Stolen by Kelley Armstrong

  A little over a week ago I read Kelley Armstrong's Bitten, the first book in her Women of the Otherworld series.  Before I was half way through I bought Stolen, the the second book in the series.  By the time I finished Bitten it was clear that I would be reading the entire series and impulsively bought the rest of the books in the series.  So far that impulse has proven worth it.  I couldn't put Stolen down, finishing it in three days.  It is frightening in parts, sexy and romantic in others, and jam packed with action all the way through.

Bitten introduced a world where there are werewolves - men and one woman who live dual lives as humans and wolves.  In Stolen author Kelley Armstrong adds witches, vampires, sorcerers, and other supernaturals into the mix.  They aren't even the scariest or sickest creatures in the book.  That title belongs to Tyrone "Ty" Winsloe and his scientist sidekicks who are kidnapping supernaturals for their business and pleasure.  The scientist are all business, running experiments and tests on their subjects, while Ty is in it solely for his pleasure, his pleasure being hunting.  Some sort of Internet billionaire, Ty has created the ultimate reality based video game in which he hunts supernaturals on his homemade forest filled game board.

Elena, the lone female werewolf in existence, is captured by Winsloe.  Much of the story centers around her captivity and her attempts to escape.  Surprisingly, Elena and her werewolf brothers are somewhat shocked to learn that there are other supernaturals besides werewolves that exist so readers get to learn about these other creatures along with Elena.  Of course every supernatural creature thinks they are better than the rest.

The one weird thing in this series for which I am waiting further explanation is the idea of the lone female werewolf.  In the Otherworld series some are born as werewolves, others are made.  As to the natural born, the werewolf gene travels only through the male line, from father to son.  As to made werewolves, many don't survive the werewolf bite.  The metamorphosis is just too much for most and the weak need not apply.  For some unexplained reason, women in particular have a high mortality rate when bitten.  Enter Elena, who survives the bite to the surprise of just about everyone.  Why more women cannot survive the bit is not made clear.  I find the idea that women can't survive the bite to be extremely irritating.  Perhaps Armstrong rethought the idea of women not being able to handle the bite because in Stolen another woman is transformed into a werewolf. 

The lone female werewolf notwithstanding, I loved this.  It was such fun to read.  I know the next book in the series centers around a witch. The introduction of other supernaturals is likely to make for a richer universe in the Otherworld series, but I do love the werewolves Elena, Clay, and Jeremy.  I hope there will be many more stories about them.