Review: Nightshade by Andrea Cremer

 

Nightshade by Andrea Cremer
Published: October 19th, 2010; Philomel
452 Pages

From Goodreads:
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?

My Rating:
3.5 stars


My Thoughts:

I was really excited to read Nightshade for the longest time. From the gorgeous cover to the enticing story of a werewolf who is torn between duty and destiny, Nightshade was mostly worth the wait. Certain parts left me feeling a little miffed, but I was otherwise interested in every part of Calla’s story.

This book was new for the werewolf genre, since the main character was actually a werewolf for a change. Most of the books I have read in the werewolf subgenre feature a female damsel in distress and a male bad-boy-werewolf who is trying to cope with the beastly side of himself. Not that I don’t enjoy those books; I just thought it was pretty interesting to see the world from Calla’s point of view.

And of course the boys in this book were hot. I, personally, am a bigger fan of Ren than Shay. For whatever reason, Shay just seemed too whiney for most of the book. Maybe it’s just because I have a predisposition to the tall-dark-and-handsome type, but I’m usually a fan of the underdog in the story. My theory is that Cremer tried a little bit too hard to make the reader feel sorry for Shay, which backfired and made me like him less. A lot less.

 But boys aside, the other supporting characters in the story were pretty awesome. Calla’s friends made me wish I had my very own wolf pack to be besties with (pardon me, just being a dork here). Bryn was adorable, and Ansel stuck by Calla’s side no matter what. Even though things weren’t always perfect, they were always loyal to each other.

The way the wolves could shift from their wolf form to their human form  and vice versa without going through some creepy body crunching, clothes tearing transformation was a nifty way of doing things. Sure, it could be considered cheating, but it was nice to not have to wonder how the characters could afford to destroy that many pieces of clothing. Kudos to you, Andrea Cremer, for coming up with something simple that I haven’t seen done before.

The plot in this book was pretty easy to follow from the very start. It didn’t really deviate from the regular YA forbidden love story line, which was kind of a disappointment. Yes, the idea of keepers and searchers was a new one, but there wasn’t any big moment that I didn’t see coming. I’m hopeful the next book in the series will leave me a bit more enthralled. I’m not saying the plot in this book was stagnant, because I’m happy as long as there’s at least one original idea in a story, and Nightshade had quite a few.

Overall, Nightshade was pretty enjoyable. I gave it 3.5 stars because I liked it, but there wasn't anything in it that made me want to call one of my friends and tell them they had to read it. It's in that strange in between space of being okay and pretty good, and I can't quite make up my mind about how much I really enjoyed it. It wasn’t my favorite book ever, but it’s pretty neck in neck with most of the other paranormal romances I’ve read. I can’t wait to see how Calla’s story evolves in the next two books, so I will definitely be picking up the next book in the series as soon as I can get my hands on it.