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?

(Summary from Goodreads)

First line: I'd always welcomed war, but in battle my passion rose unbidden.




I enjoyed this book more than I expected to :-) I thought it would be like many other paranormal romance series, where not all that much happens in the first book, and just when things are getting exciting it ends -- leaving you hanging for months and months before you can find out what happens next. Don't get me wrong, this book left me hanging all right, but SO much happened before that, and so many details were revealed along the way, that I still felt satisfied as a reader. It was like I'd enjoyed a good meal and not just an appetiser!

There's a love triangle of course, Ren the alpha wolf, and Shay the human (and I love the names -- not conventional, but not too wacky!). At first it seemed obvious to me who I wanted Calla to choose, but then it became... not so obvious. I felt as conflicted as Calla was. Imagine having your whole life planned out for you. You've always known who you'll end up with and you accepted it long ago -- and you do have feelings for that person, which helps. And then another person comes along, he's not part of the plan at all, and yet you develop feelings for him too! Tough one...

What I really liked about this book was how Andrea didn't feel the need to explain everything at the beginning. This made sense because we're seeing everything from Calla's POV, and Calla already knows everything about this supernatural world. So something would be mentioned and I, the reader, wouldn't really get it. So I'd hang on and keep reading and then some time later I'd go, Ohhhh, now I get it. I like that :-)

So I'm definitely going to be reading the next book in the series, WOLFSBANE, when it comes out in July this year, and right now I'm recommending NIGHTSHADE to you :-)