Each month beginning March 1st, 2012, challenge members will read or re-read the title for that month. In addition, challenge members will either post a review, their reading experience, character castings or anything else related to that title. You have freedom to have fun with your monthly post so be creative! Seeing as this series is 13 novels long, this challenge will last 13 months.

As this challenge started in March 2012 and it is already February 2013, you can tell that I am a little behind…

Broken by Kelley Armstrong, UK cover

Broken (Women of the Otherworld #6)
by Kelley Armstrong

Published: 4th May 2006

Broken, Kelley Armstrong’s sixth novel, marks the welcome return of kick-ass werewolf Elena Michaels. When the not entirely trustworthy half-demon Xavier calls in a favour, it seems easy enough – steal Jack the Ripper’s ‘From Hell’ letter away from a Toronto collector who had himself stolen it from the British police files. But nothing in the supernatural world is ever as simple as it seems. When Elena accidentally triggers a spell placed on the letter, she opens a portal into the nether regions of Victorian London. Toronto may be looking for a tourism boost, but ‘Gateway to Hell’ isn’t quite the slogan the city had in mind.

With thieving vampires, killer rates and unstoppable zombies on the loose, Elena and the rest of her Pack have a lot on their hands. Oh, and then there’s the small matter of Elena’s pregnancy . . .

As with previous Women of the Otherworld Challenge posts this is not going to be a “normal” review.

Broken is actually one of my least liked books in the Women of the Otherworld series. Although it features Clay, Elena, and Jeremy who are without a doubt my favourite characters, this book doesn’t really do anything for me. To be fair, Armstrong does her usual brilliant job of making the action fast paced and the mystery interesting. I just don’t personally feel that the link to Jack the Ripper adds anything to the story – really, the letter that causes all the problems in the book could be from any bad guy and it would work just as well.

One of the things I do really like about the book, in terms of character development, is that it shows that Elena has really settled into her life in the Pack. She’s not fighting it anymore. The fact that Elena’s pregnant and still determined to carry on as normal helped cement my like of her as a character; I was also very amused by the way Armstrong wrote both Jeremy and Clay’s reactions to this, and her reaction to them. I also enjoyed the appearance of Jamie in this book. She tries really hard to be helpful, and I think she’s actually quite brave. Jamie seems to have been a popular character for Armstrong at this point in the series, as she also appeared in the previous two books.