Audio Review: Cold Blooded by Amanda Carlson

Cold Blooded


Jessica McClain, #3
Amanda Carlson


Genre: Urban Fantasy
Publisher: Hachette Audio
Narrator: Thérèse Plummer
Date of Publication: October 8, 2013
Abridged or Unabridged: Unabridged
Length of Production: 10 hrs and 47 mins

Available at the following retailers:
Amazon     Audible   Downpour

Audio Review: Hot Blooded by Amanda Carlson

Hot Blooded

Jessica McClain, #2
Amanda Carlson

Genre: Urban Fantasy
Publisher: Hachette Audio
Narrator: Thérèse Plummer
Date of Publication: April 23, 2013
Abridged or Unabridged: Unabridged
Length of Production: 10 hrs and 15 mins

Available at the following retailers:
Amazon     Audible   Downpour

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.

This is the second book in the Jessica McClain series by Amanda Carlson. I was liked the overall story of the first book, Full Blooded, but really disliked the narrator.  Apparently, I wasn't the only one!  But all is well, it seems that the production team listened to the hue and cry and found a much better narrator in Thérèse Plummer.  She was everything that the first one wasn't; enthusiast, engaging, emotive, and best of all, entertaining. I was able to fully commit to the plot instead of counting how many dialogue stops and starts that was this chapter.

The story opens with Jessica McClain planning beside her father. After finding the rarest of rare, a True Mate, he was snatched from her.  She has bargained for assistance in locating the treacherous goddess who stole him away. But she knows going in that is really a trap, and is trying to plot and plan accordingly. Jessica knows instinctively that she has a limited time frame to reach him, or he could die, leaving her to pine forever for him. The journey is tough, and as a new born wolf, she is still learning much about herself and her abilities.  This trip will test her over and over again.

The entire book takes place over approximately 4 days time. There were some interesting challenges thrown at the characters, and even though they basically went from one conflict right into the next one, I was happy to see that things like eating and sleeping weren't brushed aside and forgotten in the rush to get to the next big fight. Things like exhaustion and changes of clothes made kept the story grounded. Additionally, I was worried with the way Jessica keeps gaining power that she was going to become too MarySue-ish, but her self-doubt, stringent sense of justice and her ability to ask for assistance and advice help to this at bay. We find out more about the Prophecy in this book, and how it applies to Jessica. I enjoyed this book and gave it 4 stars.

Audio Review: Full Blooded by Amanda Carlson

Full Blooded

Jessica McClain, #1
Amanda Carlson

Genre: Urban Fantasy
Publisher: Hachette Audio
Narrator: Casey Holloway
Date of Publication: September 11th 2012
Abridged or Unabridged: Unabrdiged
Length of Production: 11 hrs and 28 mins

Available at the following retailers:
Amazon     Audible   Downpour

Born the only female in an all male race, Jessica McClain isn’t just different—she’s feared.

After living under the radar for the last twenty-six years, Jessica is thrust unexpectedly into her first change, a full ten years late. She wakes up and finds she’s in the middle of a storm. Now that she’s become the only female full-blooded werewolf in town, the supernatural world is already clamoring to take a bite out of her and her new Pack must rise up and protect her.

But not everyone is on board. The werewolf Rights of Laws is missing text and the superstitious werewolves think that Jessica means an end to their race. It doesn’t help when Jessica begins to realize she’s more. She can change partway and hold her form, and speak directly to her wolf. But the biggest complication by far is that her alpha father can't control her like he can the rest of his wolves.

When a mercenary who’s been hired by the vampires shows up to extract information about the newly turned werewolf only days after her change, they find themselves smack in the middle of a war and there's no choice but to run together. When it’s up to Jessica to negotiate her release against her father’s direct orders, she chooses to take an offer for help instead. In exchange, Jessica must now swear an oath she may end up repaying with her life.

I have been interested in this series for a while, but just hadn't had the time to read it. So when I ran across the first three books in audio I quickly grabbed them up and added them to my "listening" list.  The actual story was quite engaging. The narration, not so much.

The story begins with Jessica McClain waking up from what she thinks is a nightmare. She is sweaty, shaky and disoriented.  Then she thinks flu, but realizes that she is very rarely sick. Then she starts having what feels like a seizure and she realizes what is happening. At 26 years old, years and years past puberty, she is going through her first shift. As a female born to a werewolf she has been an anomaly all her life. But now that she is getting ready to shift, she will elevate this to freak status. There are NO female werewolves. None. Her father, the alpha, has prepared her for this infinitesimal possibility and given her a syringe loaded with a power tranquiler designed to knock her out through the change. Unfortunately, after 6 years of not needing it, it now resides in the bathroom, and she has to cross her room to get there. She doesn't make it and ends up shifting and jumping from the balcony of her 3rd floor apartment.

When Jessica's dad and twin brother find her the next morning, she is injured but healing from being shot by a farmer the night before. Her father is very worried about how the supernatural community, and the wolves in particular, are going to take her shifting. Ever since her birth, there has been this Daughter of Cain prophesy circulating, that she would destroy the packs. The decision is to hide her change until they can get a better handle on what is going on.  Since Jessica herself has been living under an alias for the last 7 years, this seems like a good plan. Too bad it doesn't work.

As I said earlier, this was a great story. I liked the world building and the characters. Jessica is a strong female, and we can tell is being set up to be a great character, but she is grounded with some flaws and quirks to make her interesting. My biggest problem with the story was the narrator. Oh my gosh, it was bad. I mean really, really bad. One of the characters has a British accent, it was so obvious that Casey Holloway was struggling with it. Plus, it sounded like she was either reading the story cold or imitating William Shatner. The dramatic pauses then rushed reading drove me insane. I very nearly stopped at this book, until I saw that the next book has a different narrator. If you can get past the garbled accents and the butchered timing, it really was a good story. But honestly, I took a full star away for this badly narrated story. 2 stars.