Nightshade, by Andrea Cremer

I just finished Nightshade and I’m impressed. The story of the world of the Guardians, Keepers, and Searchers is very intricately woven, but well described. Don’t be surprised if you are confused for a while at the beginning of the book.  Besides trying to figure out the hierarchies and what type of being each character is, there’s a lot going on. For a while I considered making a chart of the characters by their packs, but eventually I sorted it all out, and I think this was intentional and not necessarily a defect.  (Well, it’s not ALL sorted out, because there are certainly a lot of questions left to be answered in future books of the series.)

So, Calla (a werewolf) is supposed to get married to the alpha of another pack, Ren.  But she has really intense feelings for a human, Shay. She saved his life, and she can’t explain why.  She’s not supposed to care about humans. Cremer is a great writer. The story and characters come alive, the descriptions are so touching.  I especially liked the descriptions of the romantic feelings of Calla. I did find it difficult to believe that she could become so melty over two different guys – but I explain that by realizing that she’s never had any experience with the opposite sex before.  I don’t know, maybe you can feel that way – I’ve just personally never felt that way about two people at the same time.  It did add to the tension, wondering who she was going to choose. I really couldn’t help her – she seemed so torn, that I was too—I didn’t know who to root for.

The tension certainly builds as the story goes on. Calla breaks more rules and takes more risks than many heroines that I’ve experienced recently.  She is bad ass, though, and her toughness makes all her decisions seem reasonable. I think I was more worried that she’d be caught with Shay in the library than when she was with him risking life and limb on the mountain. It is refreshing to read about a female main character that doesn’t take any crap

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The pack members all kind of blended together. There were a few that were more fleshed out, but this was certainly a story about Calla, Ren, and Shay.  There’s already some tension and conflicts that have been foreshadowed, so I’m sure we’ll get to know them better in the next installment.

This is a page turner, and highly recommended. Even though it is over 450 pages, it didn’t seem like a long book to me. I really liked how the moon went through the phases on the pages at the beginning of each chapter. I think fans of paranormal romance will not want to miss this one, so make sure you recommend it to all of them.

Published by Philomel

Pages: 452 (qualifies for my 350 page Reading Challenge!)

I checked this book out of the library.

Rating: 4/5