Sunday, 31 October 2010
Book Review – Nightshade by Andrea Cremer
Calla Tor has always known her destiny: After graduating from the Mountain School, she’ll be the mate of sexy alpha wolf Ren Laroche and fight with him, side by side, ruling their pack and guarding sacred sites for the Keepers. But when she violates her masters’ laws by saving a beautiful human boy out for a hike, Calla begins to question her fate, her existence, and the very essence of the world she has known. By following her heart, she might lose everything–including her own life. Is forbidden love worth the ultimate sacrifice? (From Goodreads)
It seems appropriate to post my review of Nightshade by Andrea Cremer on Halloween. A date that plays such a pivotal role in the book. Or rather Sanhein does, night of the blood moon. Yes, this book features wolves and moons but it’s definitely not another creature of the night book, the world building is excellent.
Strangely, I still persist with the idea that I don’t like fantasy. Then I end up falling for every fantasy book I read, Nightshade was no exception. It’s so good. I adored the details of the world. The weaving of legends I’d heard of and things Andrea had created. I also loved the rigid social structure and hierarchy of the Keepers and Guardians.
Most of all though, as with most books, I loved the people. Calla is such a fabulous character, she is up there with Katsa on my favorite strong women list. I loved her. I loved her strength (both physical and mental), her doubts and her chaffing against the social stricture of her world. Her guilt and confusion over challenging ideas she’d grown up with felt so real. Even if you dont like fantasy (or like me think you don’t) you can’t help but fall for Calla.
Talking of falling. The love triangle in this book is extremely well done. Normally love triangles annoy me, but in Nightshade I completely understood Calla’s indecision. Both Ren and Shay are great guys (although I am firmly on one team, no not telling which!). The tension and chemistry Calla has with both of them is extremely hot and steamy.
The end is a complete cliffhanger and I can not WAIT for book two. Andrea Cramer is on my buy immediately list.
ARC received from publisher.
I've been hearing a lot about this book, and I'm very excited to read it whenever I manage to run across it. I'm definitely a sucker for good characters–in fact, I tend to only enjoy books with really great characters–so it's good to hear that these characters really stood out to you.
Thanks for the review!
(Also: seems clear to me that you DO like fantasy! 😛 )
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I've heard a lot of amazing things about this one, and your review is so awesomely convincing. Think I'm going to have to run out and buy it. And I love the posting on midnight of Halloween.
Weird note:I'm exactly the same about fantasy (although I do dislike quite a lot of it), I wind up really liking the ones I find interesting enough to read, these days 🙂
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Meagan – I know! I just always think of fantasy as something my brother read LOL! The characters are great, and I can't wait to read more about them. Also I forgot to mention the secondary ones who are also fabulous.
Vee – Glad I'm not alone on the fantasy front 🙂 I do hope you buy it and love it!
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I think it's funny that you said the cliffhanger was killer and I said it wasn't, lol. Great review!
By the way, did you change your comments back? Because I know I wrote one for this the other day but now it's gone…
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