Audiobook Review: Frostbitten by Kelley Armstrong

Frostbitten by Kelley Armstrong
Narrator: Jen Taylor
Series: Women of the Otherworld #10
Published by AudioGO
Published on: October 1, 2009
Genres: Urban Fantasy
Length: 10hrs & 37 mins
Format: Audiobook
Source: Purchased

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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.

Elena Michaels is my favourite Women of the Otherworld narrator and listening to her poignant point of view via audio this second time around made me love Frostbitten even more. Jen Taylor had me hanging on her every word because she reads this story as though it were her own. I only have one complaint with this novel and it’s that it was over far too soon.

Reading this book a second time was bitter sweet for me because on the one hand, I love Kelley Armstrong’s wolves and am ecstatic to be revisiting them but on the other, I know that this is the last installment in this series that features Elena as the narrator and it wasn’t nearly long enough for my liking. Compared to her other novels, this one felt more like a novella than a full length book; the plot is rather basic and the tone is much lighter than its predecessors. I did enjoy the descriptiveness of Armstrong’s writing in this installment as well as the playfulness that Alaska brought out in Clay and Elena but I couldn’t help but feel cheated. I wanted more.

Elena has come full circle as a character and Frostbitten really brings that to the forefront by sharing bits of her past, present and future. This installment was kind of a mini-recap of Michael’s life as a werewolf because it showcases aspects of her relationship with Clay, experiences as a mother and future role as alpha. It also revisits her life as a foster child by dredging up painful memories and putting her in situations that force her to confront her traumatic upbringing. These are the parts where Jen Taylor’s narration really shined; I could hear Elena’s distress in her voice, the pregnant pauses and contemplative quietness mirrored Armstrong’s writing beautifully.

Clay and Elena’s relationship is another element that has come a long way since Bitten and I enjoyed seeing them finally getting to experience their HEA. There’s an open line of communication between them which is something that they’ve struggled with in the past. Their dialogues about Michael’s struggles with alphahood and Clay’s inability to be the pack enforcer he once was were some of my favourite parts. It has been a long upward battle but I think that they’ve finally found their “happy place” and that’s more important to me than the overall ending of the Women of the Otherworld series.

I probably won’t be re-reading this series a third time because Armstrong’s other characters didn’t succeed in capturing me quite like her werewolves have. The only books that I’ll never grow tired of are the ones that feature Clay and Elena, and Frostbitten is one of them.

Books in this series:
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Recommendation:	Fans of the first two Otherworld books will LOVE this one!
Like this, like that:	The Shifters series by Rachel Vincent and the Mercy Thompson series by Patricia Briggs.

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