The Women of the Otherworld

I read. All the time. Way back in the long ago I picked up my first comic book. After a few months of reading 20-something pages and having to wait another month for the next 20 pages of the story, I decided to try reading a book. Simply stated, I wanted something longer, something that would occupy my time and fuel my imagination.

So I headed to the nearest bookstore and bought my first novel which is well documented here: Magician Apprentice.

I'm always on the lookout for new authors, writers who are interesting, great story tellers and who can fashion believable three-dimensional characters. While perusing the bookshelves at the local library, I ran across an author who's been writing more than a decade, but whom I hadn't heard of before now. I can't remember which of her books caught my attention, but after some quick research I requested her first novel from the library's, well um, library: Bitten.

Cover of the paperback version

I was pleasantly surprised. Really pleasantly surprised. Her writing is clear, her characters have depth and her female protagonist, Elena Michaels, wasn't just a female James Bond. And more importantly, she wasn't writing about vampires. For some reason vampires had become the pop-culture rage and if you weren't writing blood-sucking novels you weren't writing novels publishers wanted. Kelley Armstrong decided to write about my favorite supernatural creature: werewolves.

In Armstrong's Otherworld series, Elena Michaels is the only female werewolf and while this gives her a certain social standing, it also causes her pain, suffering and grief.

Armstrong's Bitten was great (even if the sex was a bit gratuitous) and I quickly read her follow-up: Stolen. This book, again with Elena Michaels as the protagonist, introduces the readers to a whole host of other supernatural beings: sorcerers, witches, witch doctors, half-demons and the obligatory vampires. We learn about the politics of the supernatural world (of which the werewolves have abdicated themselves from being involved).

Her next couple of books are a spin-off of sorts. They follow Paige Winterbourne, introduced in Stolen, and her coming to terms with being a 22 year old adoptive mother of a 13 year old also introduced in Stolen. She is home in Massachusetts, being outcast by her Coven while claiming to be their leader, running headlong into conflict and traps without thinking ahead -- trusting instead to righteous indignation.

She was not my favorite character. Where Elena Michaels was confident and secure, although fighting her self, Paige Winterbourne seemed like a child acting like an adult trying to be a child.

However the writing was still good and introduced even more supernatural politics to the readers. The next book takes place just a few months further on, following the life of Paige's boyfriend through Paige's eyes and being dragged ever deeper into the realm of sorcerer Cabals, infighting, murder and betrayal.

With more than 27 books, short stories and novellas on the market, I think I'll be reading Kelley Armstrong for a while.And I'm okay with that. Had I read the Paige Winterbourne books first, I might not have kept reading her novels as I didn't care much for the character, but I did start with Elena and consequently know Armstrong can develop good strong female leads.