Once Bitten

Book Review of Trina M. Lee’s Once Bitten (Huntress, #1) and prequel shorts

Once Bitten

I grabbed a free copy of Trina M. Lee‘s Once Bitten from the KDP list. It is currently still free on Amazon and at Smashwords.

Description from Goodreads:
Alexa O’Brien has never been like other people. A hunter of supernatural rogues, she is a werewolf with unusual but extraordinary power. Power that draws her to Arys Knight, the mysterious vampire who awakens her dark side. What they create together is dangerous and binding, forcing her to question the source of her abilities. It threatens not only her remaining humanity, but her relationship with fellow werewolf, Shaz Richardson, as well.

When Alexa’s womanizing former lover and the Alpha of her pack is framed for murder, he draws public attention that could earn him a death sentence unless she steps in to help him. Alexa would love to watch karma at work but as the body count rises, long buried secrets are exposed. She’s forced to face the painful truth that not everyone is who she thinks they are.

Review:
I have pretty mixed feelings here. There were some parts of this book I really liked, for example the fact that Lee let her main characters be bad. So often PNR heroines miraculously resist all evil temptation. I really appreciated that Alexa gave in to hers and admitted that she enjoyed watching Arys too. It added an element of edgy realism that I enjoyed. I also loved both Arys and Shaz. Unfortunately I hated the situation they found themselves in. It wasn’t fair to either of them. Of course, it wasn’t meant to be, but I found it painfully uncomfortable. I really wanted her to choose one or for the three of them to become a happy Ménage à trois.

I generally enjoyed the story, but I have two main complaints. One, it felt like there were four main story lines that ran parallel but never really intersected. There was Alexa and Arys’ situation. There was her and Shaz’s budding romance. There was her night job with Veryl and there was the whole mystery with Raoul. Any one of them probably could have been a book on its own. Well, maybe the love triangle would need to be combined, but you know what I’m getting at. The Raoul situation seemed to be the main storyline, so any time Alexa ran off to fight a random demon or psychotic ex-lover I found it distracting. It essentially felt like it had nothing to do with the rest of the plot. Plus the events required the introduction of random characters who then simply disappeared, Lilah for example.

Two, there was a lot of presumed knowledge. Alexas is described as a werewolf with extra, vampireish abilities. But these are never really described. I have no idea which of her powers were the unusual ones or why she had them. Similarly, I never really understood her and Arys’ metaphysical draw. I certainly understood the effect, but not the why, how, or even what of it. I would have really liked a more in-depth description.

I did enjoy it. Don’t get me wrong. There were just a few things that niggled at me. I have the prequels to read and will consider continuing the series.

Huntress

Stunner

I also grabbed the prequels Huntress and Stunner, at least one of which is available free at Amazon & Smashwords. You can follow the links to see my reviews at Goodreads. I thought they were both ok, but not stand-alone stories. They would make little sense to someone who hadn’t read Once Bitten

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *