Jessica lives in the small town of Junction (every time I read the name, I start humming "Conjunction Junction, what's your function?"), and she's healing from her mother's death when Pietr Rusakova, a Russian-American student from Farthington, the site of a highly publicized and gory wolf attack, moves to her school. She's assigned to show him around, and though she's not falling at his feet like other girls, she still finds him intriguing. Pietr's hiding major secrets, but the back cover tells us the two secrets (werewolfism and mafia connections), so there's not really a mystery to unravel. 
 I thought Jessica was funny, and she has a talkative sort of brain, so whenever she's thinking, her thoughts will get chatty/rambly in an endearing way. I also like how she's not interested in the new guy right away--she's still in raptures over her longtime crush, football player Derek, and can't spare much time to drool over Pietr, who she reacts to with annoyance. 
 I was frowning, though, when Jessica pushes Pietr into a relationship with one of her friends, a relationship he doesn't want. Jessica and Pietr continue to see each other, discuss their feelings, and sneak kisses, all while he's technically supposed to be dating this other girl. I don't feel comfortable with anything about this situation; not Jessie pressuring Pietr because she feels sorry for her friend, or Pietr going along with it and being unable to stand up for himself and tell the girl he doesn't like her, or with either of them for continuing to get cozy when it means being dishonest. They're not shady people--I really don't get why they decide to behave this way. 
 13 to Life is written in an easygoing, conversational style, but it takes a while for anything much to happen--the mafia angle appears in the final fifth of the novel. I might be grabbing the sequel, and as always, if you're into werewolves and YA, you should still try it out.