Living With the Dead (book) by Kelley Armstrong

I'm still working on my sudden Kelley Armstrong craving - luckily, I think there's more out by her that I haven't read yet. For those of you familiar with Armstrong's Women of the Otherworld series, this is another book with Hope and Karl. I'm primarily a fan of Armstrong's werewolves, which means I like Karl well enough. Hope doesn't grab my attention as well as some of Armstrong's other characters, but I still enjoyed this book and couldn't wait to see how all the awfulness surrounding Adele and the kumpania (see my synopsis, if you dare) wrapped up. I wonder if Robyn and Finn will become series regulars?

Synopsis:

After the death of her husband David, Robyn is left grieving and aimless. Despite a lifetime of being able to handle pretty much everything the universe could throw at her, she can't seem to handle this, so she moves to L.A. and becomes Portia Kane's PR person (Portia Kane is like another Paris Hilton, only more pathetic). It's not a job she would ever have taken prior to David's death, but her heart's not in her job, or anything really, anymore.

Hope Adams, Robyn's best friend since high school and a tabloid reporter, decides to do a work exchange in L.A. because she's worried about Robyn. Robyn has no idea that Hope is a half-demon and that Karl, Hope's boyfriend, is a werewolf. She wasn't ever supposed to need to know about the supernatural side of the world, until Portia's murder gives her no choice. Robyn catches a glimpse of the person who killed Portia, but suddenly finds herself the primary suspect in the murders of Portia and another person. She's on the run and has no idea what to do, where it's safe to go, and who to turn to - the only person she can think of is Hope.

Hope is determined to help Robyn, and Karl will back her up no matter what. Unfortunately, she quickly realizes that the murders may not be mundane at all, but may rather have been committed for reasons having to do with supernaturals and the supernatural world. Hope and Karl try to research the potential link between Portia's murder and a member of the Nast Cabal (the Cabals are families of sorcerers that operate like a cross between a huge law firm and the mafia), and Karl tries to protect Hope from a werewolf intent on using Hope against Karl, all without letting Robyn know what's going on. Eventually, Robyn, who has no idea what kind of danger she's really in, decides that she's putting too great of a burden on Hope and Karl and tries to turn herself in to the police.

Unfortunately, turning herself in is harder than she expected it would be, because Adele, the woman who murdered Portia, is hot on her tail. Adele is a clairvoyant, a supernatural who, once she can get a fix on someone, can get a vision of where that person is. Robyn literally cannot get away from Adele, who wants to kill her and take back the incriminating evidence she thinks Robyn has.

Adele is part of the kumpania, a secret group of clairvoyants that operates a bit like a commune. Clairvoyants are eventually driven insane by their powers, but the kumpania claims to have found a way to avoid that particular drawback - however, the price its members must pay is to live by kumpania rules. This involves working as a kumpania photographer, taking pictures of celebrities (Adele was assigned to Portia), and being a breeder for the kumpania. Adele wants out, and she's willing to do whatever she has to to get out, so she makes a deal with the member of the Nast Cabal. However, if the kumpania finds out what she's doing, they'll kill her, and Robyn unknowingly possesses a photo of her and one of the Nasts together. So, Adele wants the photo back. In the meantime, she has to hide her steadily progressing pregnancy (the reason why the Nasts would want her in the first place) and try to make sure she's got a backup plan in place. For the most part, her backup plan consists of making sure her rival in the kumpania doesn't get pregnant, so she can swoop in and get the poor woman's assigned man instead.

Aside from Hope and Karl, another person who's trying to help Robyn is Finn, the police officer assigned to Portia's murder. Although Finn suspects Robyn at first, his suspicions don't last. However, he has a hard time finding her and getting close to her - Robyn, Hope, and Karl don't know who they can trust, and it seems possible to them that Finn is a Cabal plant. One of the main reasons they think Finn might be connected to the Nasts is that he's a supernatural - a necromancer - and it seems like too big of a coincidence that the officer assigned to Portia's murder by a supernatural is also a supernatural. However, it turns out it really is a coincidence - Finn may be a necromancer, but he's not a very powerful one, he's had no training, and he has no idea that there are others like him out there (or that there are any other kinds of supernaturals out there). It's just that, sometimes, when he visits a murder scene, he can see the ghost of the person who was murdered and get a little more information than most other officers could.

This time, Finn is getting help from David, Robyn's dead husband. David had stuck around because he was worried about Robyn, and now he wants to help prove her innocence and keep her from getting killed.

Things don't work out for Adele - the kumpania finds out what she's been doing. It turns out that the kumpania is actually connected to the Cabals - Adele's group is part of a Nast clairvoyant farm, with one member given to the Nasts every 10 years or so. Adele was supposed to go to them next, although she had no idea. The Nast she was making deals with was a family screw-up. Adele ends up brain dead, kept alive so that her baby, likely a powerful clairvoyant, can eventually work for the Nast Cabal. In return for all the trouble she's gone through, the Nasts agree to put as much of their lawyers and money as is necessary into clearing Robyn's name.

Robyn gets some last moments with David, who is allowed to briefly take over Finn's body on the condition that it's not permanent and they're both supposed to move on afterward. After finding out so much about the supernatural world, Robyn hopes she can do a little PR work for the supernaturals, helping them continue to hide from the rest of the world. Also, it looks a little like she and Finn may end up together in the future, which may be a little awkward, since David will probably still be helping Finn solve homicides.

Hope has decided that she needs a little time apart from Karl, to figure out what she wants to do with her life (does she really want to continue to be part of the council, or does she need work that will better feed her chaos hunger?) and to reassure herself that she can take care of herself without Karl. Karl is supportive and agrees to take a job that will take him away from her for a while.

Commentary:

The kumpania was awful. All of the locked-up inbred clairvoyants were bad enough, but Lily's gang rape just made me feel icky (Lily was woman unfortunate enough to attract Adele's jealousy and hatred). I wonder what Adele would have been like, had she not grown up in this kind of environment? I could sympathize with her a bit, but that didn't mean I didn't hate her - she was a terrible person, for using 15-year-old Colm the way she did, seducing Thom, setting things up so that Lily would eventually be gang raped, and killing Portia.

Adele was so messed up she couldn't see how she was making everything worse for herself. She killed Portia because Portia had the picture of her with the guy from the Nast Cabal. She wanted to kill Robyn because of the picture. By doing all of this, she drew more attention to her activities, and all for something that, although she didn't realize it, wasn't really escape at all, since the kumpania was actually part of the Nast Cabal anyway.

So, moving on from the nastiness. Armstrong handled the book's multiple perspectives really well. Chapters are told from the perspectives of Adele, Colm, Robyn, Hope, and Finn, and each person has a distinctive and believable voice (I didn't really appreciate this until I started reading James Patterson's When the Wind Blows, in which multiple POV is handled badly). Even if you do have trouble telling the voices apart, each chapter has the name of the person from whose perspective it's told, so there's no need for confusion.

In addition to enjoying Armstrong's writing, I also liked her characters. Getting to see Sean Nast was nice, although I didn't remember at first that he's Savannah's brother. I enjoyed Hope's description of him, that he's not really like the other Cabal members, in that he doesn't instinctively see other supernaturals as commodities. I wonder if he's married? If he's not, I wouldn't mind seeing a future book pairing him up with somebody.  It could be fun.

I liked Karl in this book, even though it was a bit like he was mostly living in the shadows. I kind of like his protectiveness - he wants to keep Hope safe, but he doesn't try to overshadow and smother her. Hope may doubt, deep inside, that he'll really stay with her, but it sure seems like he sees her as his mate and won't ever leave her. I love this whole "werewolf mate" thing, and the fact that, even with that, he's still willing to let her have her space is kind of sexy. Karl and Hope may not be my favorite pairing in Armstrong's world, but even characters of hers I don't like as much are still more appealing to me than some other authors' best characters.

One of the reasons Hope doesn't appeal to me quite as much as some of Armstrong's other characters is that she's just naturally a darker character. Hope's chaos hunger appears to be getting stronger, and she hasn't quite figured out how to deal with the fact that things she knows should horrify her actually kind of give her pleasure (like feeling the death of someone, or, in the end, when she kills, or thinks she kills, Adele). She worries that, one day, just experiencing this kind of stuff secondhand won't be enough, and the only thing that will satisfy her hunger is killing. I don't know if it will go that far. I hope it won't. All this baggage and darkness kind of turns me off. If I'm going to have to deal with someone's issues, I think I'd prefer Jamie, who just has to worry about going crazy and whether Jeremy will leave her for someone younger.

Read-alikes:

• Touch the Dark (book) by Karen Chance - There is a total glut of series starring supernatural female main characters living in supernatural worlds right now.  This one's part of the glut.  Its main character has visions of the future and was raised, if I remember right, by the very vampires who killed her family.  This one may be a good fit who like their sexy supernatural male characters to be vampires - I believe there are several of those in this book.
• Moon Called (book) by Patricia Briggs - Or do you prefer your sexy supernatural male characters to be werewolves?  There are several of those in this book, too, in addition to the vampires that occasionally cause the female main character (who's a skinwalker, a person who can turn into a coyote, but without all the various benefits and drawbacks of being a werewolf) trouble.  
• Tempting Danger (book) by Eileen Wilks - Another book with a strong female main character, lots of supernatural aspects, and lots of werewolves.  It's the first in a series, starring a police officer (at least, I think she's a police officer, but I think she becomes an FBI agent) who ends up mated to a werewolf, who, unfortunately, is a possible suspect in a murder investigation.  Unlike in Armstrong's books, supernaturals are "out" in this series, which means that the various supernatural beings have to worry about what humans think about them, because humans do still outnumber them.
• Urban Shaman (book) by C.E. Murphy - A mechanic (female, of course) learns that she has supernatural abilities and must learn how to use them as quickly as possible if she is to survive and stop bad things from happening.  I loved this book - I'll have to see if anything new has been published in the series that I haven't read.  I haven't been as thrilled by Murphy's works outside of this series.  However, this series would be a good fit for anyone looking for another "female main character in a supernatural world" story.  This first book may be particularly good for anyone who liked the bits where Robyn had to piece the supernatural puzzle together - the main character in this one spends a lot of time learning about the supernatural side of the world that she never knew existed.
  

The Awakening (book) by Kelley Armstrong

I have a tendency to forget that certain authors are on my "must read" list. That happened with Kelley Armstrong, so I'm a bit behind on her books. I put several of the ones I've missed on hold, and this was one of them. I'm looking forward to reading more, but I have to say, I prefer Armstrong's books aimed at adults. The characters in her YA books just don't seem to stick in my mind quite as well.

Synopsis:

Chloe has been captured by the people at Lyle House, who are actually part of something called the Edison Group. She discovers that she and the other teens at Lyle House were part of an experiment to see if a few genetic alterations could allow supernaturals to grow up with all the benefits and none of the drawbacks of whatever they are. For some of the "subjects," the genetic alterations did make supernatural puberty easier, but they also turned out to be considerably less powerful than they should have been (like Rae, whose powers are so weak that, for the longest time, it didn't even seem like she had any). Others, like Chloe, just became more powerful and, probably, more susceptible to the drawbacks of their abilities (in Chloe's case, eventual madness).

Chloe had thought that Tori had been the one who had gotten her captured, so she doesn't want to believe it when she learns that Rae was really the one who was responsible. Rae didn't do it out of malice, though - she just really wants to have powers, and she doesn't yet believe that Lyle House is a bad place. Still, when Chloe escapes, she only does so with Tori, not even trying to get Rae to come with her. Chloe's Aunt Lauren helps them escape, but she's caught while doing so - it's unclear whether she is hurt or killed for her betrayal of the Edison Group.

Chloe wants to meet up with Derek and Simon, but Tori would rather go off on her own and be reunited with her father. Unfortunately for Tori, it looks like her father is on the Edison Group's side, so, for now at least, she's stuck with Chloe and the others. Soon they're all together again, although Simon and Derek aren't really happy that Chloe has Tori with her.

Simon and Derek still want to find their father (technically, Simon's father) and decide that the best way to do that is to find their father's friend Andrew first. However, they have a problem - Chloe's father, who is completely unaware of the Edison Group and the trouble his daughter is in, is trying to find her and offering a huge reward. While it's great that he loves his daughter and is looking for her, if he finds her, Chloe will only end up dragging him into the same danger she's in. She's got to stay out of sight, but that's hard when Tori seems determined to do things her own way. Chloe tries to help her stay out of trouble and gets spotted as "the rich guy's missing daughter" in the process.

The whole group buys bus tickets, which would have worked out nicely if Derek hadn't started to feel his first Change come on during a rest stop. Although he's had false alarms before, he gets off just in case, with Chloe for company. Derek partially Changes, but it seems as though a full Change is still beyond him, and he eventually falls asleep, exhausted by the effort.

Over the course of the book up to this point, Chloe has come to the horrific realization that she really needs to learn how to control her abilities. She accidentally raises animals and, once, even a human from the dead, trapping their souls inside rotting, deteriorated bodies until she can figure out how to lay them to rest again. The experiences horrify her, and she becomes afraid to fall asleep, afraid that she'll raise something from the dead without realizing it. She stays awake the whole night after Derek's failed Change, because she seems the ghost of a murdered girl and is afraid that she'll accidentally raise her from the dead while she's asleep.

When Derek wakes up, the two of them try to catch up to Simon and Tori. They don't have money for another bus ticket from where they are, so they hitchhike a little of the way. They also accidentally come across a couple mutts, werewolves who aren't part of the Pack, and it becomes clear that, although Derek is more than a match for most humans, he doesn't yet have the skills to win in a fight against a full-grown werewolf. They manage to escape anyway and catch up with Tori and Simon at Andrew's house. Unfortunately, it looks like the Edison Group may have found Andrew.

Although it's probably dangerous to stay too long, everybody needs to rest. At one point, Derek learns the extent of Chloe's fears about her powers (he hadn't realized that she could accidentally raise dead animals, too), so he decides to help her practice controlling her abilities by finding her some animal bodies. Because of his werewolf nature and his analytical mind, Derek isn't particularly bothered by what Chloe can do. While they're out practicing, however, Chloe is grazed by a bullet - it looks like the Edison Group's hunters are back.

The whole group manages to either evade the hunters or, if they get caught, escape. Chloe sees what she thinks may be Aunt Lauren's ghost, but, before she can worry about that too much, she and the others find Andrew. Andrew takes them all to a place under the control of people who oppose the Edison Group (and the Cabals and other supernatural organizations).

Commentary:

I couldn't help but feel bad for Chloe several times in this book - she kept getting humiliated in ways that would just kill many teen girls. For instance, Derek buys her a boy's sweatshirt, because it's cheaper, but the implication is that she's as flat-chested as a boy. Also, Derek gets her flat black hair dye that just looks horrible.  Actually, it seems like any time Derek does anything, he upsets Chloe - except when he and Chloe have a Moment.

Yes, while Chloe still spends time wondering and worrying over whether Simon likes her, it's starting to look like the guy she's really going to end up with is Derek. Unfortunately, she still seems oblivious to the growing connection between herself and Derek. Unlike Tori, who thinks Derek and his werewolf abilities are a bit freaky, Chloe thinks he's starting to look a bit better and definitely physically older than his actual age. She also doesn't seem to mind being around him when he's trying to Change. Chloe and Derek's Moments were frequent enough to have the fangirl in me squealing with joy - I just found myself wishing that something could have come of those moments. The one part that seemed to confirm future romantic goodness was when one of the werewolves Chloe and Derek met said something about Chloe being Derek's mate. Now, he could have just mistaken Derek's protectiveness for something more, but I prefer to think that's not the case. I think that Derek is just terrible at talking about and analyzing his own feelings, which is why their relationship hasn't gotten anywhere. Plus, Chloe's still stuck on Simon. I think, however, that even Simon notices how much closer Chloe and Derek have gotten once the whole group meets up again at Andrew's house.

Simon may be more naturally charming than Derek and probably more photogenic (less acne), but I still find Derek more interesting than him and more appealing. There's something that I like (in books at least) about scowling, socially awkward guys. I can't wait until Chloe finally wises up to the chemistry between her and Derek, although I feel a bit bad about Simon. I wonder if he's going to end up with Tori, though? After all, he and Tori seemed to be protesting a bit too much when Andrew mistook them for a couple at the end of the book.

I thought the bit where Derek got all upset when people laughed at Chloe for apparently talking to herself (she had been talking to the ghost of an elderly lady, who she hadn't realized was a ghost) was sweet and sad. It's also evident that, if Chloe doesn't figure out her abilities soon, she's going to go stark raving loony. But it's sweet that Derek will probably stick by her, no matter what.

And, speaking of going stark raving loony, Chloe is going to need to meet up with Jamie or some other necromancer soon if she wants to learn how to prevent (or at least put off) herself going insane and learn how not to raise her very own zombie army.  I really hope that the person she gets to meet in Jamie, and not some random other necromancer, because that would be the perfect opportunity for cameos from some of the Pack members.  I have a feeling that Derek and Clay might get along fairly well.  Either that, or they'd spend the whole time staring at each other warily.

Overall, not a bad book, I guess, but that could just my anticipation of future events talking.  I cannot wait until there's more in the way of romance between Chloe and Derek.

This is my very first post trying out the Amazon Product Finder gadget.  As far as I know, I haven't signed up to be an Amazon Associate and you don't need to do that in order to use the gadget, so using one of my links doesn't actually support this blog, but I do like being able to search for the books I'm going to link to right within Blogger.  I'm debating whether to use the image feature. On the one hand, it'd make it a lot easier to get images for my posts.  On the other hand, those images are tiny.  We'll see.

Read-alikes:

• The Strange Power (book) by L.J. Smith - Teenagers with strange powers invited to take part in special testing and live at a special institution - only things are not as they seem!  Adults are not to be trusted! And there's romance!  Man, I loved L.J. Smith when I was a teen, and the dark, broody hero in this one is great.  Anyone looking for another YA book (in this case, part of a short series) with a similar setup and slightly more emphasis on romance might want to try this.  L.J. Smith is, by the way, the author of the series that spawned the TV show The Vampire Diaries - now try reading her books!
• Blood and Chocolate (book) by Annette Curtis Klause - Anyone who'd like a YA book with way more werewolf action might want to try this.  It focuses on a teen girl who happens to be a werewolf.  Her pack is trying to rebuild itself and go back to being safely unnoticed after a bad clash with some humans nearly wiped it out.  Unfortunately, the main character has fallen in love with a human boy.  As if her life wasn't already complicated enough, she has also caught the interest of the werewolf most likely to take over the pack.  I gotta say, I was totally rooting for the werewolf guy when I first read this book, and only more so when I reread it several years later.  There's a movie version, too, but it has almost nothing in common with this book and, quite frankly, sucks.  Forget the movie exists and just read the book.
• Hawksong (book) by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes - It's been a while since I read this, but I remember that there was something about the writing that made this feel like it was set in some kind of pseudo-medieval times, although I don't know if that's actually the book's setting.  It could just be that the writing is bad.  But, oh, if you're looking for something with shapeshifters, suspense, and romance (in this case, with a side of angst) this may be just what you need.  If I remember right, it's like Romeo and Juliet, only with bird and snake shapeshifters.
• Try one of Kelley Armstrong's books written for adults.  Since I'm partial to her werewolves, I recommend Bitten.  Since this is also the first book in her Women of the Otherworld series, it's a good place to start in general, even if you don't care one way or another about werewolves.
• Gen 13: Who They Are and How They Came to Be (graphic novel) written by Brandon Choi and Jim Lee, art by J. Scott Campbell - Ok, I think this is the very beginning of the Gen13 series, but I could be wrong.  The Gen 13 teens are another super-powered bunch who end up on the run from some villainous adults.  There is, of course, a bit of romance here and there.  Also, because it is an American superhero-type comic, there are skintight outfits, male characters with impressive muscles, and female characters with impressive everything.  Whatever.  When I was in high school, I loved this comic.  I pooled all my meager spending money and braved the "boys only" club that was the nearest comic books store in order to buy all the issues I could.  Those who don't mind something in this format and would like something else with a similar setup might want to try this.
  

Men of the Otherworld (book, anthology) by Kelley Armstrong

Even though this is technically an anthology, it didn't really feel like one to me, probably because so much book is composed of just Clay's story, and probably because all three stories are interrelated in terms of characters. The men focused on in this anthology are Malcolm (Jeremy's father), Clay (basically raised by Jeremy), and Jeremy. If you haven't read any of Armstrong's Women of the Otherworld books, particularly the ones that focus on Elena, you'll probably miss a lot, if you don't end up completely confused. If you've read the books and loved Armstrong's werewolves, you'll probably love this book. It had never occurred to me that I might like to read something written from Clay's perspective, although, ever since Jeremy and Jamie became a couple, I've wanted to read something from Jeremy's perspective. Armstrong, as usual, does an awesome job.

Synopsis:

The first story, "Infusion," is Malcolm's story. It's brief, and deals with Jeremy's conception and birth. Malcolm isn't a nice guy. He has sex with a Japanese woman he thinks is attracted to him, because, even though he dislikes the idea of having a "halfbreed" child, even a half-Japanese baby is better than no baby at all. His world is very simple - only the strong deserve to survive, and the strongest are those who win the most battles. Being a manly man, he wants children to mold in his image, especially sons (as far as born werewolves go, only a werewolf's male children will become werewolves). Instead, he gets Jeremy, who, even at birth, unsettles Malcolm with his quietness and calm behavior. After Malcolm kills his son's mother and the woman's grandmother, Malcolm's father (who Malcolm views as a weakling) vows to take care of Jeremy.

The second story (is that even the right word?), "Savage," is from Clay's perspective. It shows how he became a werewolf (he invited a werewolf to bite him, in the hope of escaping his life with drunken parents who didn't care about him), how he was found by Jeremy, and how Jeremy raised him. Jeremy, serious and responsible despite his young age, is patient and does the best he can with Clay. He helps Clay relearn how to speak, control his Changes, and act more like a normal human boy. Jeremy isn't quite so successful with the last part, although he isn't really given enough time - if he can't teach Clay to blend in enough so that he won't pose a danger to the Pack, Clay will have to be killed. Unfortunately, although Clay is incredibly bright, he doesn't realize he shouldn't do things like dissect his kindergarten class's deceased pet guinea pig in order to figure out where its vital organs are. The Pack Alpha thankfully dismisses that incident - although humans might think Clay's behavior indicates a budding serial killer, he's done nothing that makes him seem other than human. In the end, however, Jeremy is forced to break one of his personal rules, never to kill a human, in order to protect Clay and the Pack after a lab technician at a hospital notices something strange about Clay's blood.

"Ascension" is also from Clay's perspective. Clay is now in high school, thinking about college. Jeremy has basically become the Pack's medic - he wanted to avoid, as much as possible, ever having to repeat the events at the hospital that ended the previous story. In the interest of learning how to become a better fighter, Clay accepts Malcolm's offer to teach him how to fight, and Jeremy allows it. Gradually, without Jeremy asking it of him (in fact, he probably would have asked him to stop), Clay begins doing what he can to make Jeremy's life easier. He accomplishes this mainly by becoming Jeremy's scary muscle. He kills mutts that stray into Jeremy's territory, so that there's no risk that Jeremy will have to kill them himself. Eventually, he gruesomely tortures a mutt, takes pictures, and has another mutt, a witness to what he's done, show the pictures to as many mutts as he can, thereby establishing his reputation as the scariest werewolf in the Pack.

There's one thing Clay can't do for Jeremy, however, and that is win the position of Pack Alpha for him. The Pack is fairly evenly split between those who support Malcolm and those who support Jeremy. Unfortunately for Jeremy, Malcolm doesn't fight fair. Those Pack members who could have broken the tie leave, in fear of their lives. Then Malcolm decides to try to kill Jeremy's supporters, or even Jeremy himself. He fails, however, and discovers to his shock that the bond he thought he'd managed to build over the years between himself and Clay was one-sided. Clay would have killed him then, but Jeremy doesn't allow it. Malcolm dies years later in a fight with some mutt.

"Kitsunegari," the final story, is from Jeremy's perspective. This story takes place after Jeremy and Jamie have become a couple: he's spending time with her in between interviews and shows. During one of Jamie's shows, Jeremy sees something strange. He follows a woman who looks like someone he recognizes, and his vision keeps playing tricks on him - he sees a forest instead of an alleyway, and he sees the person he thinks he knows turn into an unknown Japanese girl and also a fox. The young Japanese woman gets naked and offers herself to Jeremy, who refuses. Jamie steps in, and the woman leaves, pissed. Later, Jeremy discovers that Jamie has apparently been lured away by the woman and he goes after her. Jamie is fine, protected by the symbol she had tattooed on her ankle, a protective symbol that Jeremy has been unconsciously drawing for as long as he can remember. The woman from before is part of a whole group after Jeremy - they're kitsune, and Jeremy is the last of the Kogitsune. Female Kogitsune are expected to give kitsune a lifetime of service, while male Kogitsune are expected to be sex slaves and fathers of kitsune children. Jeremy manages to convince them that he has a son living somewhere else who would probably be happy to be their sex slave. Jamie knows better, and the two have a laugh after the kitsune women leave. Since Jamie's tattoo protected her, she figures it's time for Jeremy to get a tattoo of his own.

Commentary:

I loved this book. A lot. It gave me a powerful urge to reread Bitten, now that I can see Clay from a different perspective. I don't remember liking Clay very much when I read that book, and I think it's been a few years since I last read it. I never really noticed Jeremy much until he and Jamie got together, so I should actually probably reread all of the Women of the Otherworld books that feature the werewolves.

Malcolm's story didn't excite me all that much, beyond the intriguing mystery of Jeremy's mother. However, I loved Clay's part of the book. Reading about him and Jeremy together was lots of fun, even if, maybe especially because, Clay was such a wild child. I knew Jeremy was young when he found Clay, but Armstrong really managed to drive home how very young he was. Even though Jeremy always seemed to come across as a little older than he really was, his uncertainty did a perfect job of making him seem young. Under other circumstances, Clay would have seemed like a future serial killer, but his obvious love for Jeremy made up for that (well, depending upon your perspective, I guess). Everything he did, even the horrible things, was designed to make things better for Jeremy. The guinea pig thing was just...ugh. Oh, I also liked reading about Nick and Clay. I hadn't remembered that Clay and Nick were good friends, but I still liked reading about their friendship. Had everything just depended on Clay, I'm not sure their relationship would ever have gotten off the ground, but Nick was so unflaggingly nice that Clay couldn't help but be sucked in - so cute!

Jeremy's part of the book was the only part that felt like a traditional anthology story, rather than an excerpt from a book. I loved getting so see him and Jamie together, and getting to read about him being interested in, and slightly territorial over, Jamie. Nice.

I don't always include read-alike lists when I write about anthologies, but I decided to include a few read-alikes this time.

Read-alikes and Watch-alikes:

• Darkly Dreaming Dexter (book) by Jeff Lindsay; Dexter (live action TV series) - Dexter and his whole family are cops, although he works as a technician specializing in blood spatter. Dexter is also a serial killer. Dexter's foster father realized what he was becoming when he was younger, taught him how to keep from getting caught, and taught him how to choose worthy victims (the bad guys that the legal system can't catch or keep). Dexter now has two lives, his life as a serial killer, and his life as a guy trying to look as ordinary and normal as possible. Those who most enjoyed the parts in which Clay tried to fake being a normal human being might want to try either the Lindsay's book, the first in a series, or the show (the first season is based on the first book).
• Storm Front (book) by Jim Butcher - Harry Dresden is the only wizard in the phone book, probably because most of the world doesn't believe magic really exists. When he's not handling cases for his detective agency, he's helping the police out with weird cases. Storm Front is the first book in the series, and in this book Harry is helping the police out with a case in which a couple has had their hearts blown out of their chests. Unfortunately, trying to solve the case gets Harry in a lot of trouble, since it brings him too close to black magic. Those who'd like more urban fantasy from a male perspective might want to try this.
• Wolf's Rain (anime TV series) - In the future, it is common knowledge that wolves have been extinct for a long time - however, this appears to be false, as some wolves still live and can occasionally take human form. Kiba, a lone wolf, is obsessed with the smell of Lunar Flowers, a scent which he believes will lead whoever follows it to paradise. The source of the scent is a girl named Cheza, who is kept in suspended animation in a lab. In order to keep Cheza safe and find paradise, Kiba and several other wolves band together and form a rough, shaky kind of friendship. Those who'd like something else in which characters display an uneasy mix of human and wolf behavior might want to try this.
• The Witching Hour (book) by Anne Rice - This book follows a family of witches through several generations, a family that is haunted by its beginning and by its terrible twistedness (which leads, at times, to murder, incest, and other ugly things). Those who'd like another multi-generational supernatural story might enjoy this, although Rice's writing style and tone otherwise have nothing in common with Armstrong's.

The Summoning (book) by Kelley Armstrong

This is the first book in Armstrong's first young adult series, Darkest Powers. As far as I can tell, it's set in the same world as her Women of the Otherworld series.

Chloe Saunders is a fairly ordinary 15-year-old high school student, although she sometimes has nightmares of a time when she was much younger and had imaginary friends who could sometimes be pretty scary. She's a little embarrassed by the fact that she hasn't yet gotten her first period, so she's thrilled when it finally starts one day at school. However, on that same day, she sees what appears to be the ghost of a dead janitor and completely freaks out.

On the insistence of Chloe's school, Chloe's father and aunt have her admitted to Lyle House, a home for troubled teens. Chloe is told that she has a mild form of schizophrenia - she knows that if she wants to have any chance of ever leaving Lyle House, she has to agree with this diagnosis and take the medication given to her. However, a couple of the other teens at Lyle House believe that she really is able to see ghosts - one of them calls her a necromancer. As Chloe investigates her abilities, the ghosts she's seen, the other teens, and Lyle House as much as she is able to, she begins to believe that Lyle House may be more sinister than those in charge of it let on.

I was thrilled when I realized that this book is probably set in the same world as Armstrong's Women of the Otherworld series. There's Chloe the necromancer, as well as a sorcerer, a werewolf, potentially two half-demons, and another teen whose supernatural side has not yet been revealed. Although I thought the story itself didn't quite measure up to some of Armstrong's Women of the Otherworld books, I still enjoyed it and loved the gradual revelations of everyone's abilities. I look forward to seeing whether everyone can get away from Lyle House and whatever experiments are being conducted there in the next or later books.

I was wondering, however, if everything in this book agrees with the rules Armstrong established in her Women of the Otherworld series. The main thing that throws me off is the werewolf teen. As far as I knew, Elena's children were the only children born of a werewolf, since Elena is the only female werewolf in existance. Also, as far as I can remember, it's not possible to become a werewolf if you're younger than a certain age (maybe 18?), because the transformation is so hard on a person. Clayton was supposed to be the only exception, I think. Does that mean that the boy in this book is another exception, unknown to the Pack?

For those who are wondering, this is basically a young adult urban fantasy book - there are hints that there might be some romance developing in the future, but I wouldn't in any way call this book a paranormal romance. At first, I figured that Chloe might be ending up with Simon, one of the two boys at Lyle House and certainly the best-looking one. However, as the story progressed, I started wondering if Armstrong might end up pairing her with Derek - although acne-covered and more than a bit scary, Chloe's spent the most time with him and seems to be getting to know him fairly well. There's also that one scene where Chloe got to see Derek's very non-teenage boy chest... Of course, Armstrong might decide not to pair Chloe off with anybody, but her track record in her other series would indicate otherwise. I guess I'll just have to wait and see.

Overall, I enjoyed this book and look forward to getting to read more of this series.

Read-alikes:

• The Strange Power (book) by L. J. Smith - This is the first book is Smith's Dark Visions series. Kaitlyn Fairchild is a psychic whose drawings predict the future. The only problem is, her drawings usually don't make sense until after whatever they predict has happened. When she finds out about the Zeetes Institute, a place where she can learn to control her abilities, she decides to go, but the institute may have have more sinister intentions than Kaitlyn realizes. Those who'd like another story starring teens with special abilities who are trapped in a sinister place might enjoy this book/series. The books in this series definitely have a romantic element.
• Jennifer Scales and the Ancient Furnace (book) by MaryJanice Davidson and Anthony Alongi - This is the first book in the Jennifer Scales series. Jennifer Scales has no reason to believe she isn't an ordinary girl in an ordinary family - until she suddenly develops the ability to shapeshift into a dragon, and her parents admit that she's half-dragon, half-Beaststalker. As if her life wasn't complicated enough, Jennifer has to figure out how to protect herself and her family from beings who view her as their natural enemy. Those who'd like another story in which a teen discovers she has special powers and a non-human bloodline might enjoy this book/series.
• Blood and Chocolate (book) by Annette Curtis Klause - Vivian is a werewolf, part of a small community of werewolves living in secret among humans. Vivian's father, the pack leader, was killed when the pack was driven out of its previous home, and all that remains is for a new leader to be chosen before the pack can move to a more permanent home. In the meantime, Vivian doesn't really feel at home with anyone in the pack. She begins dating a human, but how long will their relationship last if she tells him what she is? Even worse, people have been getting killed and Vivian can't be certain she wasn't responsible. Those who'd like another young adult novel involving supernatural creatures and a bit of suspense might enjoy this book.