Blooded by Amanda Carlson is a Jessica McClain novella telling the story of Jessica’s fight for freedom from an all-male werewolf pack when she is the only female human to have ever been born of a werewolf, a very over protective Alpha to be specific
I was lucky enough to catch Amanda Carlson on twitter when she was talking about Minnesota and was very excited to find a Minnesota author, since that’s my home state too. She was nice enough to offer me a review copy of her novella Blooded and I jumped at the chance :D.
Goodreads
Title: Blooded: A Jessica McClain Novella
Author: Amanda Carlson
Pages: ~63 (ebook)
Genre-ish: Urban Fantasy
Rating: ★★★★☆ – Fun story, minor flaws
Setting: Blooded takes place in a typical urban fantasy setting, with supernaturals of all kinds, including werewolves. The main thing that sets Blooded apart is that in this world all werewolves are male, and there is a myth that a female human born to a werewolf male will be the Daughter of Cain, pure evil and signify the beginning of the end for all werewolf kind, so it kind of sucks to be that female….
Premise: Jessica McClain just happens to have been born a female human to a werewolf Alpha, and being the only human in a pack of werewolves would be hard to begin with, that previously mentioned myth makes it all the better. Unfortunately for Jessica, her father is very over protective and won’t let her leave home even though she’s 19 and home is filled with savage werewolves who want to kill her. This leaves her just one option, to fight and prove to her father that she can make it in the real world better than in the pack.
Strengths:
An interesting premise and plenty of room and hints at a rich plot for the full novel- A female lead character who is human and willing to use her brain to take on werewolves? Sign me up!
- Hints throughout at the richness of the world, including a werefox and mention of a lot of other supernaturals
- Well described fight scenes, Carlson has either taken self defense or watched a lot of action movies ;-)
Weaknesses:
- Blooded was nearly all fighting, since it was dominated by the two major fights, so if reading about fighting isn’t your thing, I’d say just skip to the full novel
- At times the writing was a little wordy, and I felt that the central plot points of the myth and Jessica being threatened and unwanted didn’t need to be discussed too much, especially since getting the crap beat out of her shows that pretty well.
- It was quite short, which is understandable being a novella, but I want to know more :D
- Just a brief warning as well, if you are sensitive to violence against women, probably not the book for you, since the only female gets the crap beat out of her a lot….
Summary:
A strong start to Jessica McClain’s story and I will be keeping my eyes out for a copy of the first novel. The premise is interesting and leaves a lot of room for a cool world and a lot of lore, which I very much hope Carlson develops in the series. I’m very interested to see where the series ends up!
-A
Similar Stories Reviewed:
Mercedes Thompson series by Patricia Briggs – Another awesome urban fantasy series
Fair Game by Patricia Briggs – And even more werewolves!
About The Story 