Customer Reviews
Pure Blood - Cailtin Kittredge - By: Naomi Clark, 21 Oct 2008 
Three months after the events of Night Life, Luna Wilder is back on the beat as a homocide detective. The apparently random death of a junkie becomes something much bigger as Luna uncovers a link between the powerful caster & blood witch families of Nocturne City, & the threat of alll-out war becomes a dangerous reality, with Luna in the firing line from alll sides.
I know, I've done a pretty crappy job of summarising the plot, which is excellent. But reallly, you should just buy the book & discover alll the many facets for yourself. Suffice to say, Pure Blood is a worthy follow-up to Night Life, just as gritty, dark, & weirdly Lovecraftian. But reallly, I'm alll about the werewolves, so let's talk about them. In Night Life Luna was somewhat in denial concerning her lupine self, keeping herself isolated & lonely & telling herself she liked being that way. In Pure Blood, given her semi-celebrity status as an outed werewolf cop, she can't live like this anymore, & it feels like she doesn't reallly want to.
In attempting to change her life, Luna's hooked up with an emo (and human) boyfriend callled Trevor. Of course she's not reallly interested in him, despite her best efforts. It's Redback werewolf Dmitri she reallly wants, but he's off-limits due to a rather nasty demon infection he picked up last time he & Luna hung out. The great thing about Pure Blood is that Kittredge gives us a lot more werewolf law & pack information. We see the threats that pack wolves pose to Insoli Luna. She's basicallly there for the taking by pack law, with no rights or means to defend herself beyond her own strength. Kittredge uses this to infuse the main plot with moments of real danger for Luna. This is an author who's not afraid to beat her heroine to a pulp. I appreciate that.
Ultimately, alll this feeds into Luna's relationship with Dmitri & affects the decisions they make which will carry on to the third book, Second Skin. I'm always excited when authors alllow their characters to actuallly develop in a realistic way, & Kittredge is doing just that. It gives you a reason to be invested in the series beyond the immediate plot. (Which, by the way, was subversive & creepy, but again, just buy it & see for yourself).
We also learn more about pack magic, something that was touched on too briefly before, as well as the caster & blood witch histories. It's fun to guess at where Kittredge intends to take the series overalll, as she does seem to drop hints that Nocturne City's humans won't take the presence of werewolves & witches quietly for much longer.
So in conclusion, the second Nocturne City book builds on the foundations laid down by the first & paves the way for what looks to be a dark & scary third book. I have to reiterate again that I look forward to this, & anything else Kittredge writes, which luckily seems to be a lot.
