Stolen

author: Kelly Armstrong
genre: Paranormal
grade: B-
status: library book

A personal pet peeve for me is a heroine who thinks she is all that and then tends to require endless rescuing by others. That seemed to me to be a theme in Armstrong's debut novel "Bitten" and to me it continued here.

In book one we learned that Elena Michaels was turned werewolf without permission. It complicated her relationship with fiancee at the time Clayton, who did the turning, and "Bitten" deals with many of the issues between them. At the beginning of book two Elena is back with Clayton and living with him and Jeremy his father (who is also pack alpha) in the Pack's estate in New York. Elena has resumed her original position with the Pack of checking out werewolf sightings to determine if they are a) legitimate and b)a danger to the Pack and werewolves in general. Werewolves are deep in the closet in these novels and woe betide the "mutt" (non-pack, independent wolf) that risks their hidden status. Naturally, Elena's tool of choice is the World Wide Web and through believe.com she makes contact with a Paige Winterbourne who sounds as though she has some legit intel to sell. The Pack can't allow that intel to fall into the wrong hands and Elena is off to make sure it doesn't.

When Paige and Elena meet the encounter seems to go wrong from the start. The girly tea shoppe chosen as their trysting place has acoustics which allow people to dip in to your conversation at any time. Since this is not good for their secret agent style meet Paige brightly offers her hotel room as an alternate setting and since Elena is confident her werewolf nature will protect her (cause, you know, that didn't go wrong last book)she traipses right in to a trap. Get used to this, I don't think Elena knows how else to do things. The trap is actually rather benign and yields the startling information that the wolves aren't alone in the supernatural world ;-). In rapid order Elena meets with witches, half-demons, and vampires. It is as the Pack reluctantly becomes involved in this world that the real adventure takes off for it seems that someone is hunting the supernaturals . . . .

Armstrong is a powerful story weaver and I found myself sucked into the tale despite my misgivings. One of the great things about her is that she pulls no punches with her villains -- they tend to be people who not only deserve being eliminated but frankly, are sometimes begging for it. She doesn't bog down the tale in useless information but she does sketch quickly and competently just what you need to know on every page. Her characterizations are clear, concise and consistent, adding a good depth to the story telling that makes it just that much more compelling.

There is a touch of romance here but the relationship was established in "Bitten" and Armstrong is not a romance writer per se. She captures the nature of a relationship that is intense but not new very well though, imo. I especially enjoyed seeing Clay handle a comeon from a new character. Interesting to see his handling of it and even better to watch Elena's reaction to it.

The book is not a light, fun read but certainly if you have read Kim Harrison, Patricia Briggs or Moning's Fever series (and if you haven't, what are you waiting for???) you aren't going to pass out from the action here.

What dropped the book to a B- for me is that the wolves did not seem to learn from their experiences in the last book. Elena's overconfidence, especially when she waltzed right into the initial trap, began to rub me wrong. Mistakes are natural, we all make them but while many characters in my favorite books make them and learn from them this is something the characters in this series find beyond them. I find Jeremy an exceptionally incompetent Pack leader and know that all that is keeping him alive is the fierce loyalty of Clay and Elena, his two warriors. That drops my opinion of them though because he is so clearly unfit to lead.

I will probably continue to read this series. The really nice thing about it is that unlike other series, where I am rabid to tear into book after book, this is one where I am like "Well, I'll put it on my pile and when I get there I get there." It's a nice feeling to have a good but not great book waiting for you.

Tea: How about a bit of Raspberry Zinger? Sweet enough to get you through the tough bits and soothing enough to carry you through the scary bits.