Amanda Carlson sets the stakes high in her debut urban fantasy, Full Blooded: Jessica McClain isn't just the daughter of a werewolf pack leader; she's also the first woman to show lycanthropic tendencies since pretty much forever. Some of her father's enemies are already convinced Jessica is the "daughter of Cain" allegedly foretold to bring about the death of their race. Although her father tries to keep the news about her new powers from spreading, the rumors about her swiftly regain momentum. There are also serious non-supernatural concerns--after her first transformation, the local police want to know why her apartment looks like a wild animal tore it apart....
There's a lot going on here, and Carlson tries to cram as much of it as she can into this first installment of a new series, filling in the background to the supernatural setting as she goes along. As a result, things get very busy very fast--not only does Jessica have to worry about the rifts in her family's wolf pack, she also faces heat from a human police officer who's long been convinced there's something wrong about her. Romance arrives from a totally unexpected direction, but we barely have time to absorb this new development before the witches and the vampires get involved, kicking everything up another notch. Unfortunately, Carlson leaves the majority of these loose ends dangling with the novel's abrupt ending. It's a suspenseful setup for the sequel, but some may find the lack of even a tiny bit of closure frustrating. --Ron Hogan, founder of Beatrice.com