Stolen

Women of the Otherworld, Book 2

By: Kelley Armstrong

Narrated by: Nell Canning

Length: 14 hrs and 38 mins

Publisher's summary

It was in Bitten, Kelley Armstrong's debut novel, that 30-year-old Elena Michaels came to terms with her feral appetites and claimed the proud identity of a beautiful, successful woman - and the only living female werewolf.

In Stolen, on a mission for her own elite pack, she is lured into the net of ruthless Internet billionaire Tyrone Winsloe, who has funded a bogus scientific investigation of the "other races" and their supernatural powers. Kidnapped and studied in his underground lab deep in the Maine woods, these paranormals - witches, vampires, shamans, werewolves - are then released and hunted to the death in a real-world video game. But when Winsloe captures Elena, he finally meets his match.

©2004 Kelley Armstrong (P)2009 Penguin

I'm not complaining.

After I finished this book, I read all of the reviews and was surprised by how bad the reviews for this book were. While I did think the narrator was a bit wrong in voice, and accents, she was not that bad, and got the inflections and tone right in my opinion. I might be the only one who liked this book better then the first. ??? I have no idea what makes me different from the majority of people, but there it is.

Monotonous in the Middle -- Listen for Continuity

This the second in a series by Kelley Armstrong. I especially like the werewolf world she has created. It is balanced, has ethics, rules and respect. Elaina is the central character in book two and you get to see her develop in her thinking an emotions on the positive side. On the negative side, the story drags on and becomes transparent in the final push to the end. Armstrong lost the central conflict in and the back half was an anti-climax.

Nell Canning was outright horrible. She made Elaina sound like a forty-year-old chain smoker. Often, I had trouble distinguishing who was speaking and her dialog skills were a mess. This is a big miss for her.

I liked the first book a great deal, and the second book brought forth some characters that also appealed. This is why I gave it three-stars. If not for the new characters, it would have rated lower. I appreciate the central premise and will continue with the series for now. Listen to this one for continuity purposes.

Stolen: cornerstone of the series

Unlike the "Bitten", "Stolen" launches the reader into the full Otherworld with all the various races being brought together, against their will, in an underground research facility. Their struggles to survive and get free brings some together while driving wedges between others. This makes Stolen the cornerstone of the rest of the series.

My only problem with this audio book is I didn't like the narrator's voice for the character Clay. It's a minor issue which I doubt most would notice.

Hard to get past narration

I enjoyed the story, but after Book 1, I had a hard time with the narrator. The characters just sounded so different, I have a really hard time getting past it. The story line was good and I enjoyed it, I just preferred a different narrator.

Terrible, Terrible, Terrible Narrator.

I'm tempted to ask for a refund from audible the narrator is so bad. Aasne Vigesaa , the first book reader, was wonderful. She sounded the right age, young and edgy but sexy. What is up with picking a 50-60 year old sounding depressed, bitter edged harpy voice?? Terrible, manly and threw the whole thing off. How and why pick this person after you had someone Wonderful for the first book? So dissapointed, the interpretation and voice is what brings the book to life in an audiobook, what makes the characters believable.

If I were rating ONLY the narrator, it would have been the lowest star rating, half star or maybe none. BUT, I think the book may have been better with a better reader. I could only hope the author never chooses this reader again, and tries to pick someone who at least sounds like they belong in the same decade age span as her character.

First book was better

The story has some twists and turns but ultimately I want to throw things at the "heroine" because she is time and time again so gullible. There is a chance to have a forward thinking female here and she's just not quite there.

Outstanding!

The book started a little odd for what I was expecting but quickly took off. The story is intense and kept me guessing as to what might happen next. Also, the story is very well put together and covers many new characters that I can't wait to see what is in store for them. I can't believe this was as good, if not better than Bitten. Definitely worth reading.

Worth the listen!

I watch Bitten on t.v. and only just realized it is based on a series of books. The show follows book one pretty closely but not so much on book too which made the book more enjoyable for me than book one because I didn't know what was going to happen. The only thing I didn't like was the voice of the narrator, her voice isn't suitable to the character at all. She did do well with Clayton's accent better than the gal reading book one. Other than that the book was good, I love the characters and I'm looking forward to downloading book three!

not the best narrator

Love the book but I wish the narrator had been the one for the previous book. This one, I could hardly stand.

Couldn't finish

I really enjoyed the first book in this series. The narrator was okay, not amazing but okay. I can't stand this narrator's voice. Her voice really doesn't suit the material. I started listening to it, but I just couldn't finish. it's really unfortunate.