Full Blooded by Amanda Carlson

When I really need a mental vacation, I turn to romantic urban fantasy for a light, fun read. Full Blooded (2012), by Amanda Carlson, was just what I was looking for when I was going through a stressful time. It’s the first in Carlson’s JESSICA MCCLAIN werewolf series.

Full Blooded introduces us to our protagonist, Jessica, who wakes up in the middle of a change she shouldn’t be having, as women have never been able to change into werewolves before. She’s the first of her kind, and her father is coincidentally a very powerful, very important man in the pack hierarchy. Jessica lives under a false identity doing what many protagonists in urban fantasy do: private investigation. Jessica is tracked down by a mercenary rather quickly, and, helped along by her father’s high status, a war breaks out as superstitious werewolves (a... Read More

Hot Blooded by Amanda Carlson

Hot Blooded (2013) is the sequel to Full Blooded and the second in Amanda Carlson’s JESSICA MCCLAIN series. This review will contain some spoilers for the previous book.

Jessica’s mate has been stolen, and her goal is to get him back. Readers who are really hell-bent on the romance aspect of the series will find this rather frustrating. There are quite a few (logical) detours Jessica must make before she can get her man back. There’s business to put in order, and while that makes sense to me as an adult, and I respected Carlson for allowing Jessica to put things in order rather than running hell-for-leather into the action like so many other urban fantasy authors do, I can see where this might frustrate people and get them wanting the plot to move a bit faster.

That being said, all of Jessica’... Read More