Product Description

In the tradition of Laurell K. Hamilton, and just in time for Halloween, a deliciously wicked sequel to Bitten, from Canada’s new queen of suspense.

Even though she’s the world’s only female werewolf, Elena Michaels is just a regular girl at heart -- with larger than normal appetites. She sticks to three feasts a day, loves long runs in the moonlight, and has a lover who is unbelievably frustrating yet all the more sexy for his dark side. Like every regular girl, she certainly doesn’t believe in witches. Then again, when two small, ridiculously feminine women manage to hurl her against a wall, and then save her from the hunters on her tail, Elena realizes that maybe there are more things in heaven and earth than she’s dreamt of.

Vampires, demons, shamans, witches -- in Stolen they all exist, and they’re all under attack. An obsessed tycoon with a sick curiosity is well on his way to amassing a private collection of supernaturals, and plans to harness their powers for himself -- even if it means killing them. For Elena, kidnapped and imprisoned deep underground, separated from her Pack, unable to tell her friends from her enemies, choosing the right allies is a matter of life and death.


From another edition.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #54973 in Books
• Published on: 2003-09-09
• Released on: 2003-09-09
• Original language: English
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 576 pages

Amazon.ca
When two desperate witches lure part-time journalist and full-time werewolf Elena Michaels into a carefully laid trap, she quickly learns that her perceptions about humanity are based on some fundamental flaws. In Kelley Armstrong's supernatural thriller, Stolen, the world is populated with vampires, demons, half-demons, magical shamans, and other supernatural races living anonymously among the human population--a concept that Elena has a hard time accepting, just as she struggled with her own lupine identity in Armstrong's remarkable debut, Bitten. But when Elena returns to her werewolf pack in upstate New York, pack leader Jeremy reveals that the threat people pose to the supernatural races should not be taken lightly. When Jeremy, Elena, and her lover Clay decide to take action to protect their pack, Elena gets kidnapped on the orders of a power-crazed billionaire. While being held captive she learns that while some magical beings are good and some evil, none are capable of more outright cruelty and savage betrayal than ordinary, non-magical human beings.

Armstrong actively solicited reader input via her web site while writing the second title of her Women of the Otherworld series. This unconventional creative strategy sheds light on Armstrong's justified literary confidence. Her large cast of characters is fully realized, despite their great diversity, which ranges from insecure research scientists to unreliable half-demons, as well as Paige, an orphaned and highly volatile adolescent witch. Most gratifyingly, Armstrong's horror is tempered with a sly and very satisfying dose of humour: "Across the room was the Ladies Auxiliary snack table," Armstrong describes Elena's first impression of a conference of supernaturals under attack.

The only thing missing was a blue-haired matron doling out goodies and guarding her cash box.... On the rear wall, a handwritten sign reminded snackers that coffee and doughnuts were a quarter each, followed by a red line clarifying that this meant fifty cents for both a doughnut and coffee.... I really hoped the Legion folks were responsible for the goodies and the sign. Otherwise... well, I didn't want to consider the alternative.

--Deirdre Hanna

From Publishers Weekly
Elena Michaels, the only known female werewolf, cavorts on a more fully cultivated supernatural playing field in this sure-footed follow-up to Bitten (2001). While investigating a suspicious notice advertising information for sale about werewolves, Elena meets witches Paige and Ruth Winterbourne-and, to her misfortune, a team of mortal and supernatural commandos who abduct Elena and Ruth to a remote underground bunker in the wilds of Maine. There Ty Winsloe, "billionaire and computer geek extraordinaire," is collecting a menagerie representing all the supernatural species that coexist anonymously with humanity (vampires, werewolves, witches, etc.). While his scientists study such creatures in the hope of distilling their uncanny powers as salable commodities, Winsloe hunts those captives who have outlived their usefulness in cruel most-dangerous-game fashion. Elena's efforts to outsmart Winsloe long enough to apprise her Pack of her whereabouts are complicated by a werewolf wannabe among the captors. Though the tale is pretty much a prison-break story spiffed up with magic, Armstrong leavens the narrative with brisk action and intriguing dollops of werewolf culture that suggest a complex and richly imagined anthropologic backstory. The sassy, pumped-up Elena makes a perfect hardboiled horror heroine, with enough engaging attitude to compensate for the loose ends left untied to set up her next adventure.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
Praise for Bitten:

“[A] fast-paced, sexy thriller.” -- The Bookseller

“A howling good time.” -- The Toronto Star

“Biting sensuality and vivid description. . . . A smart, original thriller, destined to keep people reading on into the night.”
-- The Gazette (Montreal)


From the Hardcover edition.

Customer Reviews

A Worthy Sequel to 'Bitten'
In this second installment of Kelley Armstrong's Women of the Otherworld series, events focus once again on our heroine, Elena Michaels. Elena is a highly perceptive, intelligent and attractive Canadian journalist who also happens to be a werewolf and a member of the exclusive werewolf group known as the Pack.

Elena's responsibilities include investigating rumors and information about werewolves that seem to come close to the truth. One of these investigations turns out to be a lure set for her by a couple of witches. They are seeking to enlist the aid of the werewolves in helping them thwart a threat caused by a wealthy technogeek who has been kidnapping supernaturals. After a preternatural summit meeting, Elena herself is kidnapped and held in a seemingly inpenetrable secret prison where she becomes the subject of both scientific study and the twisted desires of the technocrat ubervillain.

Armstrong skillfully introduces us to new characters whose varying talents complement the physical skills of Elena and her highly-focused werewolf lover/partner/mate Clayton Danvers. The author wantonly reinvents witches, shamans, vampires, demons, and other supernaturals in her story; all of which work remarkably well. As in the author's debut novel 'Bitten', pack werewolves are neither repulsive or evil but change into completely natural and beautiful animals.

Elena's eventual escape and the subsequent assault on the prison by the supernaturals provide a satisfying build-up to the climax. When the werewolves begin to take care of business, they go through bad guys like a chainsaw through wood.

Humor and subtle nuance spice the novel like a beautifully prepared gourmet meal. The repartee between young witch Paige Winterbourne and the delightfully energetic half-demon Adam Vasic can't help but make the reader smile. The sprinklings of nuance throughout the novel give the reader the feeling of plausibility to the characters. We feel that Elena really is Canadian, the villain really is a computer mogul, and each of the characters really are who they are supposed to be. Most of all, the intense bond and romance between Elena and Clayton is really something special.

Although 'Stolen' is an excellent and skillfully written novel on it's own, readers will enjoy it much more if they read 'Bitten' first. The development of the main characters is so much more satisfying having first been introduced to them in Armstrong's outstanding first novel.

It is not possible for me to rate this novel highly enough. Readers will revel not only in the story but also in the artful way in which it is presented. Of course, I'm a complete sucker for a happy ending which the author serves up to us like dessert and coffee. Top ratings are well-deserved.

Great 2nd installment
After discover the world of Elena and the Stonehaven werewolves in Bitten, book one of in Kelley Armstrong's Women of the Otherworld series, I couldn't wait to sink my teeth into Stolen, the second Elena story in the series.

In this second novel, Armstrong smartly takes the characters out of their home setting allowing a completely new type of mystery to take place. Instead of having another plot center around Stonehaven and keeping Elena's secret, the events in Stolen allow for a much broader story to develop. By creating the mystery around a new set of characters and in a new location, the universe that has been created in Bitten expands to include a greater assortment of supernatural beings, and the central mystery is much more interesting for it. We're also introduced to some of the other Women of the Underworld as Elena discovers new beings that are populating her universe. Ironically, Elena (the werewolf!) has a hard time believing in witches, vampires, shamans and demons when she first encounters them, but this actually adds to the realism of this series, as it allows you to be convinced of their existence along with Elena. Throughout Stolen, we're never quite sure who to trust and who is actually good or bad, which of course makes for a great story!

Overall I found Stolen to be a gripping and fast paced read, filled with interesting characters. I kind of missed getting know more about Clayton, Jeremy and the other werewolves, but I loved getting to know Paige, Ruth, Savanah, Adam & Leah. And even though Elena won't be the narrator of the next book in the Women of the Otherworld series, I'm looking forward to reading Dime Store Magic which is told from Paige's point of view.

A writer to watch - and read!
I started with "Bitten", and traded it with a friend who started with "Stolen"; I think I got the better end of the trade .

This book is an excellent sequel to a series that already had a strong start. The elements missing in the first book are fully present here, with a great plot, excitement, adventure, and some great mayhem. More than fulfilled the promise of the previous book, I am buying this so I don't have to trade something to re-read it!