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A review by wealhtheow
Tales of the Otherworld by Kelley Armstrong
3.0
A surprisingly strong collection of stories about characters from Armstrong's Otherworld novels. Some provide insight into side characters. Others fill in gaps in the lives of protagonists like Eve Levine.
I enjoyed the longest story of the lot, in which Paige and Lucas investigate a possible vampire attack. Besides giving us a view into their domestic life (which I quite enjoyed--to me, their relationship feels the most real and lived-in of all the romances in the Otherworld), it also gives depth to the benefits and strictures of Cabal life. Lucas distanced himself from the Cabals long ago, but is beginning to think that a closer connection might be useful. Sean, on the other hand, is the heir to the other largest Cabal, and he has chosen to try to change the organization from within. He finds that doing so is more painful and difficult than he'd imagined. The contrast isn't belabored within the story, but it is interesting.
The least successful story, for me, covered Clayton falling in love with Elena pre-[b:Bitten|11918|Bitten (Women of the Otherworld, #1)|Kelley Armstrong|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1306101770s/11918.jpg|2606334], when he was a hotshot young professor and she was his beautiful student. He's immediately enamored with her and so offers her a job as his TA (even though she's an undergrad) to keep her around. Eventually they start dating and get engaged. Clayton, however, is a werewolf sworn to secrecy about the supernatural, and to ensure this the Alpha won't allow anyone to be in a serious relationship with a human.Clayton can't bear to give Elena up but also doesn't want to disobey his Alpha and be cast out of his family, so he bites Elena. Nonconsensually turning someone into a werewolf is pretty shitty, but to make his act even worse, he knows that no adult has been successfully turned before. His bite pretty much condemns her to death. Since writing this backstory into [b:Bitten|11918|Bitten (Women of the Otherworld, #1)|Kelley Armstrong|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1306101770s/11918.jpg|2606334], Armstrong seems to have realized how incredibly fucked up it is, and has given Clayton a sob story and some softening in an attempt to make Elena's eventual marriage to Clayton (the man who lied to her and basically tried to kill her) seem less twisted. But seeing the world through Clayton's eyes doesn't make his decision to turn Elena any less horrific; instead, it makes it clear that he was absolutely clear-headed and knew exactly what he was doing. Suuuuper icky. I never liked him or the werewolf-centric books in general (the constant rape threats to Elena from all the other werewolves get old fast), but this short story just cemented my dislike.
I enjoyed the longest story of the lot, in which Paige and Lucas investigate a possible vampire attack. Besides giving us a view into their domestic life (which I quite enjoyed--to me, their relationship feels the most real and lived-in of all the romances in the Otherworld), it also gives depth to the benefits and strictures of Cabal life. Lucas distanced himself from the Cabals long ago, but is beginning to think that a closer connection might be useful. Sean, on the other hand, is the heir to the other largest Cabal, and he has chosen to try to change the organization from within. He finds that doing so is more painful and difficult than he'd imagined. The contrast isn't belabored within the story, but it is interesting.
The least successful story, for me, covered Clayton falling in love with Elena pre-[b:Bitten|11918|Bitten (Women of the Otherworld, #1)|Kelley Armstrong|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1306101770s/11918.jpg|2606334], when he was a hotshot young professor and she was his beautiful student. He's immediately enamored with her and so offers her a job as his TA (even though she's an undergrad) to keep her around. Eventually they start dating and get engaged. Clayton, however, is a werewolf sworn to secrecy about the supernatural, and to ensure this the Alpha won't allow anyone to be in a serious relationship with a human.