Well I’ve finally gotten through books 1 - 3 of the Women of the Otherworld. Let me tell you, book 3 is GOOD. I enjoyed reading it even though I ended up stopping twice to let it sit and stew for a bit while I was reading it. I am drooling to get started on book 4 because it is also centered on Paige.
The first two were sort of hard to get through. I dislike Elena altogether. She doesn’t listen and she makes the same mistakes over and over and over again until you simply want to burn the book. Good thing my copies are digital or I’d have at least thrown them across the room.
Now don’t get me wrong. The books are good, I just didn’t like her. She’s a stubborn bitch in more ways than one. Read the books to get to know her and the other main characters, such as Paige and Leah. Skim through Elena’s more troublesome parts if you have to, but just get through them.
Other than my issues with Elena, the first three books are worth reading to get to know Paige, who you get to follow in book 3, Dime Store Magic, and get to know more about her, Savannah and the useless Coven. I absolutely loved the name when I found out where it came from and I’m sure you will, too.
With books 1 (Bitten) and 2 (Stolen) you’ll be learning about what Elena is (werewolf), how she ended up becoming one (bitten), how she controls herself (in the beginning of the story) and learning about her Pack and all the things that are going on in their world you begin to think they are all a little insane, but then I guess turning into a wolf makes you think, see and interpret things much differently than a normal human. The way she interacts with others is absolutely astonishing in many ways. Elena tends to be rude and ignorant from my personal opinion. She jumps into situations and tries to force others into her way of doing things, or goes without them at all. Instead of making intelligent arguments as to why she should be included in the planning processes of missions she goes behind backs and does her own thing without informing anyone as to what she’s planning.
So she ends up getting people into dangerous situations, which somehow or another, she lives through. Maybe she’s lucky, maybe it’s because she’s a werewolf, maybe it’s because she’s too stubborn to be killed? I don’t know, but at least it was interesting to see her get beaten up on and attempt to return the favor. The end of book two is pretty good. I like what she does to the Winsloe guy when they are in the tree. Read the book, you’ll like it too, being as he deserved it.
I think also at the end of book 2, Stolen, Elena learns that perhaps being a part of the Pack and having a relationship with Clay and being a werewolf isn’t so bad after all and seemingly starts on the road to accepting everything that has happened to her.
Book 3, Dime Store Magic, focuses on Paige as I said earlier and I definitely like her a lot better. She may not always make the right choices or think things through but she was already working on her control issues in book 2. Also, a lot of the situations she’s been put in aren’t her fault. The fault lies squarely with the situation from Book 2 and what happens with Leah there. Paige has to learn how to trust a sorcerer, believe not only that Cabals exist but are extremely powerful, realize that she has the key to bringing witches back into equal power status with sorcerers and figure out how to raise a girl who seems to be emotionally imbalanced.
With all the horrible things that happen to Paige at once, it’s amazing how well she holds together. The entire book is well written and I believe that there are people like Paige who simply start to breakdown and then realize they can’t allow themselves to breakdown just yet, one more day to get through and then things will be a little easier, or so they hope. She tries to be very logical about how she goes about things and tends to not be overemotional. I think she has that going for her and makes an excellent character because of it.
However, she does have a tendency to be stubborn at first when it comes to Lucas. She has a right though, finding out that he isn’t all that trustworthy. Savannah is a handful to deal with, being a teenager, being impetuous and slightly out of control. She’s quite powerful but doesn’t have full control over her witch-powers and doesn’t seem to care if normal people (non-supernaturals) get hurt due to her mistakes. She also refuses to apologize for anything she does that may get them hurt. Hopefully she learns a little control of her actions after the insanity that happened at the end of Dime Store Magic, which was caused by her.
The books are worth reading. Any comments from any of you who have read them and wish to contradict me (regarding my opinion of Elena or otherwise) are welcome if they are intelligent and not malignant. Have a great day!
