Review: Bitten

I stayed up until 5:30 AM this morning, reading Bitten straight through. I can't remember the last time I felt compelled to do that. The first thing I thought as I finally put it down was wow, that was great. It energized me and now I feel back in the game, waiting for a ride to the library to pick up another romance (though Bitten is actually sold as horror at our local Indigo -- nonsense). I also bought two more books, Fantasy Lover by Sherrilyn Kenyon and Dark Lover by J.R. Ward, with the guidance of Indigo's resident romance expert.

Bitten is a werewolf romance, but it feels very fresh and different (perhaps that is why it is not classified as romance). The best thing I can say about it is that though it fits a mold it is not formulaic -- the human love interest isn't a jerk and the bad-boy werewolf isn't a brooding enigma, but isn't sentimental and corny, either. Elena is an assertive, take-charge heroine, but again, she manages to escape the "spunky gal that intrigues hero" formula. And though Clay is certainly magnetic, there are other main characters with an equal amount of charisma -- Jeremy, for example. There's plenty to be interested in, in other words.

Wow, Clay sure is hot, though. I love the southern accent. I love his unrepentant badness. I very rarely read serial books featuring the same character (after they've said their "I love you"s, I turn away and don't look back) but I'm considering Stolen.

Other random points:

- Usually I hate it when the heroine is torn between two men -- it makes me anxious. I like a clear winner. It didn't bother me in this one though -- there's never really much doubt which one has her heart.

- Usually, I like sex to be held off until at least the middle and admission of love to wait until the very end -- however, it isn't like that in this book, and it works just fine the way it is.

- I spent half the book rooting for another hero but wasn't disappointed with the outcome.