I am on to another great series this year! I know it is only March, but if I could read everyday for a living, I would do it in a heartbeat. I received Crave by Tracy Wolff as a birthday present last year and I finally got around to reading it! And, I regret putting it off. It truly is a great book especially for those that love YA fantasy – which is my fave. And now I am on the second book in the series, Crush, so be on the lookout for a review for that book as well shortly. So, with that, here is my review:
Disclosure: Going forward there will be spoilers, so please read carefully! Also, this is strictly my opinion and how I felt about this book. I am not compensated for any of my reviews.
Crave – book 1
This book gave me all of the Twilight feels. There is even a reference to Twilight in the book! It is set in the present and we follow Grace as she navigates her new life after her parents are killed in a car crash. She is uprooted from San Diego and moves to Alaska with her Uncle Finn and cousin Macy to finish off her senior year. But, the school she ends up attending is not like what she is used to.
There are many hints to what type of school it is since Grace knows it is not a normal school. First, is the reference to Twilight. Second, is the fact that people go out of their way to hide information from Grace. Third, Grace has been threatened numerous times. Fourth, she sees people outside without winter gear on in the middle of Alaska at the start of winter. Those are just the tip of the iceberg. She moves through the school just trying to blend in but finds that it is hard to do when all of the students cannot stop staring at her. She ends up befriending a few people beyond her cousin Macy – Jaxon, Flint, and Lia. There are other characters that support the main cast, but those are the main people we need to worry about.
As the book goes on, Grace is always trapped in near-death experiences. She falls off a tree branch during a snowball fight game, she is trapped in underground tunnels during an earthquake, and she ends up getting her jugular sliced open from flying window glass during another earthquake. She quickly learns that someone is trying to kill her and hates that everyone else is keeping secrets from her. She also doesn’t like that everyone that she is close to treats her like a fragile doll because of the tragic death of her parents.
Eventually, she learns that the school she attends is for the supernatural. She learns this after she is cut with the glass because she has 2 bite marks from a vampire on her neck that were done to help heal her (the way Wolff describes how vampire venom works to heal and kill is a bit detailed so you will have to read the book to get more info on that!). After realizing there are vampires at her new school, she learns from her cousin, Macy, that there are also witches, warlocks, dragons, and shifters (such as werewolfs). Given that she is still wrapping her head around her parents death, the move to Alaska, and all of her near death experiences, she is very overwhelmed at this point in the book.
She and those closest to her still know that someone is trying to kill her so she has extra protection around her. Jaxon, her mate that she later learns, is a vampire and makes sure she is always protected. Her friend Flint is a dragon and her cousin Macy is a witch. Lia is a vampire as well and is motivated to find a way to bring back her mate, Hudson, from the dead. This is something that we learn towards the end of the book because Lia has been acting friendly toward Grace only to take her down into the tunnels to sacrifice her to bring Hudson back from the dead.
Lia almost succeeds but Jaxon stops her. There is also a fight with Flint and Lia where Flint is also trying to kill Grace to stop Lia from bringing Hudson back because if Hudson is brought back, it is basically the demise of their world. Or so we are lead to believe in the first book. Hudson was Jaxon’s brother and Jaxon killed him to stop his tyranny. Lia gets so close to bringing him back that Hudson ends up in their world as lingering black smoke that can materialize. After Grace is saved and is in recovery, she learns that Flint regrets trying to kill her and they try to work it out, although, Jaxon remains leery.
The book ends with Grace and Jaxon walking to class and Hudson materializing and trying to kill Jaxon with a sword. Grace blocks the blow and turns to stone. It is here that we learn that Grace is not human after all as we were led to believe throughout the book. But she is a gargoyle instead. We are left with that knowledge at the end of book 1.
Why 3/5?
I absolutely adored this book. I like the fantasy setting in our world. And watching everything through Grace’s eyes makes it feel even more real. However, at times, it did read a bit childish to me and was rubbing up against Twilight a bit too much for my liking. Also, there were moments where I felt that Grace should have come to the conclusion that she was in a school for the supernatural or at least asked more direct questions about why she was being left out in the dark instead of writing everything off. I get that it was for plot development, but that made it a bit hard to get through at times.
Honestly, other than that, this book was a great start to this series. It built the world well and ended on a great cliffhanger. I definitely had to start book 2 right away! Definitely worth a read for all of you YA fantasy fans out there!
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