Hot Blooded

By: Amanda Carlson

Narrated by: Thérèse Plummer

The second novel in the Jessica McClain series is a full on action adventure featuring one angry Goddess and plenty of monsters, demons, and a few newly risen beasties....

It hasn't been the best week for Jessica McClain.

Her newly found mate has been kidnapped by a Goddess hell-bent on revenge, and Jessica is positive she can save him.

But being the only female werewolf in town comes with its own set of rules and powers...if only she understood them.

Aided by two vamps, two loyal Pack members, and one very reluctant human, Jessica must rescue her man while coming to terms with what being a wolf really means.

©2013 Amanda Carlson (P)2013 Hachette

Critic reviews

"Amanda Carlson's debut novel is a fast paced tale with a cliffhanger ending that left me panting for more. Full Blooded left me on the edge of my seat from cover to cover." (New York Times best-selling author Faith Hunter)

"Rising star Carlson is rapidly building a rich world filled with intrigue, betrayal and hidden prophecy; all in all, this series second is a magnificent showing." (RT Book Reviews Top Pick)

"A wild, wolfy ride that will have you howling for more!" (Kristen Painter, author of Blood Rights on Full Blooded)

Amanda Carlson is NOT a one hit wonder

OMG!!!! This was a wonderful, action-packed book. Amanda Carlson is NOT a one hit wonder. We learn of many new Underworld creatures. We get to spend more time with Ray. I can't wait to see where she takes his story-line. I really liked Naomi. I hope we get to see her and Danny together. We've been promised more Rourke in the next book. I'm going to hold her to that.

I think Jessica is going to bring the sects together. She's already doing unprecedented things by working with the vampires.

Amanda definitely leaves you wanting more.

Just OK.

Maybe I went in to this book with too high expectations but I couldn't help but feel it kinda mostly just sucked.

In my mind the story can be summed up as hiking, fighting, "omg Jessica can do what now?", hiking while pining annoyingly over kidnapped mate whom Jessica has only known for like five seconds, more fighting, Jessica shoots rainbows out her rear and then hikes some more. It felt like the whole plot was taken up in clarifying the extent of Jessica's powers and it just didn't work for me at all.

Having said all that, I did manage to finish the book and it did have just enough plot development to keep me listening. I do kind of feel like the proverbial horse chasing after a carrot on a string and I'm not entirely convinced the author is actually going to deliver said carrot but I'm willing to read the third book to find out.

over all good, but takes so long

I liked where the story went, but it could have been half as long, if that. I had to listen to it on 2x playback because everything in the story takes a billion more details and side notes than what is needed to get anywhere. Therese Plummer does a great job as usual, it was I little odd getting used to a new image of the characters since a different narrator did the first book. Overall, I'm happy with the series so far.

A Scrumptious Story!

Huge improvement in narration! What a fun listen. I’m eager for the next in the series.

A good story, but not as good as the 1st

I liked the book; I just didn't like it as much as the first book. If you enjoyed the first book, you will still like this one. I tried to figure out what part I didn't like. What I came up with was the underdevelopment of the secondary characters. Just my personal opinion, of course, but the book would have had a little more depth to it if the secondary characters where a little more developed. Hopefully the main character will mature as the story goes a long. How do you continue to stress that she is only a 1 week old wolf, but all of your supposedly mature wolves have put her in charge? We are not talking power. We acknowledge that she has more power, but she has NO experience but she is suddenly leading everyone, even her father. And another thing that was very irritating to me, were the fight scenes, particularly the last fight scene. No one has time to have so many long drawn out conversations with her wolf and anyone else during the darn fight scenarios. For example: When you first go into the cave, you tell yourself that you have to go straight for the evil goddess because if you don't, she will be able to throw a spell and you will end up trap a long with your mate. BUT, repeatedly throughout the fight instead of following your own advice, you go for your mate. And not only that, you map out a complete scenario of how you are going to do it and why. NO! Just NO! You do not have time to think of all that crap. Honestly, there is no way she could have won the freakin' fight with how the fight scenes were written. I know, I know. I was just frustrated with the entire cave scene. My children were laughing at me because I kept yelling, "You don't have time for that!!!!” lol

I will purchase the 3rd book and I am keeping my fingers crossed that the main character is a little more mature and that the other characters don't seem to sitting or standing around waiting for a 1 week old to make all the decisions.

Narration makes all the difference

Thank goodness the narrator was changed after the first book. I almost didn't make it through the first one, but I'm glad I did.

Exposition and filler.

Is there anything you would change about this book?

There was just too much of the same, after having listened to the first book in this series, I was hopping some of the exposition would have been shortened or tightened up a bit, but sadly there seems to be a quota that needed to be met of " I don't know what I'm fully capable of" "I don't want you to get hurt/die" and " I won't leave [insert character] behind/ to die" in every chapter and restating these sentiments over and over. I like the story of the first book, I'll listen to the next book because there seems to actually be plot there. This book feels like very draw out setup and foreshadowing for the next book. Every so often the plot seems to stop, introduce new ideas and then fall back to the main story. This makes the book sort of jumbled, where the main plot is kill the goddess, save the mate, that get relegated to almost a side story, we know it will happen eventually but before that you must face the conflicts three, not to mention the side plots of what is happening to the pack out side of the main story, you would think that a confident leader of the largest pack of wolves in america wouldn't need to read his daughter into all of his conflicts or be so short to jump to conclusions as Jess's Dad seems to have become in this book.

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

I really do like the story overall, and the fight sequences very much so.

What do you think the narrator could have done better?

The narrator has gotten better since the first book, where the first book had noticeable pauses or hesitations that kind of got on my nerves those don't seem to be as common.

Do you think Hot Blooded needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

It is a meh book, read it to get the the third.

Much better reader

This is a mucher better reader. More life-like. You can tell the different characters in the story