RED BLOODED by Amanda Carlson

Rating: C
Synopsis:
Jessica is on her way to Hell. After settling a fragile truce between the vampires, werewolves and witches, the last thing Jessica wants to do is face the demons head on. But when the Prince of Hell kidnapped her brother, he set into motion a chain of events that even Jessica doesn't have the power to stop.

Now, Jessica must go into battle again. But Hell is a whole new beast... new rules, more dangerous demons, and an entirely foreign realm. And when Jessica is dropped into the Underworld too soon, without protection or the help of her friends, she must figure out just how powerful she can be... or she will never make it out alive.

My thoughts on the book:
This is one of my absolute favorite Urban Fantasy series, and I was really looking forward to this book. However, Red Blooded wasn't half as enjoyable for me as the previous installments. It seemed like one of those books that needed to be created in order to progress the story to its next phase, but wasn't the best in the series. I have high hopes for the next novel, though, and I'm looking forward to it. 

Jessica doesn't grow much in this novel. Sure she gains new abilities and a lot of things happen to her, but as a person, she doesn't grown a ton. Rourke is around, but he still feels absent in a lot of ways. I missed seeing a lot of the "regular" characters, like Marcy, since Jess was in the Underworld almost the whole time. Some of the new characters were interested. I hope we get to learn more about the Princess of Hell soon. For the most part, though, not a lot went on in the character department. 

The plot was action-packed, but moved incredibly slowly. I felt like Jessica was going in circles for the majority of the novel, which was frustrating for me. I wanted the plot to advance, but nothing much really happened until the last 75% or so. The world-building was fantastic, though, and I could picture the odd landscapes of Carlson's Underworld. The ending was a cliffhanger, which irritated me. I felt like we could have cut out half of the Hell scenes and moved the plot forward more so that the readers could see what happened following the ending, but I trust that Carlson has a reason for writing the book the way she did. I am looking forward to seeing what happens next, either way. 

Overall, I'd only recommend this book to you if you've already started the series and enjoy it. You'll need this one for the subsequent installments to make sense. I'd recommend this series to anyone who enjoys Adult Urban Fantasy novels, though. Just because this book didn't blow me away like the others doesn't mean that it wasn't good, and the series as a whole is fantastic.

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