cover image Full Blooded

Full Blooded

Amanda Carlson. Orbit, $12.99 trade paper (352p) ISBN 978-0-316-20520-7

In this skimpy paranormal thriller, all werewolves are male—until Jessica McClain, daughter of the respected pack alpha of the Northern U.S. Territories, discovers she can shift. She wanted a relatively quiet life as a PI, but being the first full-blooded female werewolf means that many other supernatural beings want a piece of her, and many of her fellow werewolves want her dead. While every protagonist is by definition special, Jessica is excessively so. Besides lycanthropy, her long list of virtues includes the ability to assume the extremely rare half-wolf, half-human Lycan form; blocking her alpha’s psychic link (which no one has ever done before); mate-bonding with an ancient, dangerous were-beast whose animal form has never been seen by anyone living; and violet eyes. Jessica’s appallingly stereotyped Hispanic neighbor Juanita (“Ooooh, Chica! I have been so worried! It es soooo good to see you here in the live”) heads up a lightly sketched cast, unsupported by the thin plot and exposition-heavy writing. Agent: Nicole Resciniti, the Seymour Agency. (Sept.)