Overall: 🐢🐢🐢🐢
Storyline:
Writing Style:
Character Development:
World-building:
“This girl looks mischievous, like she knows she’s up way past her bedtime, but she just can’t put the story down.”
Crave by Tracy Wolff
The Story:
Life was going pretty great for Grace Foster. She was enjoying life in San Diego with her parents, almost done with senior year, and getting ready for college. That is until her parents car accident. And then suddenly everything Grace knew changed. Only place left for her is with her Uncle Finn and cousin Macy up in Alaska at a secluded boarding school her uncle runs. But minutes there and Grace can already tell she is the odd one out. And it feels like it is more than just being the New Girl in school.
Jaxon Vega can tell tension is building again between everyone at school in anticipation of the Dean’s niece showing up. He could careless who this mortal is as long as she turns right back around and leaves. She will not ruin everything that he has been protecting between the races. That is until he meets her. Instead of pushing her away, he might be the one pulled towards her instead. Problem is he isn’t the only one coming in closer.
Grace finds out quickly that out in the Alaskan wilderness hardest thing isn’t trying to fit in into a new school, but trying to just survive.
The monsters are coming out for school and they might have just found a snack.
Key Elements:
Young Adult, Paranormal, Fiction, Romance, Vampire, Alaska, High School
Others in the Series:
Book 2: Crush
Book 3: Covet
Book 4: Court
Why This Rating?
So this book was a lot of fun to read and it totally hit the Twilight itch I’ve been having since Midnight Sun was released. Tracy Wolff is able to take folk lore about monsters and myths and works their facts into her own story beautifully. It helps create a fantastic fictional story while still keeping the real world intertwined that it seems possible. Makes you wish for the impossible in stories to be real life. (Well minus the life and death moments.) And since Wolff withholds a lot of the information from the reader in the beginning of the story, you are learning right along with Grace making it a full submersion into her world. I had fun trying to guess who was all at this elite boarding school. – If you can figure out what everyone is before you’re told comment below and let me know! – I knew vampires because of the synopsis, so that one wasn’t very hard. Plus the description basically screamed vamp, which was cute and a duhh! moment.
Not going to lie, the jokes in this book were fantastic! However, you have to like the Dad Joke style puns, I feel, to really appreciate the corny side of them. They were so cheesy and bad that they were wonderful. Each time I read one of the jokes, I was cracking up for minutes afterwards. A few of the jokes from the book are definitely going to be ones that I will shamelessly tell others. And I will happily receive the groans and eye rolls along with each telling. Plus it is super super sweet how it becomes a constant ice-breaker move between the two main characters. Something a little quirky but sweet they share privately that makes you just say ‘aww!’. Also, Wolff’s style of writing had me cracking up as well. She used dinosaur references, willing used abbreviations/text lingo and relied on her audience to understand them, and quoted Shakespearean sonnets. She has easily worked her way up to my favorite author’s list and those are just a few of the things she was able to include. And this is only book 1!
I didn’t care for how some of the writing choices during a few scenes. The active choice of moving really fast emotionally between the main characters kind of threw me for a loop in the beginning of the book. After finishing the story, I can see why it worked. However, I’m not sure if the chapters thru Jaxon’s point-of-view were to help explain why those moments happened the way they did or just to patch up the unexplained. Also, it seemed like there was supposed to be more happening between Grace and Jaxon than what really did. Perhaps this is because of how quickly the story progressed in such a short amount of time or that this is set up for the rest of the series. Either way, I felt like I was a teased a bunch with what could be for them. Despite this quick progressions, the character growth you are able to witness is huge. Practically a 180 for few of the characters both in the good and bad ways too. Wolff doesn’t play around with her characters that’s for sure!
On the idea of Jaxon’s point-of-view, that was a really really cool thing for Wolff to do as an author. I love it when in get to glimpse into what others are thinking and experiencing within the story. So, to not only give that aspect of looking through his eyes, but to show us what he was thinking and feeling from the first few chapters as a little slipped in bonus was pretty amazing. My heart melted just a bit more for the guy after I finished them. I am super sorry if you didn’t get an edition with the few bonus chapters after the story. I don’t know if the edition I bought is special in any way and I don’t know if they were included in every form that has been published at this point. But if you get a change to read them, super awesome and I really enjoyed the change of perspective!
I totally recommend this book to you guys! If you are a fan of vampires and other monsters, this is a lot of fun too read and you might be surprised at who Wolff decided to incorporate into the story. It is also has a really cute high school romance going on with a little bit of the damsel in distress motif happening. Don’t worry it is a fair give and take of strength between the genders – if that is something that might put you off – but sometimes a slick knight saving the day is just the kind of thing I need from a great story even if it is in brief blips. I already have the second one and am really looking forward to reading it!
Time to get lost in the next story!
Even though this is not my type of reading, you make me think more openly about the “twilight” themed stuff. I might have to branch out and give it a chance.