Hidden

I sometimes feel like I need an entirely separate category just for Kelley Armstrong novels.

Hidden (Subterranean Press, 2011) is a standalone novella in a lovely hardcover edition; Armstrong seems to be making these a winter tradition.  I order these months in advance and it's always a pleasant surprise when they suddenly turn up in the mail.

Without going back to trace the backstory through the previous dozen or so Otherworld novels, the background for Hidden is primarily the Bitten/Stolen/Broken/Frostbitten/Men of the Otherworld/"Becoming"/"Beginnings" sub-sequence within the larger series that focuses on the werewolves, and particularly on Elena Michaels and her often-rocky relationship with werewolf Pack enforcer Clayton Danvers.  I like how Armstrongs transcends the romance formula to go on with extensive storytelling after the happily-ever-after, which for this couple happened in the very first book of the series.

And ah, the dilemmas of the modern female werewolf!

At this point Clay and Elena have more-or-less settled down, with four-year old twins to care for and Elena moving slowly into the role of Alpha of the werewolf Pack.  Hidden focuses on Elena's two dilemmas: whether (considering their age) and what to tell the children about their werewolf heritage, given that as the children of two bitten werewolves rather than genetically-inherited ones, no one knows whether they are likely to grow up to be werewolves themselves.  Child-rearing manuals do not really cover this sort of thing.

Secondary to this is Elena's maturation into the role of Alpha, for which she has to balance the traditional Alpha's authority over her husband with her desire for equal partnership and the Alpha's traditional role behind the lines with not, as the only known female werewolf, looking dangerously weak.  Feminism doesn't quite cover these problems either.

Nor does it cover the challenges of finding private time for a still-amorous couple when one's precocious twin pre-werewolf children are perfectly capable of picking locks and walking right in.  I think a supernatural marriage & family guide would be a hilarious addition to this series, if Armstrong wanted to take up comedy.

Wrapped neatly around all these family worries is a nice little Christmas story about a potential man-eating werewolf in the small town where the werewolf family is attempting to take a quiet family vacation, and whole thing is illustrated by Armstrong's online artist Xavière Daumerie/Angilram.  The man-eater plot is a only a short story's worth, but Armstrong integrates it nicely into the family story and ties the whole thing into Elena's own backstory as well.  Beta werewolf and eternal punching-bag Nick Sorrentino and two characters from Frostbitten make appearances as well, wrapping up some minor loose ends. 

Overall, it's good, and I liked it better than the last two novellas, but not overwhelming.  I'd call it a very solid addition to the series and a nice treat for fans of the werewolf clan in particular.  I'm really quite curious to know how the twins turn out, but I respect Armstrong's determination to age them in real-time and maintain the suspense for her fans.

The book itself (mine is the "deluxe hardcover edition") is very nice, with wraparound cover art and interior illustrations on glossy paper.  I generally like how Angilram draws Elena and the various wolves, and the kids are adorable if disconcertingly big-eyed, but I find her drawings of male characters a little too feminine-looking for me.

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