"Dark Fantasy told by its compelling werewolf heroine"
Elena is a werewolf. Although she tries to fit into the
human world by leaving the pack who had taught her how to
live as both human and wolf, she cannot escape from her
wolf nature. She is unnaturally strong, she must eat far
more than a typical human and worst of all, she has to
Change about once a week. Despite all this, she allows her
human boyfriend, Philip, to move in with her and tries to
assimilate herself into his very normal life. When she is summoned to return to the pack to help with an
emergency situation, she feels she must obey. She dreads
returning to the world she had left and fears getting
caught up once again and forgetting her "human" life. She
also fears being reunited with Clay, the man who bit her,
thus bringing her into what she sees as a cursed life.
Clay, on the other hand, embraces his wolf nature and longs
for her to do the same. Even after 10 years, he has not
given up on the idea that they will eventually marry. Once
reunited with the pack, Elena must help them track down a
group of mutts (non-Pack werewolves) who want to destroy
the pack and all its protective rules. She must also sort
through her own feelings about Clay and her desire to lead
a normal human life which conflicts with the peace she
feels when she is with the pack. BITTEN is going on my list of all time favorite books. I
thoroughly enjoyed Elena's voice and felt compelled to
cheer her on, give her advice, and admonish her as she
sorted out what she wanted in life. The other characters
seem quite real as well. I can't wait to read more about
them in the sequel, STOLEN, which is scheduled for release
in October 2002. I enjoyed Elena's first person narrative, because her
opinions of others changed over the course of the book but
instead of needing to be told this, I could see it through
her reactions and descriptions. I would highly recommend
BITTEN especially to fans of werewolf novels though I would
caution that it is a dark fantasy with detailed
descriptions of violence, so if this bothers the reader, it
might not be the book for you. Sarah Neal © May 2002
For PNR Reviews
Reviewed by Sarah Neal
Posted June 14, 2002
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An addictive, deeply enjoyable thrill ride on the frontier of the feral and feminine...a debut novel of astonishing imaginative power from the future queen of suspense.
Elena Michaels slips out of bed, careful not to wake her boyfriend. He hates it when she disappears in the middle of the night, and can't understand why any normal woman would crave the small hours of the morning, the dark unsafe downtown streets. But Elena's skin is tingling, the pent-up energy feels like it's about to blow her muscles apart -- she can't put it off any longer. She loves to run at the edge of the city, but she doesn't have time to get there. She has to slink into an alley, take off her clothes and hide them carefully, and make the Change. Elena's trying hard to be normal. She hates her strength, and her wildness, and her hunger for food, for sex, for running in the night, for the chase and the kill. She wants a husband, children...even a mother-in-law. Or at least that's what she tells herself. And then the inevitable happens. The Pack needs her. The Pack she loves and hates is under siege from a bunch of disreputable and ruthless mutts who are threatening to expose them all, breaking all the rules that have kept them safe. The loyalty of her nature calls her home, and into the fight, which tests just who Elena is: the wild woman or the wistful would-be human. Genre: Urban Fantasy
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