Broken: Kelley Armstrong
By: Book 5: Otherworld Series.
Broken returns us to Elena Michaels, the only known female werewolf in existence. This book picks up a few years after the last one Elena narrated (Book 2 – Stolen). Elena is now pregnant, and that’s not a spoiler as we find out on page two when she is freaking about making the change – how will it affect her unborn child? Anyone who has read the first two books can imagine what Clay, her partner, and Jeremy, the pack leader, thought about Elena doing anything once she became pregnant. With two over protective werewolves hounding her, Elena still manages to get involved with stealing an ancient letter attributed to Jack the Ripper. Unfortunately, the letter isn’t what it seems, and the Pack accidentally opens a portal and unleashes a couple of stinky zombies and an evil killer. Elena must find a way to close the portal before the killer can take her, and her unborn child.
After the breakout of Haunted, I found Broken to be rather a safe book in the series. While it was nice to revisit Elena and Clay, I felt as if we’d already been there, done that. For me, the best part was the arrival of some of the other secondary characters, and I’m totally hanging out for Jaime’s story. I think she’d make a great protagonist, and I would love to see her and Jeremy finally get together. Another problem with this book was that the villain is totally obvious from his first appearance. I just didn’t buy that he – especially Jeremy, would take everyone in. Luckily what saved the book is Ms. Armstrong’s usual fantastic story telling style. Her world building is unparalleled in the urban fantasy genre. The Romance reader in me adored the ending, and I let out a nice little sigh. To be honest, I’m not eagerly awaiting the next book, as I was this one – although I’ll still be buying it as soon as it hits the streets.
Visit Kelley Armstrong’s Website here.
Publisher: Bantam Spectra (May 2006)
ISBN: 0553588184