Rift

Rift by Andrea Cremer
3/5 stars
Philomel Books, 2012
430 pages
YA Paranormal Historical

Source: Library

Unlike a lot of people, I did not end Bloodrose furious at Andrea Cremer for one particular event (seriously, there are some angry reviews on goodreads.) So when I decided to treat myself by taking a break from review copies and choosing something special to read, this prequel to the Nightshade trilogy was at the top of my list.

It is billed as delivering the history of Bosque Mar as well as setting the scene for the rift between the Keepers and the Searchers. I have admired Cremer's world-building and history credentials (she has a Ph.D. in early modern history) so I figured this historical setting in 1404 would be incredibly realized as well as featuring the addictive writing that kept me turning pages.

Well I was partly right. I loved the historical settings and I read this book fairly quickly (sidenote: I don't always like deckle-edges but I really liked it on this book). My favorite part was probably in the beginning when we meet Ember Morrow, our heroine for the trilogy, who only survived at birth due to a very skilled healer and whose life is now owed to Conatus for sending that healer. Her father wants otherwise, preferring to use Ember as a tool to enrich his status through her marriage but he cannot fight yet. Ember for her part is thrilled to join Conatus, scorning the wifely arts of weaving and managing a household and craving adventure with her best friend Alistair Hart. 

However once she joins the order she becomes highly infatuated with her mentor Barrow Hess, whose age is probably significantly older than her sixteen years (I could not get past this-I realize he can't be that old in the grand scheme of things but this particular age gap grossed me out.)  I was so bored reading on much Ember was attracted to Barrow and since their teaching relationship requires that they spend a lot of time together, it popped up a lot.  I think it might have been more tolerable if the story was in first-person but as a third-person narrative, I don't think that much time needed to be spent on this guy.

The main reason for third-person narrative seems to be to follow Eira, a fellow warrior of Conatus, who becomes entangled with Bosque Mar. This really gains steam in the latter half but I wasn't very invested in the whole adventure. I really wish I remember Mar better as he certainly has the potential to be a very evil villain as some of his deeds in this book suggest.  But Eira was somewhat sketchily drawn here and I always felt jarred when the book shifted to focus on her to the exclusion of Ember.

Overall: My general attitude toward this book is very neutral. It didn't inspire many passionate feelings in me (except for loathing the Ember/Barrow romance, which was so dull) nor did I find it as addictive as the Nightshade trilogy. I will probably not be continuing.

Bloodrose

Bloodrose by Andrea Cremer
Philomel, 2012
406 pages
YA; Paranormal; Wolves
4/5 stars

Source: Library

My feelings about this series have been so frustrating. Calla is a character I want to root for as I always want to support the main character and to be able to identify with her (or him) and to find some part of myself reflected. But Calla defies that with her hormones directing her actions, with her indecisiveness, with the attempts to portray her as a great feminist when her actions do not support those words. Maybe there is some of me in there but it's not a part I want to search for.

It has been very illuminating reading other feelings about this book, many decrying Calla's personality and actions in much more articulate ways than I can. But there are also some crazy Ren fangirls-I just don't get it (and I mean crazy, as in dictating what they expected Cremer to deliver to them). Shay is the marginally better partner in my opinion although I am extremely anti-alpha males in books, tending to prefer a more sensitive guy who won't get all up in my face and <bleep> every girl he can find.  I can see that Ren has a character arc and experiences some growth but first impressions are lasting and that gross guy always seemed to linger. Meanwhile Shay seems to be separating from Calla, partly due to her desire not to hurt Ren but also due to

While the characters drove me crazy, I continue to admire Cremer's backstory and the history of these characters. It felt rich and like there is so much more for us to discover. It really reflects Cremer's long-time interest in witchcraft and warfare, that led to her Ph.D in early modern history (per the bio on the back cover). Additionally her writing draws me in and pulls me along, as I sped through this book. I was a little bit intimidated by its heft but I sped through it due to the easy writing style and good plotting.

A few last quibbles, starting with the way that time passed. It seemed like everything happened over just a few days, way too fast to be able to process everything. I also think the ending could be quite polarizing; it wasn't to my taste as I would have preferred the opposite fate for Calla (hopefully this makes sense to those of you who've read the book and no I don't mean which boy). I think I'm at peace with the decision but I don't think I would have ended the book like that. It certainly left me with lots to ponder.

Wolfsbane

Wolfsbane by Andrea Cremer
Philomel, 2011
390 pages
YA; Paranormal
3.5/5 stars

Source: Bought

This was a very frustrating experience for me because most of the YA books I've read that feature love triangles are pretty obviously bent to one side (now, I do tend to avoid love triangle stories so my experience is not necessarily representative of the current trends in YA lit). But this book, while leaning one way, has not obviously knocked out the other player.

On the one hand, Shay seems to be the obvious victor. He's now a wolf with a mysterious destiny, has a much higher page count than Ren, makes Calla a little bit jealous, and basically seals the deal by the end of the book. (He's also my personal pick as Ren did some low things to Calla in the first book. Although I'm also on a kill the main character kick, which seems unlikely in this first-person narrated book but if Calla were to die to save her pack, leaving Shay and Ren to mourn, I'd be down with that.)  And yet Ren still remains a presence, confusing Calla's mind and heart.  While I say that I love unpredictability, that element in the triangle is annoying me. I just want Calla to make a decision and remain with it instead of constantly twisting herself. She's supposed to be the alpha, the confident leader and yet when this trips her up, I lose respect for her.

That's the main reason for the low rating. Another is that the characters aren't really exciting to me. Nightshade ended by introducing a bunch of new characters, who are more fleshed out in this book, but none of them grabbed me. We also get to see some more of Calla's pack and the hated villains of the first book but most of the book is spent on the newbies.

The other reason is that I didn't feel very drawn to finish this book. I started it, abandoned it about halfway through, and then came back to it because I knew I wanted to post this review. Thus I did not find it quite as compelling as Nightshade.

However I do think Andrea Cremer shines when giving us backstory and world-building because I gobbled those bits up. I suppose it might have something to do with her being a history professor but the wolf mythology and the way that history has been disseminated among the various rival groups within the Nightshade trilogy has me hooked. I will probably read the third book just to see the unraveling of the past lies and for more of the well-written action scenes.

Overall: Love the wolf parts; not really enjoying the romance.

Nightshade

Nightshade by Andrea Cremer
Atom Books, 2010
452 pages
YA; Paranormal
3.5/5 stars

Source: Won a signed copy through Princess Bookie's Contest Craze (interestingly, this is a British edition.)

I mostly picked this up to read because I had won it and because I went to a launch party for the sequel Wolfsbane. I had avoided it before because of the werewolf element, which is not one of my favorite plot points.  But I was surprised by how much I did end up enjoying that!

Calla Tor is the alpha daughter within the Nightshade pack. She is due to marry Ren, the alpha of the Bane pack and form a third pack as a line of defense against Searcher enemies.  This match has been dictated by the Keepers, the human masters who provide everything for the wolves.  Everything about this mythology, what Calla thinks she knows and what she learns over the course of the book was really interesting even if some of it was a bit predictable (ie there were several bits of information that were revelations to Calla but which I had already told her; darn fictional characters, not listening to me!)  But I loved learning about how a pack interacts, how they shift from human to wolf and back fluidly, and the other rituals that comprise their lives. I have so many questions that will hopefully be answered in the next book!

I was somewhat icked out by the romance. Calla is supposed to marry Ren on their 18th birthdays (they were both born on Halloween although tradition mandates that it is called Samhain). He has whored around with seemingly half of the girls in their school while she has to remain pure until their union; I hate when the guy is afforded unlimited sexual freedom and takes advantage of that while the girl is not allowed at all and is forced by other females to dress attractively in order to please him. Additionally I'm grossed out by the fact that high school seniors are being forced to marry no matter what their will.  Ren himself is not to my taste, as a dominating alpha male who pushes against Calla's boundaries and bosses her around (alpha male is in charge of all including and especially the alpha female).  She is frequently referred to as being "his" and "his property."

There is a second romantic option though being Shay. The new human in town whose life is saved by Calla in her wolf form and who really pushes against the boundaries of Calla's knowledge about her shifter role. I liked Shay a bit more possibly because he would never even look at another girl and because we get to spend more time with him.  I don't like him because I'm not entirely sure why Calla does and he is almost as territorial as Ren.  The back cover also references Shay, asking "Is one boy worth losing everything?" My answer is no but this is a strong thread running through the book as is the related question "what is love?" which is partly answered as risking everything to save the other person.  Regardless, there are a lot of scenes with sexual tension between Calla and each boy that worked for me despite my qualms about the romance and the fact that I don't really have a preference.

Additionally within the packs, there are already pairings that seem to be permanent, which is just weird to me. Do some people meet the person they will marry in high school? Yes. Do most? I doubt it. I guess it makes sense because they're all paired up within the shifter community and it would probably be hard to mate outside of the pack with a normal human but it still skeeved me out.

One last note is about the ending, which brought in a ton of new characters and confused me with those additions. I don't think it's super important to know all of those people but I don't think it's the best ending to leave the reader confused by the influx of new characters. However I feel confident that the second book will pick up here and fill me in.

Overall: Juicy paranormal background but some ickiness in the romance.

Book Signing-Kiersten White, Andrea Cremer, and Stephanie Perkins

I arrived at about 5:15 and was excited to see the poster advertising the event as well as quite a few people who had arrived before me.

I checked out where the event would be and there was a table set up for each of the authors as well as the boy they were promoting. According to a volunteer, they were doing a podcast in the back.

The table with the books

This didn't come out as well as I had hoped but if you can see, they renamed some of the items in the Barnes and Noble cafe to celebrate the release of the books.

Then the authors came out (quite promptly I believe although I didn't check my watch so I can't be certain).

This is Kiersten standing on a chair in order to be heard better, describing how the event would go. First each author read a short excerpt, then there were five questions, a quick chocolate giveaway and then the signing.

Reading from Supernaturally; I haven't started yet but it was somewhere in the middle with the introduction of a unicorn.

Andrea reading from Wolfsbane; I was a bit lost because I haven't read Nightshade yet (reviews for both of those books will be posted in August-I have the whole month planned out already!)

And Stephanie reading from Anna and the French Kiss; also clarification on the pronunciation of Etienne.

Overall, it was a very fun event and I'm so happy I got to attend and meet all three authors! Be sure to check back later for the winners of my giveaway.