Stolen

Rating:
Summary: An Outstanding, Enthralling, Exhilarating Tale!
Review: "Stolen" by Kelley Armstrong is the second instalment in the "Women of the Otherworld" series that started with the utterly exceptional "Bitten". If you have not yet read "Bitten", do so! It is a novel that will appeal to fans of any genre and has become one of my favourite novels of all time. Because of this, I knew that "Stolen" would have a very tough act to follow. Well, I am thrilled to report that Kelley Armstrong has succeeded in creating yet another riveting and unputdownable tale, proving what a talented novelist she truly is and that she is here to stay. "Stolen" is an enchanting and hugely suspenseful tale that continues the captivating story of werewolf Elena Michaels. It is guaranteed to grab and hold your attention from start to finish, and leave you applauding the amazing Ms. Armstrong!

"Stolen" begins where "Bitten" left off. Elena Michaels has finally come to terms with what she is and has found a happy and fulfilling life living with her ultra sexy, intense, and often infuriating lover, soul mate, and fellow werewolf Clayton Danvers. Elena and Clayton (who by the way compose perhaps my favourite couple of all time, and trust me, you'll love them too) live in New York State at Stonehaven, the estate of their pack alpha Jeremy.

One of Elena's roles in the pack is to police all werewolf information circulating throughout the country, and to deal with anyone who comes too close to discovering the truth of their existence. So when Elena finds an article on the internet with information that is disturbingly close to the truth, and with more for sale, she immediately heads out to investigate. But she is shocked to discover that the two diminutive women who are selling this information posses powers that rival Elena's supergirl strength, powers she doesn't begin to understand. Especially when they explain that they are witches, which Elena knows don't exist. But the fact is that Ruth Winterbourne and her niece Paige really are witches, who save Elena from the nasty hunters on her tail and then introduce Elena and her pack to a clandestine world of half-demons, vampires, sorcerers, and shamans.

And Armstrong describes this remarkable supernatural world and its inhabitants with incredible originality and verve. She gleefully thumbs her nose at all the conventions associated with vampires and other paranormals, creating a fresh and intriguing new set of rules where almost everything we thought we knew about the supernatural is no longer true.

But then Elena is kidnapped by a sociopathic business magnate and a team of scientists who have amassed an entire collection of supernaturals, determined to harness their powers even if it means killing them. And now Elena is in their hands, helpless and imprisoned deep within the earth. Completely cut off from her pack, Elena must rely on her own wits to see her out of this situation alive. Unsure of who she can trust, it's essential that Elena choose her allies carefully, for one wrong move will mean the difference between life and death.

Armstrong has crafted a truly thrilling story that had me tearing through the pages all night long. The suspense builds as the book progresses until your adrenaline is pumping furiously. The plot is taut and wonderfully innovative and the story flows smoothly from beginning to end. And amidst all the danger, intrigue, and nail-biting suspense is the continuing story of Elena and Clayton's romance. The love these two share is truly beautiful, and their scenes together are always passionate, highly arousing, and really manage to touch my heart.

Kelley Armstrong has penned a winning tale in "Stolen" that I wholeheartedly recommend to anyone and everyone, along with its predecessor, "Bitten". Whether you're a man or woman, romance, mystery, or science fiction fan, it does not matter, this book is just plain great. "Stolen" is a fabulous novel that is guaranteed to entertain and satisfy. And I believe that the characters of Elena, Clayton, and Jeremy are the real magic of Armstrong's books. They are vivid, complex, flawed, and fascinating, and they have completely captured my heart. I fell in love with these three extraordinary individuals from the first, and they have become unbelievably real to me. So do yourself a huge favor and buy Kelley Armstrong's "Stolen" today!

Rating:
Summary: "Stolen" Like "Bitten" - A Real Winner And A Terrific Read!
Review: "Stolen" is Kelley Armstrong's second novel in the "Women of the Otherworld" series. "Stolen" stands on its own and while it is not necessary to read Book 1, "Bitten," to enjoy this one, I highly recommend reading the prequel. It is absolutely terrific! In "Bitten" the author describes how Elena Michaels, a human woman, was bitten by her lover and turned into a werewolf - the only female werewolf in existence, as a matter of fact. It is in this first episode that the reader learns about Elena's Pack, and is introduced to the concept of werewolves and how they live among ordinary humans in today's world. Many of the same characters from "Bitten" appear in "Stolen," but enough background information is available so that the plot and subplots flow and make perfect sense. Elena is the clever and exotic protagonist in both novels, which revolve around her struggles and adventures. She is also her Pack's primary investigator when sightings of unknown werewolves, non-Pack "mutts," are reported. It is essential for werewolf survival that the existence of all werewolves be kept a secret, remain a myth, else humans try to destroy them.

Elena comes across a Website that sells and auctions information on the paranormal; a supernatural eBay, so to speak. Pieces of spaceship wrecks, and material relating to "Zombies, Werewolves and Other Miscellaneous Demonic Phenomena" are sold for profit and apparently the site is doing a markup business. Elena, after her initial horror at being classified as "demonic," reads on to find that particularly accurate information about werewolves was being offered for a price. Concerned, Elena contacts the source to investigate the claims and discovers that the "source" is a real-life witch - or to be more precise, witches. They know about werewolves, Elena's Pack in particular, and want to invite them to a meeting of supernatural races. The ad was a lure to hopefully elicit the response it did.

Jeremy, the Pack Alpha, accompanies Elena to the meeting, a conference attended by vampires, witches, werewolves, demons, etc., in which, ironically, the primary topic of discussion is the recent kidnappings and purported murders, of their fellow supernaturals by humans. Computer billionaire Tyrone Winsloe is the alleged culprit, along with his scientist toadies, and a cast of characters so abominable that the "supernaturals" look like kitty-cats in comparison. Now Winsloe, who is funding a sadistic paranormal study, has learned of Elena's existence and is hunting her down. She is about to run straight into a trap.

As I wrote before, in spite of a new and fascinating cast of characters, and the return of old familiar ones, Elena remains the strongest and most compelling of them all. She is Ms. Armstrong's prize invention. There are multiple subplots, one more interesting than the next and an abundance of conflicts. However, best of all, the author has introduced here a variety of supernatural species which will surely expand her possibilities for future novels. Armstrong's ability to juggle storylines, and change voices and points of view with her characters, strengthens her writing significantly.

While "Stolen" is every bit as well written and developed as "Bitten," I did prefer the latter novel. I really like the werewolf characters and especially the dynamic between Elena, her lover, Clayton, and Pack leader, Jeremy. Jeremy and Clay do not appear as much in this book. I am looking forward to reading the next book in the series, "Dime Store Magic."
JANA

Rating:
Summary: New author in the fantasy world hits all the right buttons.
Review: After reading Bitten, it was impossible to wait for Stolen to come out in the U.S., so I popped over to Amazon Canada and bought it. In Canadian currency it will cost around [$$$], which roughly translates to around [$$$] American coin. It arrived in a week and it was well worth it!! The two reviewers ahead of me give a great caption of the book, so I will simply say - If you like J.D. Robb, Laurell K. Hamilton, Christine Feehan, etc., you will LOVE Kelly Armstrong. Her central female character - Elena Michaels - is a strong, independent and resourceful female. The fact that she is werewolf in a fantasy world is icing on the cake. The great thing about Elena is she isn't weighed down with all those nasty little character issues like Anita Blake. Problems - both mental and plot - are worked out within the book. They don't carry over ad nauseum for six books.

Rating:
Summary: Not what I expected, but not a disappointment!
Review: After reading Bitten, it went without say that I had to read the second. I was no where near disappointed either. This was a good book all it's own, though as a sequel to Bitten, not at all what I expected. Great detail and the suspense in this is off the hook. Trying to find out who is betraying who and who is on whose side. Elena, the ONLY female werewolf, is thrown in a world with people she did not think existed and is forced to survive. Even when she is reunited with her people again, the battle is not over. Though I am leery about picking up the next book, for fear the people I fell in love with will not be there, I will pick it up anyway. Kelly is a phenomenal writer whose work deserves to be read.

Rating:
Summary: Grumble, grumble
Review: After the unforgivable stranglehold that Bitten had on me, I was elated to pick up Stolen, and pick up where Bitten left off. More Jeremy! More Nick and Antonio! And most importantly, more Clay and Elena!

Imagine my disappointment when, rather than delve back into Stonehaven and the warm fur of the werewolves, we are transported into witch-and-shaman land. Sigh.

Nearly all of the newly introduced characters (outside of Adam, who I loved, and Xavier, who grew on me) were annoying, aggravating, or just plain boring. I kept finding myself saying inwardly, "When is she going to eat these people and go back to Stonehaven?!"

Alas, she does not. Instead, she's kidnapped and fondled by lecherous men and prodded by workaholicly psychotic women. And then everything just goes downhill from there.

The only reason I give it three stars instead of two, is the writing style, and the fact that she threw us a few bones with Clay and Jeremy popping in and out of the story. I didn't care about any of the other characters in the book, and I was vastly disappointed when I heard that not only did she not give us enough of the werewolves, she is departing totally from Elena and gang totally. (Thankfully, Elena will play a cameo in Industrial Magic and will get her own book again in book 6.)

The writing style is still excellent, as is the well-done presentation of "just enough information." If I hadn't gotten my hopes up in thinking it was truly another Stonehaven adventure, I might not have disliked it so much.

A definate own for Kelley fans (I've got the paperback and hardback), but personally, my least favorite of all her books.



Rating:
Summary: Fascinating
Review: Elena has believed that werewolves were the only para humans in the world; vampires, demons, witches, etc were myths. This might be an odd view for someone like her, a werewolf, but it is hers. When she meets a witch who seems to know all about her, Elena has to change her mind, and fast.

There is a sick minded man with too much money and power out to build a private collection of paranormals for his own curiousity. Elena finds herself drawn into a plan to stop him, but soon finds herself a member of this outre mueseum, along with witches, vampires, and half demons. There is even a child captured there. Elena is determined to get free, and to take everyone with her. Whether or not she gets to do that, is another thing. This is the most dangerous time of Elena's life. She will have to trust people she never would have believed existed not long ago, and use all of her own gifts in this often confusing and very frightening drama in which she is a forced player.

***** While Elena's story has been compared to that of Anita Blake, Elena is a more accessible heroine than Anita has lately become. She is more like Eve Dallas, a mixture of hard and soft, with true caring that reveals her heart and her strength. With each new book, this fascinating world unfolds a bit more, and though only one more book has been rumored for the series, the possibilties for many more than that tantalize. This is a series that if you have missed out on it so far, you definitely need to remedy that immediately. *****

Rating:
Summary: Stolen is bound to steal the hearts of many
Review: Elena Michaels is a werewolf, in fact, the only female of her kind. She is part of the Pack, and is responsible for sniffing out troublesome mortals who threaten to expose their race - like Tyrone Winsloe. He's a mad billionaire with an obsession of performing scientific experiments on the "supernatural" races: witches, vampires, werewolves, demons, etc. He's a threat, and a big one. Big enough that the Pack of werewolves team up with those witches, vampires, and demons to stop him. Yet while trying to stop him he gets his hands on Elena.

This was generally a good book. A small disappointment after reading Bitten, Kelley Armstrong's first book in this series, but a good book nonetheless. It's extremely detailed and it seems as if you are actually inside the story. Elena Michaels is strong and has no hesitation in "biting back." She's a heroine for all women in the real world. This is an action packed book and was humourous as well as exciting. I strongly recommend this book to anyone who enjoyed Bitten and even books by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes.

Rating:
Summary: Absolutely Entertaining
Review: Even if you are not a fan of supernatural fiction, this is a fun and enjoyable read. This book is second in Armstrong's Women of the Underworld.
The characters are both fascinating, interesting and likeable. The story is told from the point of view of Elena the only female werewolf. Elena has had a hard time adjusting to becoming a werewolf (the story in Bitten the first book of this series) but by this novel she is coming to accept her role and her "family" which is her pack.
In this novel Elena discovers that werewolves are not the only supernatural creatures out there and some dangerous people also know this. She is kidnaped and taken to a place where other beings have been taken to be studied. We get to see Elena's soft side and her humanity along with her werewolf.
This book has a little of everything. Mystery, intrigue, romance, supernatural and is it just a fun story.
I look forward to more novels in this series and especially ones who star Elena and her pack.
Read Bitten first and by the time you are done you will be hooked.

Rating:
Summary: Casting
Review: Finally a sequel with merit. In short, it was great -- but I won't bore you with another review, just give you my thoughts on the characters. I'm still stuck on Elena. Sometimes I think Kate Bosworth (Blue Crush) would be okay, but at other times that interpretation seems so off it's ridiculous. I deffinitely imagine Clay as a younger Matthew McConaughey (Frailty, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days) and Jeremy as Peter Gallagher (American Beauty, the OC). Savannah seems like a prepubescent Christina Ricci (Now and Then, Casper), I picture Leah as Alicia Witt (Mr. Holland's Opus, Cybill, Urban Legend), Adam as Joshua Jackson (The Skulls, Dawson's Creek), Cassandra as Catherine Zeta-Jones (Entrapment, Chicago), Katzen as Alex Desert (Boy Meets World, Becker), and Bauer as Allison Janney (The West Wing, How to Deal). However, I'm stilled stumped when it comes to Winsloe, Xavier, and, more importantly, Paige.

Rating:
Summary: Awesome
Review: I agree, I did like Bitten better. The focus on Elena was much stronger, more solid. I can see that the author was trying to introduce new characters into her world, but it didn't go over that well. I think it would've been more fun to do a cleaner focus on Elena or a light focus on her then a deeper focus on the new characters. It was uneven. However, the killer lines still make me chuckle and I'm going to keep reading the series.