Review: Full Blooded by Amanda Carlson

Title: Full Blooded (Jessica McClain)
Series: Jessica McClain, #1
Author: Amanda Carlson
Published: September 11, 2012
Pages: 346
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Source: NetGalley
Publisher: Orbit
Rating: C+
Reviewed by: Marq

summary from Goodreads
Born the only female in an all male race, Jessica McClain isn’t just different—she’s feared.

After living under the radar for the last twenty-six years, Jessica is thrust unexpectedly into her first change, a full ten years late. She wakes up and finds she’s in the middle of a storm. Now that she’s become the only female full-blooded werewolf in town, the supernatural world is already clamoring to take a bite out of her and her new Pack must rise up and protect her.

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Marq's thoughts:
I love werewolves and was anxious to read Full Blooded after hearing the positive early buzz.

Jessica McClain is the only female werewolf. Members of her Pack fear her thanks to the Cain Myth which states that she's going to bring down the Pack and bring death upon the wolves. Jessica is sent away, for her own protection, at the age of 19. Full Blooded starts 7 years later where Jessica experiences her first shift. Trying to keep it on the down low proves futile and the quiet, anonymous life she built for herself implodes.

After her first shift, Jessica's life completely changes. She has a cop, Ray Hart, who is out to get her and with strange occurrences happening at her apartment, he is more determined than ever to see her behind bars. Jessica used to be a cop but ended up quitting due to Ray's harassment. Now he's after her like a dog with a bone. Someone in the Pack is out to kill Jessica. Even though her shift is a secret, the secret is out and now Jessica is running for her life. And while all of this is going on, she meets a werecat, Rourke, who she isn't sure is friend or foe.

There's a lot going on in Full Blooded and because there is, I think the book suffered a little. I read the prequel novella (Blooded) that established Jessica's history and why she had to be sent away. In Full Blooded, I would have liked to see Jessica's life once she left the Pack. The book starts with Jessica experiencing her first shift so we are just told about what she's been doing the last seven years. Once she goes through the shift, all hell breaks loose and there's so much going on that I felt that some parts of the story fell apart. In the first half of the book Ray Hart was a huge presence and then he just fell off and then shows up at the end. I felt that the middle of the book slowed down with the explanation of the Pack politics, the Cain Myth and the discussion of protecting Jessica from whoever is after her.

Jessica is an anomaly. She's strong, she can control her shift and she can freeze her shift. The one thing that kind of bothered me was that her father and brother and the Pack worked to constantly protect her. I felt that Jessica is strong enough to join in the fight since it is her life that is being threatened. I didn't like her being coddled and hope that in future books, she will be on equal footing along with the male werewolves.

I don't know how I feel about Jessica's love interest. It came out of nowhere and didn't have anytime to develop before the book ended with a cliffhanger. I honestly didn't see that coming and was hoping that she would have more chances to burn off some sexual steam with James.

Overall, I think Full Blooded is a good start to the series. I will definitely be reading the next book, Hot Blooded, because of the cliffhanger and I'm interested in finding out where the series is headed. I like all the characters individually and I like Jessica's voice. It's just that at times when they come together, it's a little muddled.