Review: Men of the Otherworld by Kelley Armstrong

I can’t believe it’s taken me a full week to read this book! Darn work commitments getting in the way! I’m a big fan of Kelley Armstrong, especially her books in this series that deal with werewolves. Clay Danvers made my Top Ten Fictional Crushes list. So of course I was happy that there was more!

This novel is divided up into 4 stories that delve deeper into the lives of a few of my favorite werewolf characters. The book begins with Infusion. It’s short, only about a chapter, and to the point. It explains how Jeremy ends up the head of Stonehaven over his father, Malcolm. 

The second tale: Savage, was a pleasure to read. Clay as an adult is a little socially inept but as a child he was down right primitive. I loved the way Kelley brings his troubled childhood to life. It was such a different point of view than is typical of werewolf literature. Most of the novels I’ve read have been about teenage or adult werewolves but Clay is a special case. It’s hard to imagine what would happen to a child if they got bitten by a shapeshifter and were left to understand it all by themselves. Armstrong’s point of view is unique and well-written.

Men of the Otherworld also gives us a glimpse of what Jeremy was like before he became alpha. In the regular series he’s such a strong character but in this book he’s young and vulnerable. We learn that his father was a poor role model and that he was far from being the next in line for  pack leader. He earned the status that he achieved not by being the biggest or the strongest but by challenging the norms and forging his own path. He also had many friends that helped him along the way when he wanted to give up.

Ascension is as the title suggests: Jeremy’s path to alpha. It’s also the story of how Clayton becomes his second and how he earned his bad ass reputation. I flew through this story. I was already in love with the members of the American Pack so this book was like the icing on a cake for me. Not essential but oh so sweet!

I found that the chapter titles really added to this novel. They were comprised of one key word that summed up each chapter beautifully. Each name had my head buzzing with possible directions the story might take and made me eager to read on to find out.

Finally, Kitsunegari, a short tale that leaves the reader hanging and wanting more. A new supernatural is introduced with an interesting link to Jeremy. It left me contemplating what it all means but stuck without an answer! I guess that’s what a great ending to a great book is supposed to do. But oh the torture!

The second tale, Savage, was my favorite out of the four tales. Kelley Armstrong‘s brilliant writing on how a young werewolf loses his humanity and survives in the wild on his own captured my heart and made me love Clay even more (if that’s even possible!). Not to mention his struggle (although at first reluctant) to regain his humanity with Jeremy’s help. I’ve also developed a better understanding of Jeremy thanks to this book and am now hard pressed to pick a favorite male werewolf when previously Clay was the clear winner.

Werewolf lovers rejoice! This book will make you fall in love all over again with this genre. Men of the Otherworld can be read on it’s own without the rest of the series as it happens before the other books (except Kitsunegari). So you have no excuse not to read this book!

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