Nocturnal Book Reviews

4.5/5
This was a pretty sleek, edgy and action-packed urban fantasy, and I breezed through it in a matter of hours.

You will have no problem loving Jessica if you are a fan of urban fantasy. She is a tough girl who's got guts, and the whole series is written in the spirit of early Kelley Armstrong and Rachel Vincent.

She comes from a strong pack of werewolves, a bit of a freak because she is a girl in a society where a woman giving birth to a girl is an extreme rarity and she defies rules as she chooses to live alone and work as a private detective to get away from the family oppressive love and the pack's paranoia and fear of the unknown.

Suddenly she experiences her first shift which is another thing that does not happen - women do not become werewolves, and everything in her life goes to hell. Her own pack is divided in loyalty over a strange old prophecy; wolves from other packs are hunting her down; a suspicious policeman investigates her and a famous assassin is hired to kill her. On top of it all, her abilities grow not quite like anything she's ever known.

Carlson's world-building is similar to Armstrong's in regard of all nature of paranormals existing in it, but it's also very different, and we gradually find out about this or that species.

Overall, I predict a very successful series despite a minor issue of instalove between two main characters closer to the end. This is my major pet peeve in shifters books - all that finding a perfect mate and bonding instantly stuff... To me it just sounds like a cheat sheet to a relationship.

However, it only raises its ugly head right in the end and as such doesn't have time to annoy the reader too much. The ending itself is rather abrupt which is another thing that made me drop the rating of the book slightly. Otherwise, it's very much recommended.