Fables&Wren

Women of the Otherworld #11: Waking the Witch

/ 03 STARS, KA AR WOMEN OF THE OTHERWORLD

Waking the Witch Book Cover Waking the Witch
Women of the Otherworld
Kelley Armstrong
Fantasy fiction
Vintage Books Canada
June 21, 2011
Hardcover
336

The orphaned daughter of a sorcerer and a half-demon, Savannah is a terrifyingly powerful young witch who has never been able to resist the chance to throw her magical weight around. But at 21 she knows she needs to grow up and prove to her guardians, Paige and Lucas, that she can be a responsible member of their supernatural detective agency. So she jumps at the chance to fly solo, investigating the mysterious deaths of three young women in a nearby factory town as a favour to one of the agency's associates. At first glance, the murders look garden-variety human, but on closer inspection signs point to otherworldly stakes. Soon Savannah is in over her head. She's run off the road and nearly killed, haunted by a mystery stalker, and freaked out when the brother of one of the dead women is murdered when he tries to investigate the crime. To complicate things, something weird is happening to her powers. Pitted against shamans, demons, a voodoo-inflected cult and garden-variety goons, Savannah has to fight to ensure her first case isn't her last. And she also has to ask for help, perhaps the hardest lesson she's ever had to learn. Book 11 in the Otherworld series.

WrensReads Review:

I loved Savannah finally getting her own story, don’t get me wrong.

But I also thought this story was a little weak for her. She is one of the strongest women written in this series. Ever since she was a kid she gave no craps about anyone and will do whatever the hell she wants to do because that is what she wants to do.

I understand that she has grown up and everything like that, but that kind of spunk doesn’t just die.

What I am happy about, is that her story isn’t done. If I am correct, the next books are all hers. It kind of feels like an actual series because we were left with a cliff hanger and it continues on; very unlike the rest of the series where we get closure for the narrator at the time.

I am not going to go into the actual story besides saying that girls were murdered, there might be some supernatural-ness behind it, Savannah investigates it all by herself (first case of her own), there’s a commune of young girls who bake cookies, and Savannah sees her past self in a young, spunky school-aged girl.

Needless today, I was a little sad but a little happy with the aspect of a story that covers three books.

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Women of the Otherworld #10: Frostbitten

/ 05 STARS, KA AR WOMEN OF THE OTHERWORLD

Frostbitten Book Cover Frostbitten
Women of the Otherworld
Kelley Armstrong
Alaska
Vintage Canada
May 25, 2010
Audiobook
352

New York Times bestselling author Kelley Armstrong returns with the tenth installment of the Women of the Otherworld series. The Alaskan wilderness is a harsh landscape in the best of conditions, but with a pack of rogue werewolves on the loose, it’s downright deadly. Elena Michaels, the Pack’s chief enforcer, knows all too well the havoc “mutts” can wreak. When they hear of a series of gruesome maulings and murders outside Anchorage, she and her husband, Clay, journey to Alaska in the dead of winter in order to hunt down the dangerous werewolves. Trapped in this savage, untamed winter realm, she and Clay learn more about their own werewolf heritage than they bargained for, tapping a little more into the wild nature of the beast within. With Elena back in the starring role, this is the book Kelley Armstrong fans have been waiting for.

WrensReads Review:

Elena and Clay had their twins!

This couple has come such a long way and I absolutely loved this journey with them! Elena has come to terms with herself being a werewolf, and she actually enjoys it more than she doesn’t now, and Clay is less of a “hovering-spouse” and knows that she needs space.

Sometimes though, as young parents, they need time to themselves. So when Elena is trying to tell a young mutt the danger he is in and he goes to Alaska without hearing it, the two make a trip up there together to find him and warn him. And boy, do the wolves love the snow.

And I don’t just mean werewolves. We run into a lot of regular wolves and weird beast-like wolves in this book which I absolutely loved. They are kindred spirits in a lot more ways than they realize. They even run into a werewolf who lives with the wolves instead of humans. It never crossed my mind that a werewolf would rather live as a wolf than a human. I find that super interesting.

Well anyway, a bunch of mutts from America and Russia are trying to form a pack and take over America. One of them, I kid you not, even looks like this:

Well, that’s what I imagine him as. He takes steroids so his already werewolf-pumped strength will be even bigger and greater. He has a thing for women who don’t consent.. and when he gets a whiff of Elena, you know the only living female werewolf (besides his daughter that is too young for anyone to care about), he sets his instincts before basically anything else.

I love this series so much. I especially like the werewolf books. Not really the one with the zombies, because it wasn’t really up the werewolf alley, but the characters themselves make it enjoyable enough on their own. Even the side characters, like Nick and Antonio, are some of my all-time favorite characters to read about. I wish Nick had his own side-series that I can read about all his adventures.

I’m going to get one part out of the way here: this book does contain rape-like acts and thoughts. It deals with a rape victim (Elena) and her coming face to face with the act itself and her hearing from one of the men (foster fathers) who did the deed. I am saying this because it might have some triggers for people so it might be wise to way reading it or not.

Now, in the werewolf world (because yes, we are finally back for the final werewolf-based book), rape is going to be a big issue and has been since book one. Wolves don’t do the whole “consent” thing, so werewolves, being half wolves, sometimes don’t want to see that as a thing either. We have the pack that are actual great human beings or, er, werewolves and would never do that, and we have mutts who don’t care who you are; they have needs, you can fill them one way or another.

What I do like about this book is Elena deals with her nightmarish past. She has moments when her fear takes over, but she doesn’t let it run her life. So take that as you may. It isn’t too graphic in my own opinion, but it is an adult book and adult words and acts are done here: consent or no.

In conclusion, this book was legit. It’s actually the first book I ever read of Kelley Armstrong (not knowing it was in the middle of a series and being in middle school [which I don’t advise doing (reading it at such a young age or reading it and not the first ten books that is [I’m done])[).

But I love it, anyway.

Sidenote: The audio-book was actually pretty legit for this book. I liked it better than the last three.

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Women of the Otherworld #09: Living with the Dead

/ 02 STARS, KA AR WOMEN OF THE OTHERWORLD

Living with the Dead Book Cover Living with the Dead
Kelley Armstrong
Miami (Fla.)
Vintage Canada
August 25, 2009
Paperback
464

When PR representative Robyn Peltier is framed for murder, half-demon reporter Hope Adams joins forces with necromancer homicide detective John Findlay to clear her name, taking on a ruthless killer who will stop at nothing.

WrensReads Review:

This is definitely my least favorite of the series, though I never thought to stop reading and it had my attention ENOUGH. I wasn’t like dying to know more like most of Kelley Armstrong’s books.

We have way too many points of views in this one. We are used to having only one, and the last book we got two which was a nice change of pace, but we got.. four or five if I am not mistaken. And only one of them we knew before this book (Hope) and even though I still felt like she was a new character to the series.

What I did love about this book is that human’s get involved. That’s right, a human gets to see what is behind the supernatural curtain. We also meet someone who knew they had special powers (necromancer) but never knew of the community of supernatural beings until he met some of our friends in this series.

Hope’s best friend Robyn is in some deep crap. Like she is wanted for murder. But she didn’t do it. Enter best friend, chaos-loving-half-demon Hope and her boyfriend werewolf-jewel-thief Karl and a detective that can see dead people.

What I really REALLY enjoyed was exploring clairvoyance powers in Armstrong’s world. We have seen and learned about werewolves, witches, necromancers, warlocks, half-demons (even though there are a lot more types to discover!) and even magicians, but not enough on the rare supernatural-beings that are called clairvoyant. They are a necessity in this book and I absolutely loved it.

All in all, I am ready to get back to werewolves in the next book. Elena and Clay are my first love.

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