Books Remembered #6: Bitten by Kelley Armstrong

This is a semi-regular feature I had last year where I reminisce about books or even series that I read over and over again. Or even a book read once that changed the way I looked at life. I wanted to re-introduce it as I wanted to highlight some books that have been out for a while and maybe don't get as much attention as the new releases. It’s not a review of the book(s) but merely remembering the impact it had on me and how it’s shaped my reading habits and likes –what made that book(s) memorable. So this month, I'm remembering Bitten by Kelley Armstong...

I’m a bit of a book genre flirt and switch between different types of books fairly frequently. I get fed up of reading too many books from the same area in a row so I like variety and spice. A number of years ago I got hooked on a new genre which is still one of my favourites – Urban Fantasy. Well, that’s what it is called now, but back then there wasn’t the choice of books on the market. In my search for something different I came across a book about werewolves in my local book store. At that time I was mostly a vampire girl having read my way through all the Anne Rice Vampire Chronicles, but I fancied a change so I bought Bitten by Kelly Armstrong. One of the best reading decisions I’ve ever made!

Bitten was fantastically written exploring the impact of being turned into a werewolf by the one you trust. It was tense, emotional, with character conflicts, action and heart. I loved Elena’s struggle to be comfortable with herself and her on-off relationship with Clay. I loved that she could hold her own against the men. I wanted more. So I went out and picked up Stolen. And here the world opened up to include witches, vampires (very different from the New Orleans based Lestat crowd), half demons and humans with other agendas. It was a world I wanted to be part off. Unfortunately at that time those were the only two books Kelley had written so I expanded my search to other books and discovered the growing genre of Urban Fantasy.  And now Urban fantasy, dark romance, paranormal romance, speculative fiction whatever you want to call it is one of my mainstream reading areas. I still read in a variety of other genres but given a choice in the book store my first stop is in the Urban Fantasy corner – and thankfully there’s now a wide range of different styles of books in that genre.

 I still adore Kelley Armstrong’s world and every one of her books in paperback and some in hardback. Bitten was the first book I ever felt the need to write a review on – it’s still there on Amazon UK!  It’s still one of my favourite reads and have to re-read it regularly. So if you haven’t read it – do! J

If you liked this feature, check out previous entries:
Books Remembered #1: Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles

Books Remembered #2: The Magic Faraway Tree

Books Remembered #3: Christopher Pike's Sati

Books Remembered #4: Scott O'Dell's The Island of Blue Dolphins

Books Remembered #5: Strange Orbit by Margaret Simpson