goingnowherefast

The Women of the Otherworld series  I work as a part time page for the library. This is an ideal job for a book glutton such as myself. I discovered Kelley Armstrong’s Bitten while shelving. The cover had a contorted female figure and I was instantly curious. I had already discovered Stephenie Meyer by this point and deeply obsessed with paranormal fiction. Armstrong had me at “werewolf.” I instantly fell in love with Armstrong’s character Elena Michaels and couldn’t get enough. I quickly finished Bitten, Stolen, and skipped ahead to Broken. I then moved on to No Humans Allowed and Personal Demon (which was just then being released). I only recently backtracked to Dime Store Magic and Industrial Magic. Haunted is sitting in my pile of books to read still because I’m just not ready to let go. I like the comfort of knowing it’s there. Normally I’m a firm believer in reading books in the order the author intended but frankly, I wasn’t in love with the Paige character until I went back to read her books. Come to think of it, I never had a strong love of any of the other characters before reading their books. I love the way Armstrong creates a world through her heroines’ eyes. The novels are not only well written (a rare find) but heartfelt. Armstrong brings such life to her writing its hard to believe it’s actually fiction. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND this series. Below are each of the novels listed in order published with a synopsis courtesy of barnesandnoble.com. The titles are also linked to Wikipedia for further information. Hope you love them as much as I do. Feel free to comment and let me know.  

Bitten (2001)  

I’ve got to get out of here - I don’t have a lot of time left.

Philip doesn’t stir when I slip from the bed. There’s a pile of clothing tucked underneath my dresser so I won’t have to risk the squeaks and groans of opening drawers and closets. I pick up my keys, clasping my fist around them so they don’t jangle, ease open the door and creep into the hallway. My legs now itch as well as hurt and I curl my toes to see if the itching stops. It doesn’t. It’s too late to drive to a safe place now-the itching has crystallized into a sharp burn. I stride out onto the streets, looking for a quiet place to Change.

Young, beautiful, and successful, Elena Michaels seems to have it all. Her happy, organized life follows a predictable pattern: filing stories for her job as a journalist, working out at the gym, living with her architect boyfriend, and lunching with her girlfriends from the office. And once a week, in the dead of night, she streaks through a downtown ravine, naked and furred, tearing at the throats of her animal prey.

Elena Michaels is a werewolf.

The man who made her one has been left behind, but his dark legacy has not. And though Elena struggles to maintain the normal life she’s worked so hard to create, she cannot resist the call of the elite pack of werewolves from her past. Her feral instincts will lead her back to them and into a desperate war for survival that will test her own understanding of who, and what, she is. 

Stolen (2002)

Even though she’s the world’s only female werewolf, Elena Michaels is just a regular girl at heart — with larger than normal appetites. She sticks to three feasts a day, loves long runs in the moonlight, and has a lover who is unbelievably frustrating yet all the more sexy for his dark side. Like every regular girl, she certainly doesn’t believe in witches. Then again, when two small, ridiculously feminine women manage to hurl her against a wall, and then save her from the hunters on her tail, Elena realizes that maybe there are more things in heaven and earth than she’s dreamt of.

Vampires, demons, shamans, witches — in Stolen they all exist, and they’re all under attack. An obsessed tycoon with a sick curiosity is well on his way to amassing a private collection of supernaturals, and plans to harness their powers for himself — even if it means killing them. For Elena, kidnapped and imprisoned deep underground, separated from her Pack, unable to tell her friends from her enemies, choosing the right allies is a matter of life and death. 

Dime Store Magic (2004)

Paige Winterbourne was always either too young or too rebellious to succeed her mother as leader of one of the world’s most powerful elite organizations—the American Coven of Witches. Now that she is twenty-three and her mother is dead, the Elders can no longer deny her. But even Paige’s wildest antics can’t hold a candle to those of her new charge—an orphan who is all too willing to use her budding powers for evil…and evil is all too willing to claim her. For this girl is being pursued by a dark faction of the supernatural underworld. They are a vicious group who will do anything to woo the young, malleable, and extremely powerful neophyte, including commit murder—and frame Paige for the crime. It’s an initiation into adulthood, womanhood, and the brutal side of magic that Paige will have to do everything within her power to make sure they both survive.

Industrial Magic (2004)Kelley Armstrong returns with the eagerly awaited follow-up to Dime Store Magic. Paige Winterbourne, a headstrong young woman haunted by a dark legacy, is now put to the ultimate test as she fights to save innocents from the most insidious evil of all.. . .

In the aftermath of her mother’s murder, Paige broke with the elite, ultraconservative American Coven of Witches. Now her goal is to start a new Coven for a new generation. But while Paige pitches her vision to uptight thirty-something witches in business suits, a more urgent matter commands her attention.

Someone is murdering the teenage offspring of the underworld’s most influential Cabals — a circle of families that makes the mob look like amateurs. And none is more powerful than the Cortez Cabal, a faction Paige is intimately acquainted with. Lucas Cortez, the rebel son and unwilling heir, is none other than her boyfriend. But love isn’t blind, and Paige has her eyes wide open as she is drawn into a hunt for an unnatural-born killer. Pitted against shamans, demons, and goons, it’s a battle chilling enough to make a wild young woman grow up in a hurry. If she gets the chance.

Haunted (2005)  Eve Levine — half-demon, black witch and devoted mother — has been dead for three years. She has a great house, an interesting love life and can’t be killed again — which comes in handy when you’ve made as many enemies as Eve. Yes, the afterlife isn’t too bad — all she needs to do is find a way to communicate with her daughter, Savannah, and she’ll be happy. But fate — or more exactly, the Fates — have other plans. Eve owes them a favor, and they’ve just called it in. An evil spirit called the Nix has escaped from hell. She feeds on chaos and death, and is very good at persuading people to kill for her. The Fates want Eve to hunt her down before she does any more damage, but the Nix is a dangerous enemy — previous hunters have been driven insane in the process. As if that’s not problem enough, the only way to stop her is with an angel’s sword. And Eve is no angel. .  

Broken (2006)  

In this thrilling new novel from the author of Industrial Magic, a pregnant werewolf may have unwittingly unleashed Jack the Ripper on twenty-first-century—and become his next target.

Ever since she discovered she’s pregnant, Elena Michaels has been on edge. After all, she’s never heard of another living female werewolf, let alone one who’s given birth. But thankfully, her expertise is needed to retrieve a stolen letter allegedly written by Jack the Ripper. As a distraction, the job seems simple enough—only the letter contains a portal to Victorian London’s underworld, which Elena inadvertently triggers—unleashing a vicious killer and a pair of zombie thugs.

Now Elena must find a way to seal the portal before the unwelcome visitors get what they’re looking for—which, for some unknown reason, is Elena. 

No Humans Involved (2007)   In Armstrong’s assured seventh Otherworld paranormal romance, her first in hardcover (after Broken), pretty Jaime Vegas, a 44-year-old necromancer who can reanimate the dead, faces her biggest career challenge yet—freeing the trapped ghosts of six murdered children. Thankfully, Jeremy Danvers, Jaime’s hunky and very Alpha werewolf boyfriend, tags along for this hair-raising ride. Jaime, who has made a living onstage and off by her ghost-whispering skills, is in L.A. as one of three celebrity mediums participating in Death of Innocence, a TV special that hopes “to raise the ghost of Marilyn Monroe,” but instead uncovers a serial-killing cult intent on man-made black magic. Seeking justice for the lost children and punishing the dark arts practitioners don’t prevent Jaime and Jeremy from finding time for love. Armstrong deftly juggles such creatures as werewolves, witches, demons and ghosts with real-life issues. The only disappointment? Marilyn’s ghost never shows. Personal Demon (2008)  

Chaos rules in Armstrong’s complex eighth Women of the Otherworld installment (after 2007’s No Humans Involved). The formidable Benicio Cortez once helped “tabloid-reporting, gun-toting, chaos demon spy girl” Hope Adams out of a jam, so she agrees to go undercover and join a supernatural youth gang that’s been causing problems for Cortez’s multinational corporation. Assuming the persona of bratty rich co-ed Faith Edmonds, Hope works her way into the gang, participates in heists and soon finds herself dangerously attracted to one of the other members, cute Jasper “Jaz” Haig. All too soon, Jaz’s diabolical plans lead to a shocking tragedy. Armstrong excels in depicting Hope’s transformations, but new readers might want to read earlier books to get context for all the mayhem. Living with the Dead (2008)Coming soon… 

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