Personal Demon by Kelley Armstrong

Series: Women of the Otherworld, Book 8

Genre: Urban Fantasy

Copyright: 2008

Pages: 252

Rating: 3 / 5

Review:
This was a quick fun read. Hope and Karl first featured in the Dates From Hell Anthology, which was enough of a teaser to make you want these two come together. This is the first series that i've read out of order. I've read the first four books, and let just say i got fed up of reading about and from Paige's POV.

This book is from Hope's and Lucas' POVs. Hope goes undercover for the Cortez Cabal to repay the debt Karl and her owe Benicio Cortez, only she's doing it alone cause Karls left her. Enter Karl, and thing get a whole lot interesting.

I liked this new side of Karl where he's trying to open up to Hope - he's always been the cool, aloof thief to me so far, so this side of him was good to see.

I liked Lucas' POV as well. It was interesting to see him struggle to maintain his beliefs and ideals and yet to what's right for the Cortez Cabal and deal with his father

All in all, a good read.

See my review of the previous books from this series here

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Dime Store Magic (Women of the Otherworld, #3) - Kelley Armstrong

416 pages
Series: Women of the Otherworld, book 3
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Paige Winterbourne needs to be slapped...I don't know any other way i can start this review. Maybe she was just such a big pain in Stolen, the second book, that I’ve carried that prejudice into this book. No wait, no maybe about that. I definitely did.

The only saving grace this woman had for the first quarter or more of this book was that she did everything she could do defend Savannah from everyone else.

Ok, let me start at the beginning. In Stolen, Paige's mother is killed at the facility where Savannah and Elena are also kept captive. Savannah is the teenage daughter of a now-deceased witch and a powerful sorcerer. After rescuing and gutting the facility, Paige now has custody of Savannah, and she's also the new head of the American Coven of witches. But Leah, the demon who helped capture people for the facility, wants Savannah back and gets Savannah's father involved in the claim as well.
See, Savannah hasn’t yet matured into witch-hood yet, so there's potential to lure her over to the dark side.

Paige now has to fight for custody of Savannah, against the wishes of the other witches in her coven. The only hope she has is in the form of Lucas Cortez, a sorcerer-lawyer who comes to her rescue
Can they save the day and keep Savannah with Paige?

Paige in the beginning is irritating. She's one of those I let my temper rule and don’t see what I don’t want to see kind of people. On the other hand, i found Savannah to be pretty mature and perceptive at most times, specially for her age. Lucas is a bit of a geeky type, also the son of the CEO of the biggest sorcerer Cabal and reluctant heir-in-waiting, with nothing else much going for him except his willingness to help Paige.

This best described Lucas, and was also when i really began to like him:
"The Caped Crusader is Batman, whose alter ego would be Bruce Wayne. Clark Kent is Superman. Neither analogy, I'm afraid, is quite accurate. I lack the tormented brooding sexiness of the Dark Knight and, sadly, I've not yet learned to fly, though I did manage to sail a few yards when Leah threw me this afternoon."

There wasn’t much of romance in this book. And not the best of plots, although there’s quite a bit of situations they get into. But it still made a good read. I liked watching both Paige and Savannah growing stronger as individuals and with each other.

It also had some pretty LOL moments when I was in tears:

Witch: "We are as the Goddess requires."
Paige: "The Goddess requires you to be naked on my lawn?"
Witch: "We aren't naked, child. We're skyclad. Clothing impedes mental vibrations."

See my review of the previous books from this series here

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Stolen (Women of the Otherworld, #2) - Kelley Armstrong

468 pages
Series: Women of the Otherworld, book 2
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars


Stolen is the second book in the Women of the Otherworld series.
While Bitten laid the foundation of Armstrong’s world, it did seem pretty stand-alone. It is Stolen that seems like the first book in a series. We expand from only werewolves to a whole new world with more supernaturals added – witches, shamans, half-demons, vampires and I’m sure more to come.

Stolen is narrated by Elena again. It beings with Elena investigating someone selling information about werewolves, only to have her view of the supernatural world expanded with two witches telling her about supernaturals of all types disappearing and warning her the werewolves may be next. There’s an interracial council that’s trying to get to the bottom of this situation while ensuring no-one else disappears, and the werewolves are asked to join back in..but the human mastermind behind this kidnapping finally gets his hands on Elena – and learns what happens when you deal with a werewolf.

This book doesn’t have the punch from Bitten, but it was pretty good in itself. Elena is her usual sarcastic, strong woman who has decided to settle with the werewolf pack but still thinks with her human mind. We have more of Elena and Clay – they left off in Bitten deciding to be together, and Stolen has them working towards their relationship and getting closer towards the end when it finally dawns that they could have lost each other. Witches, vampires and other supes are added – some more noteable than the others. Paige, a young witch who is completely annoying and Cassandra, the vampire who doesn’t seem to care about whats happening.

I wish there were more interactions among the werewolf pack – that’s what made Bitten such so wonderful. You’ll love the times Clay and Elena have together, specially the parts towards the end. This book also sets up the next one – Dime Store Magic – which I’m guessing with be narrated by Paige. Wondering how that’ll work seeing as Paige completely got on my nerves in this book, even if she was good at her stuff. Go read this.
See my review of Bitten here

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Bitten (Women of the Otherworld, #1) - Kelley Armstrong

453 pages

Rating: 5 + + / 5

This book has the distinction of getting me hooked from the first line itself. I didn’t need to wait a few pages for the story to pick up and get absorbed into it, Bitten did it from the get go.

I have to.
I've been fighting it all night. I'm going to lose.My battle is as futile as a woman feeling the first pangs of labor and deciding it's an inconvenient time to give birth. Nature wins out. It always does.


Bitten is about Elena - the only female werewolf in the world. Not by her choice - she was bitten by her lover and forced into this world. That’s one of the reasons she's so determined to live as a normal human away from it all. That’s where this story beings - with Elena and her experience undergoing the Change into a werewolf late night in the streets of Toronto - not an ideal place to change. She's living with Philip, a nice patient human guy and another attempt to integrate into the normal world.

Elena is no ditzy character. She's sarcastic but strong-willed and determined. She tries to be grounded in reality- as much as a bitten werewolf who's rebelling against the werewolf lifestyle can be. I liked her sense of independence - she didn't need someone else to come save her. As much as she rebels, eventually, when they need her help, she returns to the Pack, and to the man who bit her.

I kept looking at the number of pages and gleefully anticipating what would happen next and how the troubles facing the werewolves would eventually end - because what this book is filled with is one action packed situation after another.

What it is also filled with is Clay.
Oh Clay. When Elena kept fighting with him I really wanted to tell her to settle for Phillip and leave Clay for me.
He figures up there with Bones from the Night Huntress world and Adam and Charles from Mercy Thompson world for swoonworthy heroes for me. Must I say any more?
I think I should
I've never liked reading a man calling a woman darling as many times as Clay did in this book. I loved all his conversations with Elena. He has a single minded-determination to get what he wants; and also say what he wants - which is Elena.

"What the hell do you want?" I said.
His smile turned to a grin, white teeth flashing. "You. What else?"
"Where? Right here? On the floor?"
"Nah. Not that. Not yet. Just the same old thing I always want. You. Here. For good...I'm glad you're home, darling. I missed you."

And i won't even begin to talk about all the romping-around-the-jungle sex these two had..they're always ripping each others clothes out and while I don’t usually like reading such 'frenzy' cause the authors never makes it believable, I wished I was Elena many times in this book.

Then there's Jeremy - the Alpha of the pack - with his amazing self control and quiet strength of character. Another character so full of awesomeness. The world building in this book is brilliant. The characters are well-drawn out so you feel like you've know all of them for a long time and you want to be their friends. (well, I did and I'm sure you will too)

This one is definitely up there among my favourite reads. I read it more than thrice already and each time I tried writing a review I'd go back to check some part I liked and end up reading it all over again. What that should translate into for you is to stop reading my rantings here now and go find yourself a copy to keep. Don’t borrow. Buy

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