Product Description

Elena Michaels is a model woman for the 21st century: self-assured, keenly intelligent, fighting fit. And like every modern woman, she has her secrets. Nothing extraordinary about that. Except that Elena really is extraordinary. In fact, she may well be the most extraordinary woman alive. She is, after all, the only female werewolf in the world...Ten years ago, against her will, Elena's lover turned her into a werewolf. Some days it feels like a gift. Most days it feels like a curse. A year ago, she decided to live as a human. Now she has to go back to New York State, her old home. Her pack is under seige by a new group of violent, psychotic werewolves that shows no respect for the old ways, and no respect for territory. Forced into helping her old friends, Elena soon slips back into the reassuring camaradarie of the pack, though she struggles against her dangerous, unpredictable desires. Hunting down her enemies, Elena prowls through territories usually barred to women. From dangerous back alleys to the dark, luscious forests of New York State, she must hunt and destroy the renegade pack before they destroy her.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5814 in Books
• Published on: 2004-02-26
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 464 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Elena, heroine of Kelley Armstrong's impressive debut thriller Bitten, never planned that a casual sexual encounter would transform her into a werewolf. Neither did Clay, her lover and one of the leaders of the exclusive werewolf clique known as the Pack; women do not generally change or survive if they do. Elena's considerable reservations about her new life come to a head and she walks out on the Pack to return to something like normality, finding herself a boyfriend who turns a blind eye to her occasional disappearances in the middle of the night. She may have done with the infighting of werewolves, but they have not done with her; her former family call her back when they find themselves under threat from those they have excluded and dominated. Kelley Armstrong is very good on the sheer exhilaration of shape-changing, of running on four feet through forests, suburban greenery and urban back alleys; if there is a weakness here, it is that Elena's relationship with the taciturn, untrustworthy Clay is sometimes a little too conventionally romantic--but the dark poetry of the best of the book overcomes this entirely. --Roz Kaveney

Review
'Filled with romance and supernatural intrigue, this book will remind readers of Anne Rice's sophisticated refurbishings of the vampire story' Publishers Weekly 'After the first nibble it's hard to stop ... Gory, sexy fun' SFX 'A thrilling adventure ... who'd want to be human? Great fun' Big Issue 'It's as smooth as cream all the way, sure to gain fans' Kirkus Reviews 'A very contemporary, funky supernatural thriller' Hello! 'It's terrific. The heroine is the most appealing I have come across in ages. It's clever, quirky, hip and funny, skating between genres with style and grace. More please!' Joanne Harris, author of Chocolat 'A hair-raising story for the she-wolf in us all' Shannon Olson, author of Welcome to my Planet 'Entertaining new take on an old thriller story form. Makes Buffy look fluffy' Daily Express 'Armstrong's true achievement is her depiction of werewolf nature in believably human context ...the sensuality of Elena's transformations and the viciousness of her kills mesh perfectly with her tough personality. Filled with romance and supernatural intrigue, this book will remind readers of Anne Rice's sophisticated refurbishings of the vampire story' Publishers Weekly 'There is nothing overtly gothic about this fast-paced, sexy thriller and its model contemporary heroine - it's just that she's a werewolf who is trying to make a go of things among humans' Bookseller 'A tasty confection of werewolves, sex and vendettas ... after the first nibble it's quite hard to stop ... Elena and her acid repartee successfully steal the show throughout, she has bags of charm. Also, werewolves seem a healthy change from too many would-be-cool vampires: unlike Dracula's pallid, Gothic kin, Elena worries about her weight and works out hard at the gym. Gory, sexy fun' SFX 'A thrilling adventure ... who'd want to be human? Great fun' Big Issue 'It's as smooth as cream all the way, sure to gain fans' Kirkus Reviews 'Rather than writing a slice of modern gothic, Armstrong has penned a very contemporary, funky supernatural thriller with a particularly provocative heroine' Hello

About the Author
Kelley Armstrong lives in rural Ontario with her husband and two children. BITTEN is her first novel.

Customer Reviews

Different, in a good way :)
Elena seems a normal young woman. She has a job, and lives with her perfectly normal boyfriend. However, things aren't always what they seem to be: Elena is a werewolf, the only female werewolf in the world to be precise...

Elena was turned into a werewolf by her previous fiancée, Clay, who wanted her to be with him forever, and thus did something forbidden by Pack Law: he bit her. Against all odds Elena survived, but she felt betrayed by Clay and ultimately left the Pack.

Now, however, the Pack needs her: a band of mutts (not Pack werewolves) are killing humans, and they must be stopped. So when Jeremy the alpha werewolf calls her, she decides to return and face her past, even though she isn't specially eager to do so.

Truth to be told, this is the first book by Kelley Armstrong that I have read, and I discovered it by chance. A friend told me to visit Armstrong's website (www.kelleyarmstrong.com) to read some of her free novellas, and I did exactly that when I had some free time. I didn't regret it: the three free novellas that Kelley offers in her website are just awesome. "Ascension", "Savage" and "Beginnings" are prequels to "Bitten", and quite different to other things I have read (different in a good way, though).

My immediate reaction after reading Armstrong's free novellas was to buy "Bitten", Armstrong's first published novel and coincidently the first book in the "Women of the Otherworld" series. I don't regret doing that. As a matter of fact, I liked this book so much that I gladly recommend it to you, provided you like fantasy/horror books with non-stopping action, an interesting plot and a little bit of romance :)

Belen Alcat

Bitten...
This is the best book out of the series and also the 1st one. It grips you from the first page how Elena is trying to live a 'normal' life but, gets drawn back to the pack. Some parts are quite gruesome, kelley really draws you into the story. All the books in the series are great but, this one is fantastic.

Cracking book!
I recently discovered Kelley Armstrong's books by chance in my local bookshop and have become completely hooked on them!

"Bitten" is the first book in the series and introduces us to Elena Michaels, the world's only female werewolf. She is still coming to terms with becoming a werewolf after her lover, Clay, bit her and at the beginning of the book is trying to maintain a "normal" life with human partner Philip. However, her Pack soon need her help and when she returns to them she has to battle with her feelings for Clay and the others and decide whether home is with Philip or with her Pack, while at the same time the Pack is in terrible danger from a group of "mutts", rogue werewolves who kill to survive.

Elena is a great character, a typical "stand up for yourself" woman with a troubled past that makes her sympathetic and likeable. By the end of the book you may feel as though she's an old friend. The first person narrative allows readers to get into her mind and this book explores her confused hopes and fears and her longing for a normal life and a happy home.

All in all, an excellent book, and it will certainly leave you desperate to read more of Elena's adventures!