💜🐺Bitten 🐺💜

• Jordan Stephanie Gray @jordanstephaniegray

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Bitten follows Vanessa Hart, a human girl whose life is thrown into turmoil when her best friend is murdered at a beach party. In the chaos, Vanessa is Bitten, and is taken to an ancient castle which houses the North American werewolf court. There, she narrowly escapes instant execution by the unusual colour of her eyes – purple, a never-before seen colour, signalling her rare potential abilities. She is dealt an ultimatum; swear fealty to the Wolf Queen’s court or follow in her best friend’s fate.

Part murder mystery, part urban fantasy, the central plot is Vanessa investigating her best friend’s murder from within the walls of Castle Severi, while immersing herself in learning the magic and lore of the werewolves. A process which is made exponentially harder by the enigmatic prince and his mysterious guard.

It definitely had that mid-2010s feel – ordinary girl ripped from her teenage high school life and thrown into a world of paranormal and torn between two supernatural brothers (or in this case, cousins). I did find Vanessa’s narration repetitive on occasion – she suffered a massive tragedy in the death of her best friend, but the same themes of grief and loss then dominated the rest of the book.

I loved the ending – the plot twists just kept coming. All the way through, I knew something wasn’t right… but I never predicted that! My one caveat is that this is marketed as YA but I definitely felt it read more adult in places, so be aware of that!

Thank you to @gollancz for the proof copy! Bitten is out on Thursday 🙂