Bastard Reaction: Blooded by Amanda Carlson

As a precursor to Amanda Carlson's debut novel, Full Blooded, we were treated to the Blooded novella back in April.

I'm not a fan of reading short stories and novellas, they rarely do anything for me. Decided to make an exception here as I was very curious about the upcoming Full Blooded novel, and in some regards this was true here, but that's quite all right. If the novella's purpose was to get me interested in this world, to get me to read Carlson's debut novel, then mission accomplished.

The Blooded novella is quite simplistic, just a combination of a few scenes to showcase a few of the characters we'll be following in the Jessica McClain series. But more importantly, at least as it concerns myself, it promised there'll be some kickass violence to be had. Other than a couple of short scenes, that's pretty much all this was, lots of action.

Won't get into much details of Blooded, but it mainly featured our main character Jessica McClain, a non-were, living among werewolves, and a girl at that, and how she has to fend for herself. Not to be a victim, but to go on the offensive even when the odds are stacked against her. There's some bullying (or simply attempts at) going on, some prophesies of how she'll be the ruin of them, and this is just giving us glimpse of what's to come set a handful of years or so before the start of the novel.

My only real observation, and I guess complaint, is that there was too much chatter for my taste in the action scenes. It was rationalized in the novella as a tactic to distract the werewolf opponents, so it became more palatable. That said, it's something I'll have to see how it's handled in Full Blooded. At least the character interaction outside of the action scenes seemed like fun.

Whether or not you are interested in reading the Blooded novella, take my word for it that Full Blooded should be a novel that gets well received by the urban fantasy community, and I'd be very surprised if it doesn't instantly get a big fan following, to go along with the character of Jessica McClain. At least this guy will be following. But for the price of $0.99, there's really nothing to lose here.

Buy Blooded from Amazon.

Full Blooded is set to be released on September 11, 2012. Buy a copy from The Book Depository.

Interview with Amanda Carlson on Bastard Books
Cover revealed for Hot Blooded, sequel to Full Blooded

Please visit Amanda Carlson's website for more info.