Women Of The Otherworld Challenge - Month 10

We are now at month 10 of the challenge with just three books left to go! This months book is Frostbitten and it takes place in Alaska.

Synopsis

Frostbitten

The Alaskan wilderness is a harsh landscape in the best of conditions, but with a pack of rogue werewolves on the loose, it’s downright deadly.
Elena Michaels, the Pack’s chief enforcer, knows all too well the havoc “mutts” can wreak.
When word comes of a series of humans apparently killed by wolves near Anchorage, Elena and Clay are sent to check things out. But they find more than they bargained for among the snow and trees of the savage Alaskan wilderness.

My Review

This is one of my favourites of the series and it is my favourite of the pack's books! Elena just grows so much in this book, she's already made leaps and bounds in the previous books but in this one she really has to overcome her past and fears left from her trauma's in foster care. She also finds out from the start of the book about Jeremy's plans for her and has to work through that news.
I love how Clay set her fears about becoming alpha to rest and how they worked through her worries. I also love the fact that we meet two potential new recruits for the pack, Reese and Morgan, both werewolves intrigued me for different reasons, Reese cause of the past he's hiding in this book and Morgan cause of the experiment he's conducting. We also meet a third potential new pack member though he's more assured to join then the others and he's the son/grandson of former pack members.
There is also a new race introduced though they are unlikely to join the supernatural community as they are very much isolated and would not be able to really live in the human world cause of their size and looks. They seem really interesting though and do trade with local communities when needed plus they revere werewolves, as Elena says they may even be a precursor race to werewolves!
A lot happens in the book in terms of possibly growing the pack, dealing with issues of the pack and reconnecting with ex-pack members, not to mention reaching out to a foreign pack (or rather responding to them reaching out!), matters of succession being settled and a major uprising by foreign mutts looking to move to the US to carry on their illeagal activities and eliminate the pack so they can take over with their own pack.
I love the scenes with the twins as well and when the whole pack are together, it was nice to see them getting some downtime after everything that happened, I definetly ended the book hoping that Reese and Morgan joined the pack same as Noah though I was heartbroken about the circumstances that led Noah to joining the pack. Loved every second of the book, even the difficult moments when Elena was reliving childhood fears cause it was so well done by Kelley.

Women Of The Otherworld Challenge - Month 9

 

 

This is month 9 of the WOTO series challenge which means Living with The Dead which, while wonderfully written, is not my favourite  of the Series, it ranks bottom of the list for me but does have some redeeming features, mainly Hope & Karl as well as in the sidelines Paige, Lucas Savannah & Sean!

 

Synopsis

 

Living With The Dead - Kelley Armstrong

 



When Robyn Peltier–a very human PR rep–is framed  for murder, the two people most determined to clear her name are half-demon tabloid reporter Hope Adams,  and necromancer homicide detectiveJohn Findlay. And suddenly Robyn finds herself in the heart of a world  she never knew existed–and which she is safer knowing  nothing about….

 

My Review

This isn't my favourite of Kelley's books, in fact in the series it's my least favourite, however even Kelley's 'worst' book is better then most out there and still very good. Karl is not my favourite pack member cause the favourite positions are commandeered by the surviving original pack members but I do love him! He is the major redeeming factor in the book! That and I love learning more about such an elusive supernatural type. Clairvoyants are one of the rarest supernatural races and generally stay hidden, even from other supernaturals for fear of being forced into 'employment' by cabals, despite the fact that overuse of their powers causes madness in them the same way it does to necromancers as we seen in Industrial Magic.

Adele is a vile character and I couldn't find any sympathy for her, she was a real sociopath, only interested in her own well being caring for nobody and nothing else. The things she did while constantly excusing herself and blaming her reprehensible acts on others made her a truly replusive villian that you can't help hating.
Rhys was an interesting character and him I did like, he wasn't the typical mercenary or a self-centred one like Xavier Reese was. He seemed like a mercenary with morales and principles unlike most of the mercenaries we've met in the books.

I did like Robyn and it was interesting having a human as a narrator which hasn't happened in the series before and seeing how she reacts to the news about her best friend Hope and the exsistence of supernaturals. She actually handled it pretty well though a lot of that was probably because of how close she was to Hope.

Hope grows a good bit in this and learns to better handle her demon side and find some balance though she realises she has to take a short break from Karl, not in the sense of breaking up with him but more learning to trust herself more and handle decisions herself instead of looking to him for all the answers. She's also realising she needs more to satisfy her chaos hunger then the council jobs alone can provide.
I also liked Finn, both as a character and narrator. It was interesting seeing his reaction to finding out he wasn't quite as speacial as he thought he was. It was interesting as well to learn that though his powers went way back in his family they were totally isolated from and ignorant of other supernaturals, including other necromancers. He hadn't even heard the term applied to him before meeting Damon's ghost. It was admirable that at the end he was taking steps to learn more about his powers and meet other supernaturals. I also felt bad for him that at the end he was second guessing every gesture of friendship Robyn made thinking she was only offering in the hope that her dead husband Damon was with Finn.
Like I said while not the best book in the series it was still very good and interesting to read but it always takes me the longest to read out of the series!

Women Of The Otherworld Reading Challenge - Month 8

 

 

This is Month 8 of the Women Of The Otherworld reading challenge and that means Personal Demon! Hopes book though Lucas also narrates a few chapters! It's not my favourite of the series cause Hope isn't my favourite character but it still ranks pretty high cause of all the action in it and cause of Karl (who I love) and Paige & Lucas! Namely Lucas cause we get a rare insight into him and his thoughts on his family as well as the cabals. It also introduced and never-before seen supernatural type, an improvement on one we met briefly in Stolen but more evolved with more ability.

 

Synopsis

 



 Personal Demon by Kelley Armstrong

Half-demon tabloid reporter Hope Adams has a secret. Like full demons, she loves chaos. She thrives on it. She needs it.
Most of the time, Hope feeds the hunger by helping the interracial council. But it’s never enough. So when Benicio Cortez offers her a job infiltrating a gang of young supernaturals, she thinks she’s found the perfect solution. Instead, she finds a tinderbox of greed, desire and ambition. And when it ignites, a world is going to explode.
Narrators: Hope Adam & Lucas Cortez
Originally published Fall 2008

My Review

I do love this book but it isn't my favourite in the series, mostly cause while I do like Hope a lot she isn't my favourite! I do love Karl though, plus Lucas gets some chapters to narrate and I loved getting in his head a little when he was dealing with his father, brothers and the cabal. Poor Hope did go through hell in this though most of it was because of her own naivety, stubbornness and refusal to see the truth.
She latched onto Jaz to get over Karl and when Karl came back and they got together she still pined over Jaz and refused to accept that he and Sonny could be bad. She was blind pretty much up to the end. Not entirely her fault of course, Jaz was pure chaos, which attracted her demon as he was a veritable chaos feast which left his thoughts impossible to pick up. Whereas she could read the negative thoughts of other characters in the book she never picked up Jaz's thoughts even once cause his mind was too high speed and chaotic to read anything.Jaz was a sociopath, he couldn't see that what he was doing was wrong and even at the end he's still convinced Hope loves him and they'll be together one day! Totally delusional as well as sociopathic!
I loved how she and Karl worked through things and Karl admitting he ran cause he was afraid of the attachment he had to her. How he's fought all his life against his wolf instincts and she's triggered one of the biggest, one he didn't believe existed, the instinct to be with his mate, that mate being Hope. I love how she gave him no sympathy over it, instead responding with sarcasm and put-downs to keep him on his toes! She really does know how to ground him and bring his ego down when needed!
I wasn't personally upset to see Lucas's oldest brothers killed but I was upset for Lucas and Benicio having to deal with their deaths and their aftermath. I kinda wished that Carlos was killed instead of William! Of all the brothers William seems to be the least threatening as he doesn't have Hector's level of intelligence or Carlos' level of viciousness!
I liked that Kelley had two narrators in this book, so you got a more rounded insight to the plot and what was going on. Lucas could fill in plot points that Hope couldn't and give insight she couldn't. Hope is still quite new to investigating and under-cover work, as a result she misses lots of things that the others wouldn't, which is why she needed Karl there to point out the possibilities she didn't want to see due to being too close to the gang. A great book overall, not my favourite but not my least favourite either!

Women Of The Otherworld Month 7

This is month 7 of The Women Of The Otherworld Series reading challenge, which is No Humans Involved. It's narrated by Jaime with Jeremy getting a love interest role and being allowed to step out from behind Clay and Elena's protection. These two are one of my favourite couples in the series alomgside Clay & Elena and Paige & Lucas.

Blurb

No Humans Involved

Jaime, who knows a thing or two about showbiz, is on a television shoot in Los Angeles when weird things start to happen. As a woman whose special talent is raising the dead, her threshold for weirdness is pretty high: she’s used to not only seeing dead people but hearing them speak to her in very emphatic terms. But for the first time in her life–as invisible hands brush her skin, unintelligible fragments of words are whispered into her ears, and beings move just at the corner of her eye–she knows what humans mean when they talk about being haunted.
She is determined to get to the bottom of these manifestations, but as she sets out to solve the mystery she has no idea how scary her investigation will get. As she digs into the dark underside of Los Angeles, she’ll need as much Otherworld help as she can get in order to survive, calling on her personal angel, Eve, and Hope, the well-meaning chaos demon. Jeremy, the alpha werewolf, is also by her side offering protection. And, Jaime hopes, maybe a little more than that.
Originally published Spring 2008

My review

This is one of my favourites of the series and the first book in the series with Jaime (a necromancer) as narrator. It's also the first book where Jeremy isn't forced to stay on the sidelines out of the main action because of his status as Alpha. I also love this book cause it's the one that Jaime and Jeremy get together as a couple in as well as the fact that through Jaime we get glimpses of Jeremy that we don't get with Clay and Elena, mostly because he can let his guard down a little with Jaime rather then having to present a strong decisive front like he does with the pack, cause with Jaime he's just Jeremy not the Alpha.
It was nice to get to see Jaime leading an investigation as well, mostly because it involved ghosts which is her speaciality and human magic which is unheard of and considered a myth in supernatural circles. That's where the dark side of the story comes in, the magic being cast is accomplished by killing children to use the ashes of their organs in order to cast spells that are really not worth the murder of innocent children to accomplish.
The book is also a turning point for Jaime in another sense, aside from the investigation and her new relationship with Jeremy. She comes to terms with a lot of personal issues regarding her power and her career, like figuring out she wants to be able to do more then she currently does to help ghosts and she doesn't want to move into television. Her attempt to break into television was a throwback to when her mother was dominating her career and influencing what she did. The change of heart on ghosts was her realising that prehaps her nan was completely right when she told Jaime to ignore ghosts and the requests they made. She's decided that while she can't help them all, she can listen more and talk, maybe pass on a message when it's viable.
These two are one of my favourite couples and I love how Jaime knows Jeremy well enough to realise he has to make the decision for them to be a couple and she's patient waiting on him though she does tease him now and then and makes sure he knows she's ready when he is. I love how she makes him lose control near the end as well. It's great seeing the other side to Jeremy.
I know a lot of people assumed him to either be gay or celebate but I just assumed he was too much of a gentleman to kiss and tell, plus he wouldn't have girlfriends before because of his responsibility to the pack, not to mention that previous narrators have included Elena, Paige and Eve. Elena see's Jeremy as a father figure so she's hardly gonna be discussing his sex life and Paige and Eve don't know Jeremy well enough to comment on his love life.
I do think he's lucky with Jaime as she's really does understand his duties to the pack and is willing to put up with a long distance sporadic relationship just to be with him and she's lucky as with his responsibilites he'll be able to accept and understand her work committments and constant touring. Added to the fact they can both relate to having a bad parent who made their childhoods hell and they really are a good match despite all their differences. Definetly a favourite read right after Bitten and Industrial Magic!

Women Of The Otherworld Mini-challenge # 7

 

This is mini-challenge number seven in a series of mini-challenges for participants of the Women Of The Otherworld Series reading Challenge! The task for this challenge is the same as the last three ;- go to the last page you read and create phrases with the last word of each line. We can use punctuations that follow the words but we have to use all the words and keep them in order. The stipulation being that we can't use the same page as last time! We also have to include the page number as well as book cover and synopsis!

 

Synopsis

 

No Humans Involved

Jaime, who knows a thing or two about showbiz, is on a television shoot in Los Angeles when weird things start to happen. As a woman whose special talent is raising the dead, her threshold for weirdness is pretty high: she’s used to not only seeing dead people but hearing them speak to her in very emphatic terms. But for the first time in her life–as invisible hands brush her skin, unintelligible fragments of words are whispered into her ears, and beings move just at the corner of her eye–she knows what humans mean when they talk about being haunted.
She is determined to get to the bottom of these manifestations, but as she sets out to solve the mystery she has no idea how scary her investigation will get. As she digs into the dark underside of Los Angeles, she’ll need as much Otherworld help as she can get in order to survive, calling on her personal angel, Eve, and Hope, the well-meaning chaos demon. Jeremy, the alpha werewolf, is also by her side offering protection. And, Jaime hopes, maybe a little more than that.

 

The Challenge!

So the last Kelley book I read was the UK Kindle Edition of No Humans Involved! This is from  pg 342.

"Grinned. In answered. Did there? Left smiled. Fine. Bed hollywood. Chocolates out me. Chuckle too? Did easier good. Hope? Pause crowd. Shoulders jumps.  Inhale. Late her? About miles laughed then. Fine. Better myself. Indeed."

 

 

 

Women Of The Otherworld Mini-Challenge # 6

This is challenge number six in a series of mini-challenges for participants of the Women Of The Otherworld Series reading Challenge! The task for this challenge is the same as the last two, to go to the last page you read and create phrases with the last word of each line. We can use punctuations that follow the words but we have to use all the words and keep them in order. The stipulation being that we can't use the same page as last time! We also have to include the page number as well as book cover and synopsis!

Synopsis

No Humans Involved

Jaime, who knows a thing or two about showbiz, is on a television shoot in Los Angeles when weird things start to happen. As a woman whose special talent is raising the dead, her threshold for weirdness is pretty high: she’s used to not only seeing dead people but hearing them speak to her in very emphatic terms. But for the first time in her life–as invisible hands brush her skin, unintelligible fragments of words are whispered into her ears, and beings move just at the corner of her eye–she knows what humans mean when they talk about being haunted.
She is determined to get to the bottom of these manifestations, but as she sets out to solve the mystery she has no idea how scary her investigation will get. As she digs into the dark underside of Los Angeles, she’ll need as much Otherworld help as she can get in order to survive, calling on her personal angel, Eve, and Hope, the well-meaning chaos demon. Jeremy, the alpha werewolf, is also by her side offering protection. And, Jaime hopes, maybe a little more than that.

The Challenge



I'm reading the Kindle edition of No Humans Involved, pg 46.

"Spoke sweatshirt attire. Skirt teased else was Kristof. Mouth language ones power.Accident hug."

Woman Of The Otherworld Mini-challenge # 5

This is the fifth in a series of mini-challenges for participants of the Women Of The Otherworld Series reading Challenge! The task for this challenge is the same as the last,  to go to the last page you read and create phrases with the last word of each line. We can use punctuations that follow the words but we have to use all the words and keep them in order. The stipulation being that we can't use the same page as last time! We also have to include the page number as well as book cover and synopsis!

Again, the last Kelley book I read was the UK hardcover edition of 13.

Synopsis

Thirteen

A war is brewing—the first battle has been waged and Savannah Levine is left standing, albeit battered and bruised. She has rescued her half brother from supernatural medical testing, but he’s fighting to stay alive. The Supernatural Liberation Movement took him hostage, and they have a plan to expose the supernatural world to the unknowing.
Savannah has called upon her inner energy to summon spells with frightening strength, a strength she never knew she had, as she fights to keep her world from shattering. But it’s more than a matter of supernaturals against one another—both heaven and hell have entered the war; hellhounds, genetically modified werewolves, and all forces of good and evil have joined the fray.
Uniting Savannah with Adam, Paige, Lucas, Jaime, Hope, and other lost-but-notforgotten characters in one epic battle, for a grand series finale.
Note: all hardcover editions are “collector editions,” which will include features such as author notes on the series and the post-13 Elena story “From Russia, with Love.”

The Challenge!


13, pg 170

"That contact goal. Connections same. Passed rest. Panic. See do. Bars through. Talked. Threats. Questions guy. Impression. Prisoners respond. Gone. Dumb are suspect. Grate bars it. Spell said."

Women of the Otherworld Mini-Challenge #4

This is the fourth in a series of mini-challenges for those participating in the Women Of The Otherworld Series reading Challenge! The task for this challenge is to go to the last page you read and create phrases with the last word of each line. We can use punctuations that follow the words but we have to use all the words and keep them in order so this should be interesting! :-) We also have to include the page number as well as book cover and synopsis!

The last WOTO book I read was 13, the UK edition with the extra bonus story at the end.

Synopsis - taken from Kelley's website


A war is brewing—the first battle has been waged and Savannah Levine is left standing, albeit battered and bruised. She has rescued her half brother from supernatural medical testing, but he’s fighting to stay alive. The Supernatural Liberation Movement took him hostage, and they have a plan to expose the supernatural world to the unknowing.
Savannah has called upon her inner energy to summon spells with frightening strength, a strength she never knew she had, as she fights to keep her world from shattering. But it’s more than a matter of supernaturals against one another—both heaven and hell have entered the war; hellhounds, genetically modified werewolves, and all forces of good and evil have joined the fray.
Uniting Savannah with Adam, Paige, Lucas, Jaime, Hope, and other lost-but-notforgotten characters in one epic battle, for a grand series finale.
Note: all hardcover editions are “collector editions,” which will include features such as author notes on the series and the post-13 Elena story “From Russia, with Love.”

Challenge

Taken from pg 442 of Orbit UK edition.

"Someday is echoed. Ready. Be ready neck. Elena yours yelled up did. Out called shouted team! Her lose. Not too called minutes. Grinned. Ten. Complain again me? Smiling. Few. Good. Bed."

Women Of The Otherworld Challenge - Month 6

Month 6 of the Women of the Otherworld Challenge is Broken. Broken brings back Elena as narrator again and revolves around the 'From Hell' letter!

Blurb

Broken

When half-demon Xavier calls in the favour Elena owes him, it seems easy enough, steal Jack the Ripper’s ‘From Hell’ letter away from a Toronto collector who had himself stolen it from the Ripper evidence boxes. But nothing in the supernatural world is ever as simple as it seems. Elena accidentally triggers a spell placed on the letter, and opens a dimensional portal into Victorian London, releasing zombies, disease, and maybe the notorious serial killer himself.

My Review

I love this book, one of my favourites of the series as I love how it incorporates the 'Jack The Ripper' legend giving it supernatural twists! I loved Elena being pregnant and the issues she had being a werewolf! I'm sure most women would be jealous that she gets to shave 3 months of her pregnancy term.
I loved Jaime coming into it as well and being brought face to face with her biggest fear - what she can expect in later life if she isn't careful using her abilities - namely the madness of Tee. All necromancers and Clairvoyants face going insane as they get older if they overuse their powers and their barriers breakdown.
I think Clay may have started to accept, respect and maybe even like Jaime in this book, she proved she wasn't just a flighty superficial airhead I think, plus she managed not to get captured or possessed! I think this book probably sees her and Jaime's relationship hint at more then friendship given that Elena think's she see's something more then concern in Jeremy's eyes while looking at Jaime at one point!
I liked the introduction of Zoe, while she never gets her own book. she does get a couple of short stories and a mention as one of Elena's friends in future books. She's a character I always liked and wished could have featured more in the series.
I got a little emotional when they discussed baby names as Logan's name came up. I also felt Nick was having a difficult time adjusting to Clay and Elena starting a family, not because he didn't want them to, but because it made him think about his fathers wish for a grandchild and made him consider whether fatherhood would ever suit him. He wasn't so much broody as he was feeling guilty for not giving his dad a grandchild. It made me feel a little bad for him seeing him re-evaluating his life because of Elena's pregnancy.
I'm definetly glad to have re-read this one and I'm looking forward to re-reading the next novel too! Part of the story was hinted at in this book!

Women Of The Otherworld Challenge - Month 5

This is month five of the Women Of The Otherworld Series Challenge hosted by Moonlight Gleam and this month's book is Haunted!

Blurb

Haunted

Eve Levine made a bargain with Fate, and now she’s come to collect, sending Eve off on a quest to retrieve the soul of an escaped demi-demon. Playing ghost world bounty hunter isn’t exactly what Eve had in mind for an afterlife career, but a deal is a deal. Eve never breaks a promise…even when the cost of repaying that debt turns out to be more than this ghost can afford.

My Review

While I do love this book (it is Kelley writing!) it isn't my favourite of the series, I prefer the werewolves books, Paige's books and Jaime's! However having said that I do love Eve! Her sarcastic attitude reminds me of Elena but Eve has less of a moral code! She is as stubborn as Elena and Paige as well but she comes through in the end. My favourite thing about this book though is seeing the world of the afterlife explored, seeing more of the fates and how things operate on the otherside.
I also loved seeing a different side to Kris as well. In Dime Store Magic Kris is painted in a very bad light and while he has done some questionable things being the son and heir of a Cabal CEO in life, he's not a bad guy. We see his better side in this book, the real Kris not the Nast heir and he really loves Eve. He's very patient, waiting for her to be ready to accept their relationship, to accept him as a permanent part of her life. He's also mischeivious and makes me laugh a lot in the book, like when he put's Eve in a nurses uniform (she really should have known better then to allow him to change her clothes!). I like how her relationship with Jaime develops in this book as well. It gets off to a rocky start cause she has no idea about ghost-necromancer protocol so she gets on Jaime's bad side at the beginning but I think Jaime learns to trust her a little towards the end and they actually get along.
We also meet our first angels, the primary one being Trsiel. A couple of the angels we briefly meet are quite stuck-up but I liked Trsiel although he is a bit overly goody-goody (understandable considering he's a full-blooded rather then ascended angel) even more so then Paige! We also meet a couple of demon's one of which I liked the other I loved! Dantalion I liked for his humour but I loved Aratron and he is someone we meet again. If there is such a thing as a good demon Aratron would be one. He doesn't mess in mortal affairs or thrive on Chaos like Dantalion does.
The Nix is an interesting character to meet, the baddie of the book but how she became what she was interesting. A demi-demon ghost confined to influencing and sharing the bodies of female hosts only. A far cry from what she was before circumstance caused her to become limited in what she could do.
I also like the idea of Eve being tested for angelhood, with all she did when alive (namely being a teacher of black magic), not to mention being the daughter of a lord demon and yet the fates choose her to be tested for the ranks of angels! Every bit as amusing as the fact that Robert Vasic, (Adam's step dad) is a half-demon who used to be a priest and now teaches demonology! I also loved how surprised she was that Lucas didn't embrace her taking over Paige's body immediately. Lol, in her mind she built up a rapport with Paige and Lucas from watching over them from the ghost world but she realises that the relationship is one-sided as of course they have no idea that she's been keeping an eye on them as well as Savannah so they don't trust her. She does recognise that Lucas' distrust is understandable seeing as they only have her reputation and the fact that she broke his arm the first and last time she met him to go by!
Still everything works out well in the end and I enjoyed learning about the afterlife and what happens after death in Kelley's world, we even had a cameo from the first major otherworld villian Daniel (or as he's called in this to his chargrin Dannyboy!). Interesting to see how he's currently spending his afterlife! So glad I picked this up again to read as I loved seeing the other side to Eve and Kris that we didn't get to see in the first four books.

Women Of The Otherworld Mini-Challenge # 3

http://www.moonlightgleam.com/2012/06/mini-challenge-3-women-of-otherworld.html

This one was kinda hard for me! The challenge is to create a post describing which of the first four books in the series challenge so far was your favourite! The difficulty for me isn't creating the post but choosing! The thing is that while Clay and Elena are my favourite couple in the series, of the first four books, theirs isn't my favourite! My favourite is actually the last one read in the challenge - Industrial Magic!



 Synopsis

Industrial Magic

Think your in-laws are scary? Try meeting Paige Winterbourne’s potential father-in-law: CEO of the Cortez Cabal, a multinational corporation…and the supernatural equivalent of the Mafia. Lucas Cortez has devoted his life to ruining the Cabals, though that doesn’t stop his father from expecting him to take over the family business someday. Benicio’s favorite ploy is to appeal to Lucas’s quixotic ideals by asking him to investigate Cabal cases of injustice.

After years of failure, Benicio finally has the perfect case: a teenage witch attacked and left for dead. Refusing will be difficult enough for Lucas…near impossible for his new witch girlfriend. Paige and Lucas soon discover that the young witch wasn’t the first Cabal teenager attacked.

When the infighting among the Cabals threatens to let the killer continue his spree, Paige and Lucas decide it’s up to them to stop him. The chase takes them on a cross-country hunt through the supernatural world, where allies can be found in the strangest places, including a celebrity necromancer, a wise-cracking Celtic deity, a pissed-off ghost, a half-mad clairvoyant, and a group of vampires who’d really rather be in an Anne Rice novel.

Why?

I think it's my favourite cause it contains all the characters I love from the previous books, with them all having at least some part to play in the story, plus it introduces a couple of new dimensions to Kelley's otherworld, namely the world of the Cabal and a glimpse into the afterlife. I love that Clay and Elena get a little page time and through Paige we see how they're working on their relationship issues and making progress. I love seeing the Cabal world through Paige's eyes and her initial encounter with Jaime as Jaime is buzzed up from being on stage. It's interesting seeing the vampires through her eyes as well. You see a lot of growth from the first three books, not just in the Pack but with Adam as well, he's actually seen that Paige's advancement in life isn't just down to her being an overacheiver, he can see how much Lucas has done, he can see Clay and Elena and how their careers have advanced even with pack duties and he's actually trying to get somewhere himself, follow in his step-dad's footsteps and get his degree. We also see how much Paige and Lucas' relationship grows and strengthens in this book as well.
There are so many dimensions to the book, Lucas' relationship with his father, the prejudice against witches from the Cabal and against vampires & Werewolves from just about everyone. The correction's of misconceptions such as those Paige had towards Jaime on meeting her, towards Eve and towards vampires. I love the argument about whether vampires are alive and whether they have a soul (and therefore an afterlife) or not. Lucas and Paige working out where their relationship is going. Paige re-evaluating her life direction, no longer focusing on creating her own coven (though it's not off the books altogether) but deciding to work with Lucas as a team helping supernaturals. We also see how not everything on the interracial council is perfect as Cassandra has been (unintentionally) lax in her duties as Vampire representative. She's disconnecting but until this book (and until Aaron pointed it out) Paige has not seen it and wouldn't have seen it as Cassandra is her sole (until she met Aaron in Stolen) contact in Vampire circles. As a result we also see a possible new member of the interracial council in the form of Aaron as second Vampire delegate!
Very fast-paced and action packed book with a lot of humour to balance out the more intense sections!

Review - Industrial Magic

http://www.moonlightgleam.com/2012/02/women-of-otherworld-reading-challenge.html
We're now on month 4 of the challenge and I am really enjoying it! Month 4 is of course Industrial Magic, the second of the books that Paige narrates.

Blurb

http://www.kelleyarmstrong.com/industrial-magic/

Think your in-laws are scary? Try meeting Paige Winterbourne’s potential father-in-law: CEO of the Cortez Cabal, a multinational corporation…and the supernatural equivalent of the Mafia. Lucas Cortez has devoted his life to ruining the Cabals, though that doesn’t stop his father from expecting him to take over the family business someday. Benicio’s favorite ploy is to appeal to Lucas’s quixotic ideals by asking him to investigate Cabal cases of injustice.

After years of failure, Benicio finally has the perfect case: a teenage witch attacked and left for dead. Refusing will be difficult enough for Lucas…near impossible for his new witch girlfriend. Paige and Lucas soon discover that the young witch wasn’t the first Cabal teenager attacked.

When the infighting among the Cabals threatens to let the killer continue his spree, Paige and Lucas decide it’s up to them to stop him. The chase takes them on a cross-country hunt through the supernatural world, where allies can be found in the strangest places, including a celebrity necromancer, a wise-cracking Celtic deity, a pissed-off ghost, a half-mad clairvoyant, and a group of vampires who’d really rather be in an Anne Rice novel.

My Review

I loved re-reading this book! So much happens and so many characters are introduced and re-introduced! We have the return of the pack (or at least 3 members) briefly, a brief cameo from Kristoff, get to meet Eve (though she is dead as we know from Stolen), we get to meet Lucas' brothers (who I can't stand!), his father (who I do like for all his faults) and Benecio's (Lucas' father) bodyguards who will cameo in later books considering the fact that Troy and Griffin are never far from Benecio. We also got reintroduced to Cassandra, a better introduction to Aaron and we got introduced to Jaime Vegas, celebrity necromancer!
We learnt more about the world of the Cabals that Lucas grew up in and now tries to avoid. I loved getting the deeper look into Cabal life and how the cabals interact. I also loved seeing Paige and Lucas' relationship growing though a couple of times I did wonder if Paige needed an eyetest as she was missing so much of how Lucas felt about her! When he would try and broach subjects about maybe making their relationship more permanent and working together, she would misread it and put him off what he was going to say, kinda making him think that maybe he was reading more into their relationship then she was! He did finally get her to see that he wanted a future with her though (no he did not propose! Little too soon for that!).
We really got to see how much these two loved each other and how perfectly suited they were for each other. We also got an insight into Lucas' family relationships and you really do feel for Lucas when you see how horrible his brothers are towards him and how complicated his relationship with his father is!
I loved the banter between Jaime and Cassandra as well, mostly along the lines of 'you are dead' 'I'm not dead!' lol, Jaime took great delight in arguing Cassandra's 'life' with her! Through them we also learned a little more about other supernaturals through the discussions with Cassandra and Jaime, in particular them talking about or displaying their capabilities and professional ethics/points of view.
On another note we also learned of Savannah's half-brothers and have had the possiblities of them playing a bigger part in Savannah's life open up. At least on Sean's part as he did display a genuine interest in learning more about Savannah and making contact with her as in his own words it wasn't right that she was being ignored by the family. Sean seems to me to be a lot like Lucas in some ways as he sees the flaws in the Cabal's and doesn't agree with how they conduct themselves as he did have a mini-rant at one stage about how he was disgusted at how the cabals were in-fighting instead of doing anything really useful to help each other and stop the murders! We only got a very brief interaction with him but it felt like there was more under the surface and prehaps he had discussed it with Lucas before as Lucas tried to calm him and tell him not to make any hasty decisions while upset and not thinking clearly.
That's one of the things I love about Kelley's writing, if you read between the lines there is always something more there that is not being said outright but may resurface in a future book and be expanded on!
We also learnt a little bit more about the afterlife in the book as it was debated in terms of whether Vampires have an afterlife or not. I really enjoyed this book in the series with all that happened in it and all that was introduced! I really do love Paige and Lucas, next to Elena and Clay they are my favourite couple in the Otherworld series and it's great to see how much Paige has grown since we first seen her Stolen.        

Women Of The Otherworld Mini-Challenge 2

http://www.moonlightgleam.com/2012/05/mini-challenge-2-women-of-otherworld.html

Okay, the mini-challenge by Moonlightgleam  this month is to create a character casting list for at least 3 characters from the novels! A very hard task as in my eyes no current actor or actress can do Kelley's characters justice! They can never 100% match up to the picture in my head of each character which is why, in all honesty, if I ever got a chance to cast these characters for real I'd hold open auditions and get in unknown actors so I could get someone closer to the image in my mind! I have tried to make some choices though but I'm not completely happy with them! I'm doing these by couples!

Ok to start we'll cast Hope Adams and Karl Marsten! I've chosen Peeya Rai Chowdhary and  Peter Facinelli.

 

For Jaime Vegas and Jeremy Danvers I've chosen Amy Yasbeck and Keanu Reeves as Keanu has asian heritage but it isn't too obvious just like with Jeremy and I think Amy looks sultry and fun kinda like the image Jaime likes to project, however I'm much happier with my choice for Jaime then my choice for Jeremy!

Elena Michaels and Clay Danvers are as hard as Jeremy to cast, in my mind no known actor is quite right but I went with Uma Thurman and Chris Hemsworth for them.

For Savannah Levine and Adam Vasic I've decided on Phoebe Tonkin and Chad Michael Murray.



For Paige Winterbourne and Lucas Cortez I've chosen Rachel McAdams and Ramon Rodriguez but again not perfect choices in my eyes!

For Cassandra DuCharme and Aaron Darnell I went for Julianne Moore and Charlie Hunnam.

I can't leave Nick Sorrentio out cause I love Nick! For him I've chosen Victor Webster.

That's it! My Character cast list for Women of The Otherworld!



Review - Dime Store Magic by Kelley Armstrong

Okay, month 3 of the challenge and it's book 3 - Dime Store Magic with two of my favourite characters - Paige and Lucas! The link to the challenge is in my sidebar.

Blurb from Kelley's site

http://www.kelleyarmstrong.com/dime-store-magic/

Dime Store Magic

Leader of the American Coven, guardian to the preteen daughter of a black witch … it’s not the lifestyle twenty-three year-old Paige Winterbourne imagined for herself, and it’s wreaking hell on her social life.

But she’s up to the challenge. When half-demon Leah O’Donnell returns to fight for custody of Savannah, Paige is ready.

She’s not as prepared for the team of supernaturals Leah brings with her, including a powerful sorcerer who claims to be Savannah’s father. Cut off from her friends, accused of witchcraft, Satanism, necromancy, murder…Paige quickly realizes that keeping Savannah could mean losing everything else. Has she finally found a battle she isn’t willing to fight?

My Review

I love this book in the series. I am a big Paige and Lucas fan, they're one of my favourite couples. This is Paige's first narration and the first time in the series that Elena does not narrate as she had the first two books. What I love is that Elena is not pushed out by Paige, she still has a cameo as she calls Paige upon hearing what's happening in the news to console Paige and offer aid, she's also called by Paige briefly to get some quick information for Paige.
This is Paige's story though so apart from two brief Cameo's and a couple of mentions she doesn't feature in this story.
We are introduced to new elements in this book as we learn more about the Coven from Paige (have to say I do not approve of the Coven due to their treatment of Paige and Savannah) and about Cabal's which are sorcerer institutions, kind off like a supernatural mafia.
In the book we see Savannah's father coming out of the woodwork and looking to take Savannah from Paige through any method possible. The animosity between witches and sorcerer's is explored a little and seen in how the Nast sorcerer's treat Paige and talk about the Coven. Lucas Cortez is an exception as he supports Paige's desire to rediscover true witch magic and even the playing field between witches and sorcerers. He actually respects witches which makes him even more of a freak and embarrassment in the eyes of his fellow sorcerer's. Espeacially as he's rejecting his position as named heir to the Cortez cabal.
I love how Lucas and Paige's relationship develop's. He does not take no for an answer and stubbornly keeps returning to take on Paige's case regardless of how many times she slams the door in his face and rejects him! I loved how he kept coming back and introducing himself as Paige's lawyer much to her chargrin! he did win her and Savannah over though.
I really wanted to slap the Coven in the book though, they really let Paige and Savannah down. They didn't help them as they should have done. They were all about themselves and keeping away from confrontation when they should have been standing up for and supporting Paige and Savannah. At least she had Lucas in her corner and despite knowing him for only a matter of day's, he was the one she was able to rely on that ran to her aid when she needed him. The Coven just abandoned her when she needed them most.
This book was superbly written and had me in stitches at times (I'm thinking of the wiccans in Paige's backyard, you'll understand if/when you read the scene, as well as Savannah getting her period and a lot of her comments to Paige and Lucas). I love Kelley's humor in her writing and how she captures her characters. Paige has really grown since her introduction in Stolen and continues to grow. She's learning that things she thought were black and white aren't quite as black and white as she thought, sorcerer's magic for example.
Some views she's held are challenged, some in a positive way and some, like the Coven, in a negative way. The next book in the series is to be narrated by Paige as well, continuing her story further and through her Savannah and Lucas' stories as by the end of this book those three have become a family due to everything that's happened and how it's brought them closer.        

Review - Stolen by Kelley Armstrong

This is month two of the reading challenge hosted by Moonlight Gleam. March was Bitten and April is Stolen, May will be Dime Store Magic and so forth til all 13 books in the series have been read and reviewed! The link for joining up is in the sidebar.

Blurb from Kelley's site

http://www.kelleyarmstrong.com/stolen/

Stolen

When a young witch tells Elena that a group of humans are kidnapping supernaturals, Elena ignores the warning. After all, everyone knows there’s no such thing as witches. As for the thought of other ‘supernaturals’, well, she’d just rather not dwell on the possibility. Soon, however, she’s confronted with the truth about her world, when she’s kidnapped and thrown into a cell-block with witches, sorcerers, half-demons and other werewolves. As Elena soon discovers, dealing with her fellow captives is the least of her worries. In this prison, the real monsters carry the keys.

My Review

I love this book as it's pivotal in expanding Kelley's Otherworld. Elena narrates again and I love all the little nuances and themes in it, how everything serves to build her character and history. For example when she gives her reasons for not usually telling Clay she misses him or never saying she loves him outside of the bedroom cause she see's it as giving him too much power to hurt her like others have done. she knows it's stupid and says so herself but it's something she still has to overcome. Also the way Ty Winsloe's treatment of her scares her not because of the power he holds in the story or because of him but because of how it reminds her about her bad childhood experiences in the foster homes she was in. All these things build her to a truly substantial character.
One of my favourite parts in this story (apart from her reunion with Clay and her revenge on Ty) is when she's just sat with Jeremy and he's telling her antedotes of Clay's childhood, through her we learn a little more about Clay and Jeremy's past's and childhood's. We also see the introduction of new supernatural races in this, the witches, half-demons, shaman's, vampires and sorcerers. I will admit that in this book I wasn't fond of Paige when I first met her but towards the end she was really growing on me, espeacially when she threatened to cut off and box a certain part of Adam's anatomy! She's a character that in future books becomes a favourite of mine alongside Elena. I also love Adam's character, he's so boyish but (being a half-demon) has a dangerous edge. Cassandra has never grown on me like the rest of the characters but the male vampire we meet briefly at the end does.
Again, parts of the book made me sad as characters I liked were killed but alot of it made me laugh, like Xavier's antics, he was definetly a fence character, neither truly on one side or the other.
This book had a few twists in it that when I first read it I didn't really see coming but it kept me hooked from start to finish with everything going on in it and the new characters being brought in to the series. Elena only had me mentally berating her a couple of times when her insecurities came into play making her think things that weren't true and overreact to a couple of things. She has come along since Bitten in that she has 100% accepted that she belongs with Clay and the pack, she hasn't given up her independant streak but nor is she running away anymore. She's accepted her life even if she hasn't yet forgiven Clay but she still has a lot more ground to cover. She still has to overcome alot of her insecurities and learn to be open with Clay. Learn to NOT be afraid to tell him outright that she misses him when they're separated and that she loves him, afterall Clay has more then proved he's never going to abandon her or leave her for any reason. She has to learn to believe and trust in that. I also love the fact that at the end Clay has now got the idea of kids in his head much to Elena's horror! Lol, I laughed when she made the comment about hiding her birth control pills from now on! This book is an amazing sequel to Bitten and well worth picking up!       

Review - Bitten by Kelley Armstrong

I've decided to add my reviews for Kelley's Series that I've already done on Goodreads for Moonlight Gleam's challenge on here so here's my review for the first book in Kelley Armstrong's amazing Otherworld series - Bitten

Blurb from Kelley's website

http://www.kelleyarmstrong.com/bitten/

Elena Michaels is the world’s only female werewolf. And she’s tired of it. Tired of a life spent hiding and protecting, a life where her most important job is hunting down rogue werewolves. Tired of a world that not only accepts the worst in her–her temper, her violence–but requires it. Worst of all, she realizes she’s growing content with that life, with being that person.

So she left the Pack and returned to Toronto where she’s trying to live as a human. When the Pack leader calls asking for her help fighting a sudden uprising, she only agrees because she owes him. Once this is over, she’ll be squared with the Pack and free to live life as a human. Which is what she wants. Really.

My Review

Just re-read this book for the umpeenth time! I love and adore this series and Clay and Elena are one of my very favourite couples in the series. Throughout the book anyone knew to the series would be forgiven for thinking the worst of Clayton. Why? Simple, the narration is purely from Elena's point of view and throughout the book we're getting her thoughts on everyone, but at the same time we're also seeing what happens and what's said so reading between the lines you learn that what Elena thinks is not the actual truth. She wants Clay to be the bad guy so she can blame all her own flaws on him and the bite rather then live up the truth that the flaws are her own and were very much there before the bite. She wants to believe that Jeremy can't really care about her for her cause she can't believe that anyone as good as Jeremy could care about someone as damaged as her (quick note, that's care about her in a platonic way not romantic! Jeremy is very much a father figure to Elena!).

She's running from pack life not because it's bad persay but because of her own stubborness. She didn't choose to be bitten and turned therefore she'll fight that life for no other reason then she didn't choose it, despite the fact that regardless what she tries to force herself to think and belive, the life makes her happy.She loves Clay and he's the only man for her but she continues to delude her self otherwise til the very end when she rescues him and finally realises she's not getting him back for the pack but for herself.

I love Kelley's writing style throughout, how she develops the characters and draws you in to the story. There is a lot of humour in Kelley's writing to temper the serious side of the story! The banter between the characters and the lines they use make you laugh, like Nick's line to Elena when they find the shreds of hers and Clayton's clothes in the forest 'Wild dogs? or just Clayton?'. I was always a Clay fan, even when it was the first time I read it, cause I could see the differences between what she thought and said and what we seen him say and do. I could also see how she was only truly herself around him and the pack and they never judged her for it or left her. They accepted her for who she was. That was never the case with Philip. She was hiding a big part of herself and I'm not referring to her being a werwolf. She was modifying her behaviour, her temper, her likes and preferences, everything for Philip, she was presenting a false persona to him that had her subpressing a lot of herself. She wouldn't even make a sarcastic comment around Philip cause he wouldn't approve.

I was happiest when she realised that she could have her dreams with the pack and didn't need to deny herself. She didn't need to pretend to be someone she wasn't to have those dreams. She did however go through hell and back to realise it and I wonder if those mutts hadn't chosen to revolt and attack the pack, how long would it have took her to realise the truth and how deep in the lie would she have been before she realised it could never work and she could never truly be happy lying to herself and everyone around her?

My first post and I've created the blog just to take part in Moonlight Gleam's Women of the Otherworld's mini-challenge which is being run for participants of  her Women of the Otherworld Series challenge. Participants are challenged to read one of the books from Kelley's series each month. Here's the link to join :-

http://www.moonlightgleam.com/2012/02/women-of-otherworld-reading-challenge.html

The mini-challenge is to take pictures of YOUR Kelley Armstrong books, all her series and the anthology's which she appears in, even a screen shot of the e-books if you want, that you own. So I took my camera this morning and pulled out all my Kelley Armstrong books and anthologies and got snapping! Bear with me on this, having never blogged before I'm just hoping I manage to post the pictures without messing up!

These are my speacial Kelley Armstrong books, the limited editions by SubPress and the infamous Otherworld Primer from Dabel. You'll notice I have two copies of some, that's because I saved to get the Trade and the limited for the subpress books so that I had both covers and so I could keep the signed, numbered edition up safe.

These are the main series books and the two short story collections that Kelley did, rounding up a few of the short stories she had written for the series, including prequel stories for characters, and which she donated the proceeds of to a literary charity.

These are all the anthologies I own that Kelley has contributed to, some have standalone stories that are separate from the series, some are based in the otherworld but aren't related to any characters in the series and others are based within the series timeline and involve side stories with the characters.

These are the YA anthologies, Enthralled has a Chloe story in it and the other two anthologies contain short stories on a character we haven't seen in the YA series Kat, another genesis subject.

These are from the YA series, two separate trilogies that are connected , the next book comes out next April and will see the two sets of characters meeting up which I'm looking forward to, the two trilogies are set in the same world (a spin-off from the adult series) and with the same enemies to a point but two different projects - Genisis and Phoenix.

These are her non-supernatural series, The Nadia Stafford series. There is to be a final third book which I've been waiting for since I first read the series but it's been on the back burner for a long time. Finally though Kelley is writing the third Nadia book, it will probably be a while before we see it but I'm looking forward to it.

 These are some of what I have on my Kindle, I've been working on getting all Kelley's book's on Kindle so that I can carry them all with me when I travel.

So that's all my Kelley Armstrong titles that I have, never realised just how many I had before this mini-challenge! As Kelley is a favourite author of mine I have gone above and beyond to get all her work, including the anthologies and I treat myself to the yearly subpress Novella that get's realised cause they are such beautiful books!