Broken

(Audio) Ahhhhh, Clay and Elana are pregnant ! Extra Alpha Clay is the hovering dad to be of the century. Really he gets a gold metal for it. Too bad Elena is not on the same thought wave. She wants adventure and excitement. Her pregnancy is new to all, female were's are extremely rare and there is no records of pregnancy. So, along comes what seems a simple easy case to take the edge off, but with all things supernatural nothing is easy Elena had me screaming at her to "just let it go, take care of the babes !" She didn't, it got bad, people died, other people got hurt, people I liked and some I wanted to hurt myself.
This story outside of the preganacy is all about magic the dead, the rotten and the smell, ick, ick, ick, there is so show more much talk of the nasty smell I was holding my breath along with them. You'll see, it fills the second half, were's hunt by smell. The whole magical side of the story was not as interesting as the relationship between Elena and Clay they have come so far. I found myself focussing on them more than the mystery. I thought the end of the mystery was a bit rushed to a conclusion. It was a far fetched but twisted well tale.
Love the ending!!! show less

So I can't say I wasn't warned... realistically speaking I was warned once I was already three quarters of the way through it, but I was warned none-the-less!Broken revolves around Elena and Clay as they go through their pregnancy while fighting evil and solving mystery and generally proving, yet again, that they're in love.I love this couple. Absolutely love them to pieces. Bitten remains one of my favourite urban fantasy books to this day.My problem was that the mystery in this book was painfully obvious and incredibly uninteresting. I just had no real interest in it and mostly finished reading to see what happened to Elena and Clay. The story was very heavy on Elena's pregnancy. Clay and Jeremy momentarily losing their balls didn't show more mind me so much because when I was pregnant my very loving and masculine husband turned into a little bitch as well. That part seemed realistic to me.Nor was Elena's many physical stunts too much for my realisim to believe because, frankly, it's Elena, folks. Even pregnant with twins, she's going to kickarse. But my issue with the story is that a pregnancy story is ultimately doomed to failure for me. Elena's pregnancy wasn't special to me because, naturally, my pregnancy was so much more awesome. Elena's lovely little twins born were of no interest to me because my own son leaves them long behind.Usually, I read not to escape but to experience different things than my every day life. In this case, not only was it too similar to what I've already experienced, but it didn't even manage to compete!Three stars for this one but honestly it's more like 2 1/2. show less

Reviewed by: Rabid Reads

After a three book break, the Women of the Otherworld series returns to my best-loved narrator, Elena Michaels. In this installment my favourite preternaturals (werewolves) go head-to-dead against my ultimate bad guys (zombies) and all out awesomeness ensues. There's some interesting role reversals going on in this story, Jamie steps up to the plate and proves that necromancers are not to be trifled with and Jack the Ripper is really a sorcerer! Okay, that last one's a lie but it sounded good!

Clay and Elena never disappoint and Broken is a prime example of that. Michaels is knocked up and bored; a dangerous combination! To help fill the void she begs Jeremy to allow the pack to complete one, seemingly easy, show more mission to help break up the monotony of her pregnancy. Ha! Can you say catastrophe waiting to happen? In this installment, my favourite werewolf couple undergoes a bit of a role reversal. They're both strong, pig headed characters who find themselves in a weakened state; Elena because of her pregnancy and Clay because of a zombie attack. I enjoyed watching them adapt to their changing circumstances; forced to rely on others and their smarts instead of only their brute strength. The whole ordeal also felt like a pre-parenthood test.

What starts off as an easy snatch & grab job quickly morphs into the Apocalypse. Yeah... leave it to Elena and Clay to turn a simple situation into the end of the world! I liked the domino effect behind this story's plot; one little screw up and all hell breaks loose. Every time you start to feel like things are wrapping up, the lens zooms out and you realize that there's an even bigger problem. Also, the fact that there are hundreds of pages left to read kinda blows the "fake" conclusion's cover. I'm curious as to how much of the Jack The Ripper storyline is fact vs. fiction. Armstrong doesn't go into vivid detail but there are a few interesting aspects that I wouldn't mind looking into, namely the From Hell letter. I thought she did a good job of incorporating period problems (syphilis, cholera, etc) into modern day society.

I enjoy this series' side characters almost as much as the main ones. Jamie Vegas is amazing and is next up as a narrator in this series. At first glance she comes across as a ditzy celeb but under her showbiz exterior hides a true friend and she's always able to put a positive spin on a doomed situation. Jeremy, the pack alpha, is a complex and fascinating character. I can never get enough of him! He's the polar opposite of Clay but still incredibly sexy in his own way. Readers also get little snippets of half-demon, Xavier Reese, and Zoe the vampire. The latter isn't your typical undead; she's rather wimpy and has the hots for Elena which I found quite comical at times.

Broken isn't my favourite installment in the Women of the Otherworld series but I enjoy Kelley Armstrong's storytelling and characters so much that it's still a 5/5 for me. I'm re-reading this entire series so that in itself speaks volumes to me. show less

TW/CW: Death, zombies, illness, injury, rats, murder, violence, fantasy violence, pregnancy, childbirth

RATING: 4/5

REVIEW: In Broken Kelley Armstrong takes us back to the werewolves, with Elena narrating as her pack takes on a job involving zombies, magic, and Jack the Ripper!

This was a good book and I really enjoyed reading it. In this book, Elena is pregnant – the only female werewolf alive, and the only one known to have ever given birth. That, of course, does not mean that she’s going to take it easy, even though that might be what Jeremy and Clay keep urging her to do.

Instead she takes on a case that takes her to the streets of Toronto, chasing zombies, running from killer rats, and fighting face to face with sorcerers, witches, show more vampires, and other supernatural creatures.

This book was exciting, and I found it moving quickly as I lost myself inside the mystery. It’s a good story, and while I might have figured it out before the end, it didn’t hurt my enjoyment.

A good book and I recommend to fans of urban fantasy! show less

Not my favorite, but damn, it's Clay and Elena, my favorites among Armstrong's characters. The book started off a little slower than I expected, and it was weird to see Elena and the pack focusing on something outside of the pack, considering how insular they've been in the past -- but it was a great story once it got going, and I won't lie -- any excuse to read more about Clay and Elena and I am there. I pretty much dance with joy whenever I hear Armstrong's chosen to give us more of these two.

Elena is easily my favourite character so the books where she's the main character are always my favourite. I especially like this one because we get to visit Canada! the downside is Toronto is visited by zombies so that kind of kills the excitement a little. There isn't as much action as there normally is in this book because Elena is now pregnant and even a pregnant werewolf has to be a little careful. I actually really enjoyed the parts where the other werewolves were bring overprotective of her. I thought it was really cute and sometimes pretty funny.

The plot was also really fun in this one because it partially has to do with Jack the Ripper which is always a great topic. There were these zombies that came out of a Victorian show more England time portal and I really loved how the author brought pieces of that world back. For example, there was some diseases that were carried from the zombies into modern day Toronto like typhus and cholera. I found that to actually be more realistic because zombies just feel like they should be carrying lots of gross things. We also got to meet Zoe the vampire in this book who I love and I wish she had gotten her own book. show less

After re-read in 2019, changing rating to 3 stars

“We sacrificed a mosquito. I bet that's what did it. It was probably a virgin too.”

I was happy to finally return to Elena's point of view after being away from her voice for a few books. This turned out to be the weakest of the first three starring Elena's POV, but it's still worth checking out.

We get plenty of Elena, Clay, Jeremy, Jaime, and the setting of Toronto with an unusual historical mystery involving magic. The Jack-The-Ripper lore was certainly unique although not my favorite side-plot of the series. I kind of missed Stonehaven, but the dirty, gritty feel worked well.

The book focuses mainly on Elaine's pregnancy, how overprotective Jeremy and Clay are about it, and her show more personal fears about changing and endangering the child. Some of it got a little tiresome, but overall I liked the overprotective wolves and thought it cute. Elena's fears were justified but I'm glad she got over some of it. I would worry about shifting causing a miscarriage, so can understand the reasoning. Upon my second read of the book, I didn't find it as overpeabring.

Jaime comes aboard and I enjoyed her scenes. She's one of my top favorites and I love her crush on Jeremy. She gets awkward and trips over everything when the alpha shows up. I definitely wouldn't keep crushing on someone like that without some reciprocity by now.

Zoe is a new character...she's fun. I'm not as crazy about the vampires in this series but she's humorous and quirky. Tee fascinated me with her creepy, insane energy. Villains worked - I saw the hidden twist but guessing in advance didn't deter from the story-line.

The zombie angle was definitely different, and the story-line was a little cheesy, but it was over the top creative and well structured. Bumped to 4 stars from 3 based on a re-read. show less