I’m so excited that Kelley Armstrong’s werewolf novel Bitten (the first book in her Women of the Otherworld series) is being adapted for the small screen. The Canadian shot TV series is set to air next year.
When I first read Bitten a few years ago, I was intrigued by the relationship between Clayton (Clay) Danvers and Elena Michaels who are werewolves in the same pack. As much as Elena would love to keep her distance from Clay and try to keep living her life as though she were a regular woman, it’s not going to happen.
Clay bit Elena back when she was a college student, turning her into a werewolf – the only female werewolf in the world, which has its own problems as you can imagine. The part of being a werewolf that Elena struggles the most to deal with is the fact that she didn’t choose this life. Clay bit her without her blessing. Elena didn’t even know werewolves existed at the time. Are you interested yet?
Some backstory. When Elena was at college in Toronto, she fell in love with Clay, her professor – not as seedy as it sounds. He was a young academic, she was twenty years old. When he brought her to his home, Stonehaven in upstate New York, to meet his family, he bit Elena.
All this happens prior to the novel Bitten. Bitten is set a decade later when Elena is working as a journalist in Toronto, but we learn snippets about her past and Clayton’s throughout the novel. The novella Beginnings fills in the gaps, showing the reader how they met and fell in love.
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Now of course, everyone has their own idea of the perfect cast for Bitten. While I struggled to picture any one particular actress as Elena, from the first time I read about Clay and heard his southern drawl, I pictured Cole Hauser from Pitch Black in the role. With his masculine build and curly blond hair, I couldn’t help but think of Clay. Cole’s probably a little too old now for the part anyway. Greyston Holt has been cast in the role and Laura Vandervoort will play Elena. I recognise her from the alien TV show, V.
There was talk about a movie adaptation many years ago, but it didn’t come to fruition. Angelina Jolie was up for the role of Elena!
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Blurb for Bitten from Goodreads:
Elena Michaels is a werewolf. She tries to be human, but the man whose bite changed her existence forever, and his legacy, continue to haunt her. Thrown into a desperate war for survival that tests her allegiance to a secret clan of werewolves, Elena must reconsider who and what she is.
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Have you read Bitten? Are you excited about the TV show? What are you favourite werewolf books?
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Clary Fray is your typical fifteen year old. She loves to draw, hang out with her best buddy, the geeky and cute Simon, and bickers with her mom as most teenagers do. When she sees something she shouldn’t in a nightclub, her world is turned upside down. Soon she learns that everything she’s been told about her past is probably a lie and that she isn’t the ordinary human girl she appears to be.
Emma's Ramblings on Supernatural Fiction 