Guest Review: Nightshade by Andrea Cremer

Posted July 26, 2011 by Tracy in Reviews | 2 Comments

Genres: Paranormal Romance

Tracy’s review of Nightshade (Nightshade #1) by Andrea Cremer

Calla is the alpha female of a shape-shifting wolf pack. She is destined to marry Ren Laroche, the pack’s alpha male. Together, they would rule their pack together, guarding sacred sites for the Keepers. But then, Calla saves a beautiful human boy, who captures her heart. Calla begins to question everything – her fate, her existence, and her world and the orders the Keepers have asked her to follow. She will have to make a choice. But will she follow her heart if it means losing everything, including her own life?

Calla is not your typical teenager. She’s what is called a guardian (more or less a werewolf) and an alpha. On Samhaim, which is not all that far off, she will get married to another alpha from a rival pack and they will create their own pack. While Ren seems to get her blood going she’s not all that sure she likes him. She’s knows that this is what she needs to do because she’s known it all her life and she will fulfill her duties to the best of her abilities.

On patrol one day Calla saves a hiker from a grizzly bear attack. Not only does she save his life but she shifts right in front of him to do it. She’s now broken pack laws but she knows that the boy, Shay, won’t tell anyone about it. When Shay turns up as the new kid in her high school she’s excited yet confused. As they two get to know each other Calla gets to know Shay even more, and really likes him. But she knows she can’t act on her growing feelings for Shay because of the upcoming union with Ren.

Shay’s parents died a long time ago and he’s been raised, more or less, by his uncle. When Calla meets his uncle she knows immediately that he’s a Keeper – the masters of the guardians. But if the uncle is a Keeper that means that there’s no way that Shay can be his nephew as Shay has no magic. When left on his own in his uncles big house Shay comes across a book that’s written in Latin. Thinking that it’s been written in some way by one of his favorite philosophers Shay shows it to Calla. Calla is forbidden to read this book but Shay is mighty persuasive and gets her to agree to help him translate the book. What they discover is quite shocking. Not only do the Guardians have a different history than what Calla’s been told but they discover some information about Shay that’s confusing and disturbing.

Shay and Calla aren’t sure what to make of the whole situation but they know that there’s way more to the Keepers, the Guardians and their enemies, the Searchers than what’s at face value. When Shay’s life is on the line, what will Calla do to save him once again, if anything?

I hadn’t heard anything about this book when it was sent for review but since I love shape-shifting stories I thought I’d give it a whirl. I’m so very glad I did! I loved the world that Cremer built for us and the main characters were engaging yet mysterious.

I definitely admired Calla for her sense of duty to her pack. Did she want to marry Ren, nope, not at all, but she knew that it was something that she had to do and was willing to go along with it. It was really too bad that her and her family, as well as the other Guardians, had been sadly misinformed about what exactly their role in life was. I think Calla made some hard decisions during the book but as any 17/18 year old would, tended to doubt those decisions after they were made. I think I liked her all the more for her doubts as it made her that much more human and realistic to me.

Shay was wonderful. He was probably a little more accepting of the craziness of the supernatural world but he did have his share of nay-saying throughout the book. Despite his feelings for Calla he made the effort to work with her and not trounce Ren whenever he wanted to. Lol

Ren was an different character that I didn’t quite get a handle on during the course of the book. He seemed to care for Calla – and was looking forward to their union – but I couldn’t quite see why he looked forward to it so much. On the outside he showed us a confident, arrogant teen alpha who knew his place in the pack – at the top. But then he would show us bouts of vulnerability and his actions at the end of the book, I must admit, were quite surprising to me. Hopefully in the next book I’ll get to know him better and I’ll be able to pin him down in my head a bit more.

There were many other characters in the story – Ren’s pack and Calla’s pack – that were in the story but they were really more peripherals in the book and we didn’t get to know them at all that well.

I must say that I would have loved to have seen a bit of Calla’s life before this story started. She went from wearing torn jeans and t-shirts to skirts and cashmere sweaters – because her mother demanded it – but we were only told this information rather than seeing it for ourselves. Calla seemed to have a lot of friends in her pack that seemed close but once Shay came on the scene those friendships were pushed aside. I always hate reading about that – even though I know it happens in real life as well. I can only hope that those friendships will be rekindled in future books.

Overall I really liked the book a lot and highly recommend it.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

You can read more from Tracy at Tracy’s Place

This book is available from Speak Publishing. You can buy it here or here in e-format.


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2 responses to “Guest Review: Nightshade by Andrea Cremer

  1. Great review, Tracy!

    I listened to this audiobook when it came out, but honestly forgot a lot of the details, so I appreciated the refresher of your review. I’m looking forward to reading book 2, but think I might have to listen to the first one again. I thought the backstory of the Guardians, Keepers, etc., was really original and interesting.

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