Nyx Book Reviews

fantasy ♥ paranormal ♥ horror ♥ science-fiction

Review: Frostbitten by Kelley Armstrong

Title: Frostbitten
Author: Kelley Armstrong
Series: Women of the Otherworld
Rating: 3/5 Stars

352 pages
Published October 1st 2009 by Orbit
Bought

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Frostbitten is narrated by fan-favourite main character Elena, the only female werewolf in the Women of the Otherworld world. Sadly, except for the first Elena-book Bitten, I haven’t been very impressed by the Elena books.

Elena and Clay travel to Alaska to look into the disappearances of several women and hikers, and to visit old fellow werewolf friends. Elena is simultaneously facing off mutts gone wild and her emotional demons after receiving a letter from her former sexual abuser.

I think the main reason I don’t enjoy Elena’s books that much is because of everything about her and her personality. I don’t very much like her relationship with Clay – I like him well enough, but they tire me. I don’t like that she’s the only female werewolf in the world, because I feel like that’s a bit illogical. All the werewolf men either want to fuck her (if necessary, rape her) or kill her.

In Frostbitten Elena works through her traumatic past where she apparently has been abused sexually by multiple foster fathers and brothers. I completely get that abuse in foster families happens, but I did find it a bit over the top that Elena was abused by big masses of brothers and fathers that all wanted to have sex with her. It seems like every men she meets has want-to-hump-Elena syndrome – even her friend Nick french-kisses her every time he can get away with it. Her dealing with it was only so-so done in my opinion, it was all a bit clichéd.

The story has the same thriller-like quality most of the Women of the Otherworld books feature, and this one introduces yet another type of supes. I quite liked them (I’m being vague on purpose – the identity of the supes is a plot-point). The plot was engaging, and as this book was shorter than the last few books in the series it moved at a higher pace.

I’m looking forward to the next book, Waking the Witch. It’ll feature Savannah, the witch/sorcerer kid we’ve met in the books featuring Paige. I like witchery magic better than werewolves in general, and I hope Waking the Witch will be back on the level I’m used to from Kelley Armstrong.

Blurb

Being the world’s only female werewolf has its advantages, such as having her pick of the Otherworld’s most desirable males. And Elena Michaels couldn’t have picked a more dangerously sexy and undyingly loyal mate than Clayton Danvers. Now their bond will be put to the ultimate test as they follow a bloody trail of gruesome slayings deep into Alaska’s frozen wilderness.

There’s nothing the werewolf community dislikes more than calling attention to itself. So when a pair of rogue man-eaters begins hunting humans, it’s up to Elena and Clayton to track down the predators. But any illusions their task would be simple are quickly dispelled. For even in werewolf terms, there’s something very disturbing taking place in the dark Alaskan forests. A werewolf more wolf than human and more unnatural than supernatural is on the hunt—a creature whose origins seem to spring from ancient legends of the shape-shifting Wendigo.

And if that wasn’t bad enough, Clayton and Elena find themselves confronting painful ghosts from their pasts — and an issue neither of them is eager to discuss. For one of them has been chosen to become the new Pack leader, and as every wolf knows, there can be only one Alpha. They’ve always been equals in everything. Now, when their survival depends more than ever on perfect teamwork, will instinct allow one of them to lead…and the other to follow?

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