Review: Haunted by Kelley Armstrong

Title: Haunted

Author: Kelley Armstrong

Series: Women of the Otherworld #5

Publisher: Orbit

Publication date: May 26th 2005

Format: Paperback - 495 pages

Genre: Urban Fantasy

 

 

Eve Levine - half-demon, black witch and devoted mother - has been dead for three years. She has a great house, an interesting love life and can't be killed again - which comes in handy when you've made as many enemies as Eve. Yes, the afterlife isn't too bad - all she needs to do is find a way to communicate with her daughter Savannah and she'll be happy.

But fate - or more exactly, the Fates - have other plans. Eve owes them a favour, and they've just called it in. An evil spirit called the Nix has escaped from hell. She feeds on chaos and death, and is very good at persuading people to kill for her. The Fates want Eve to hunt her down before she does any more damage, but the Nix is a dangerous enemy - previous hunters have been sent mad in the process. As if that's not problem enough, it turns out that the only way to stop her is with an angel's sword. And Eve's no angel...

My thoughts:

I'm a really big fan of Kelley Armstrong, and yet I hadn't gotten round to reading this one until now. Safe to say though, I loved it.

I was a little apprehensive when I read the summary of the book only to find that Eve is the protagonist in this one. She isn't exactly portrayed in the best light in the past books. I thought that maybe she would come across as she did in the previous books in the series, and in that case I wouldn't enjoy the book. I was pleasantly surprised though, she came across as a woman who is desperate to see her daughter again, desperate to help in any way she can and a woman wanting to find a purpose she didn't have before. It was a nice change of pace from the past books.

As all the past books in the series have, Haunted had an amazing plot that really kept me turning the pages. It was full of action, surprises and near misses that had me on the edge of my seat the whole time. There wasn't a moment in the book where I wanted to stop reading for any reason so Kelley was obviously doing something right. It was definitely a page turner, no doubt.

This series is really big on characters. There are so many different characters introduced throughout the books, and each book sometimes has a different character as the protagonist. It's for that reason that if somebody doesn't like the characters in the book, then they won't get along with the series as a whole. I honestly fell in love with Eve as soon as I started reading. She was a strong, well-rounded character with lots of flaws and yet lots of strengths at the same time. I felt for her where I was supposed to and urged her to make the right decision where it was called for. Paige, Lucas and Savannah come into play a little in this book which was all the better since I adore them all. It was great how they all had their parts in the book. 

Overall I can't really fault this book. I can't wait to read the next in the series, especially since it focuses on Elena this time who is my ultimate favourite character.

My rating: 10/10

Kelley Armstrong:

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Women of the Otherworld:

1. Bitten
2. Stolen
3. Dime Store Magic
4. Industrial Magic
5. Haunted
6. Broken
7. No Humans Involved
8. Personal Demon
9. Living with the Dead
10. Frostbitten
11. Waking the Witch
12. Spell Bound
13. Thirteen