"Nightshade" Review

Calla 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?

—-

Lately I’ve been trying my best to avoid books with this sort of plot, simply because the Twilight movies have ruined it forever. (I liked the books once upon a time) However, “Nightshade” really surprised me. Andrea Cremer took a somewhat over done plot and turned it on its head, creating something very fresh and exciting. I’ll admit I bought the book for the cover. It’s so shiny! But I definitely got my money’s worth. “Nightshade” boasts over 450 pages, but you’ll find yourself cutting your way through it like a hot knife through butter.

Calla, quite honestly, is one of the coolest female characters out there. She’s tough, she’s a leader, and she can fight with the best of them. She holds her own against her male counterparts, showing she has just as much ferocity as they do. She runs her own pack, the Nightshades, alone at this point, however soon she’ll be forced into an arranged marriage with the alpha of the Banes, Ren Laroche by their bosses, beings known as the Keepers, and their packs will become one. Ren was probably my favorite character. Sorry Calla. He’s just so suave and charismatic in his cocky attitude it’s impossible to hate him…if you’re a female at least. I know the whole premise of this book gears you to love the human kid, Shay, the guy Calla’s fallen for, but I never really liked him. My main problem with him is that Calla repeatedly tells him that them getting together is really dangerous and she could get severely punished for it. (As in death). Shay, however, never gets this through his thick skull and keeps trying to persuade her into dating him. If he loved her at all, he’d back off. You’d expect something like this from a character like Ren, who’s an extreme play boy, not from the cute, sweet human who’s supposedly one of the heroes. I don’t know…he just rubs me the wrong way. Even though Ren and Calla are being forced to marry, they have a very sweet bond. They care about each other greatly , so it’s not like she’s having to marry someone she hates. Ren even has a nickname for Calla, which I find incredibly adorable. Maybe I’ve just become a Ren fan girl, but the whole time I was reading this book, I was rooting for him and hoping that Shay would die somehow. I deeply hate him for some reason.

The world that this book is set in is both familiar and very different from the one we know. There are demons, succubus, witches, warlocks, magic, wraiths and of course the wolves. Unlike in many werewolf books, these werewolves are actually wolves masquerading as humans, not the other way around. Also, when they shift from wolf to human they appear fully clothed. That’s way less awkward. One of my favorite parts was when the packs went to a nightclub run and owned by the Bane’s Keeper. Along the walls of his office was an illustration of Dante’s Inferno, a very nice touch. It made the Keeper feel even more evil than he already was. All of the characters have their own personalities and stories. Some are carrying on secret romances of their own. It’s nice to see secondary characters having lives of their own. This doesn’t happen as often as it should. The action in the book is very satisfying. I’m currently going to art school for a degree in Sequential Art aka comic books, and I think that the way the book is written would make it a very good choice for being adapted into that medium. Calla would make a very good comic book character.

Overall, the plot line was fast paced, energetic, and didn’t slow down too much. The world seems fleshed out and real, even with all those fantastical creatures. However, a few of the characters are hard to like. This is especially difficult for one of the main characters, Shay. Likeability is hugely important with a major character like him. I was more annoyed by him than anything else. Still, the plot makes up for it and maybe not liking him actually adds to the drama of the whole thing. It’s one of the more expensive hardbacks out there, but for people who enjoy fast paced action  and love triangles, this book may be worth the extra bills. I’m looking forward to reading the sequels.

I give “Nightshade” by Andrea Cremer a MUST READ!!!