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 and it is already the start of June, you can tell that I am a little behind…

Stolen by Kelley Armstrong, UK edition.

Stolen (Women of the Otherworld #2)
by Kelley Armstrong

Published by Orbit 22nd April 2004.

Elena Michaels is a wanted woman. She hasn’t done anything wrong. Well, not recently, anyway. But ten years ago her lover turned her into a werewolf: the only female werewolf in the world, in fact.

And now, just as she’s finally coming to terms with it all, a group of scientists learns of her existence. They’re hunting her down, and Elena is about to run straight into their trap. But they haven’t reckoned with Elena’s adoptive family, her Pack, who will stop at nothing to get her back. They haven’t reckoned with Elena herself, either, and that’s a very big mistake . . .

As with Bitten, this isn’t going to be a “normal” review. I adore this series and these characters. I haven’t read it quite as much as I have Bitten, but I do go back occasionally and re-read it.

Stolen is the second book in the Women of the Otherworld series, and honesly it doesn’t have quite the same spark for me as Bitten does. In Stolen we get to meet Elena and Clay again. Life has moved on from the end of Bitten and both Clay AND Elena are trying to make their relationship work. They still have the brilliant chemistry of Bitten, but they both seem more comfortable about it – especially Elena, though there are a few wobbles. Jeremy also turns up in this book – well someone has to keep an eye on them 😉 – but the rest of the Pack are elsewhere, so we get to meet a few new characters which set up later books in the series. We get to meet Ruth and Paige Winterbourne, who are in many ways the fulcrum of this book. This book also has the first appearances of Adam, Cassandra, Aaron, and Savannah. Elena remains the narrator of this book, and I like the way she has matured since Bitten.

‘You smell so good.’

He chuckled. ‘Like ham?’

‘No, like you. I missed you so much.’

– Kelley Armstrong, Stolen (Orbit, 2004), p. 425.

The plot of Stolen is very different from Bitten. In this book we get a greater hint of the greater world and politics of the Women of the Otherworld series. Before there were just werewolves, now there are witches, sorcerers, vampires, and half-demons. What I liked in this book is that not all the danger came from the supernatural in this book. Part of the plot is, I think, an interesting and insightful look at human nature.

If you’re a fan of Urban Fantasy then I highly recommend this series. It really is an interesting world. Don’t worry if you’re not a fan of werewolves, because they’re not alone in this world.