very short, very violent lives. So far, Dory has managed to maintain her sanity by unleashing her anger on those demons and vampires who deserve killing.

Now Dory’s vampire father has come back into her life. Her uncle Dracula (yes, the Dracula) infamous even among vampires for his cruelty and murderous ways, has escaped his prison. And her father wants Dory to work with the gorgeous master vampire Louis-Cesare to put him back there.

Vampires and dhampirs are mortal enemies, and Dory prefers to work alone. But Dracula is the only thing on earth that truly scares her, and when Dory has to go up against him, she’ll take all the help she can get…
Source: Info in the above synopsis was taken from the author's website at http://www.karenchance.com/books_md.html on 31/10/10

Stormwalker by Allyson James
Book 1 of the Stormwalker series
Half-Navajo Janet Begay possesses extraordinary power which is tied to the storms that waft across the desert. The only person who can control her when she's caught in the storm's evocative power is Mick, a dark-haired, blue-eyed biker Janet can't seem to touch with her powers. He can wield fire and not get burned, and Janet's never sure where he goes when they're not together.

Together they investigate mysterious disappearances, which Janet fears are tied to her mother's people, the mythical gods from below the earth. They are helped along the way by Coyote and Crow, but these shapeshifting gods have their own agendas.
Source: Info in the above synopsis was taken from the author's website at http://www.allysonjames.com/stormwalker.htmlon 31/10/10.

The Reckoning by Kelley Armstrong
Book 3 of the Darkest Powers series
My name is Chloe Saunders. I’m fifteen, and I would love to be normal.

But normal is one thing I’m not.

For one thing, I’m having these feelings for a certain antisocial werewolf and his sweet-tempered brother—who just happens to be a sorcerer—but, between you and me, I’m leaning toward the werewolf.

Not normal.

My friends and I are also on the run from an evil corporation that wants to get rid of us—permanently.

Definitely not normal.

And finally, I’m a genetically altered necromancer who can raise the dead, rotting corpses and all, without even trying.

As far away from normal as it gets.
Source: Info in the above synopsis was taken from the author's website at http://www.kelleyarmstrong.com/the-reckoning/on 31/10/10.

Blackout by Rob Thurman
Book 6 of the Cal Leandros series

About Blackout:
I was alone, and I was lost. I didn’t know where I was; I didn’t know who I was. It doesn’t get more lost than that. Knowing what I knew and not knowing anything else at all, why would I want to be in the darkness where monsters hide?

Because killers hide there, too…

Half-human Cal Leandros has always walked a bloody line between keeping his mortal soul free and clear (sort of) and unleashing the horror of his otherworldly heritage. The one thing that’s always saved him is the memory of his brother, Niko, his friends, and those he loves.

Until now.

Cal wakes up on a beach littered with the recently slaughtered remains of a variety of hideous creatures that were obviously looking for trouble. The fact that he was the one doing the slaughtering doesn’t bother him. The fact that he feels like a natural-born killer doesn’t either. What bothers him is that Cal doesn’t remember Cal anymore…

And he’s not sure he cares.
Source: Info in the About Blackout was taken from the author's website at http://robthurman.net/cal-leandros/blackout/ on 14/09/2010.

Roadkill by Rob Thurman
Book 5 of the Cal Leandros series

About Roadkill:
Niko could have died because of her. I don’t forget things like that…not ever. I wanted a little payback for those she’d cheated in the past. For those she’d cheat in the future. For what she’d allowed to happen to my brother.

For good old fashion revenge.

Once, while half-human Cal Leandros and his brother Niko were working on a case, an ancient gypsy queen gave them a good old-fashioned backstabbing. They barely made it out alive. Now, as their P.I. business teeters on insolvency, guess who shows up with a job?

The gypsy crone wants them to find a stolen coffin. Cal would rather help her into one, but this coffin contains an evil known as the Plague of the World–and it makes the Black Death seem like a fond memory.

But the thief has already left town, so the Leandros brothers are going on the road.

And if they’re very, very lucky, there might even be a return trip…
Source: Info in the About Roadkill was taken from the author's website at http://robthurman.net/cal-leandros/roadkill/ on 14/09/2010.

I would like to thank disney.co.uk for hosting a contest and making it possible for me to win prizes received!
...and Happy Halloween everybody!!!