Genre: YA Paranormal Romance - Publisher: Harlequin Teen - Publication Date: October 25, 2011 - Format: eARC - Pages: 416 - Source: NetGalley
Savannah Colbert has never known why she's so hated by the kids of the Clann. Nor can she deny her instinct to get close to Clann golden boy Tristan Coleman. Especially when she recovers from a strange illness and the attraction becomes nearly irresistible. It's as if he's a magnet, pulling her gaze, her thoughts, even her dreams. Her family has warned her to have nothing to do with him, or any members of the Clann. But when Tristan is suddenly everywhere she goes, Savannah fears she's destined to fail. For years, Tristan has been forbidden to even speak to Savannah Colbert. Then Savannah disappears from school for a week and comes back…different, and suddenly he can't stay away. Boys seem intoxicated just from looking at her. His own family becomes stricter than ever. And Tristan has to fight his own urge to protect her, to be near her no matter the consequences….(Goodreads.com)
I should love this book. It has everything I look for in a book: Awesome paranormalness, enticing writing, and a lucious romance. But for some reason, I didn't love it. I didn't hate it, but I didn't love it, either.
The writing was gorgeous. Darnell knows how to paint a beautiful picture inside of a person's mind. She is also very skilled at creating emotions that make you smile and tear you to peices again and again and again. I wasn't really a big fan of the alternating perspectives between Savannah and Tristan. But then again, I've always felt like switching points of view is a very challenging thing to pull off. Still, I felt very connected to both of the narrators and they each had a very strong, compelling voice.
I'm not sure about the plot, though. The novel was very slow. Lots of romance, little plot. I kept having to take breaks from reading this. I felt that there were a lot of unnecessary scenes and that the length of this book could have been cut in half. I also found that some of the events were corny and unbelievable, and in the beginning the romance was highly artificial. There were no plot twists and I found the story to be quite predictable. Once the plot did pick up towards the end, though, I thought it was pretty neat and it left a lot of great possibilities for the sequel.
The characters are well-written, just not exactly memorable. I liked them, but I didn't love them. Savannah had a ton of great attributes. She was strong and caring and determined, but she was also whiny, and made foolish decisions and a little selfish. Tristan sees her as completely selfless, but I have to disagree. She even says something along the lines of, "If I loved him a little less then I could tell him the truth. But I love him too much for him to think of me differently." WTF IS THAT? Tristan I actually liked a lot...sometimes. He had anger issues and issues controlling himself, which makes him extremely relatable. However, I feel like towards the middle of the novel he does a complete turnaround. Sure, he still got mad easily, but it was like he completely changed and I didn't really like it. He became sweet and loving and responsible, and even though he was holding in a huge secret (kind of), he was still pretty darn near perfect, which in literature is pretty annoying.
Crave was a decent read. If you're looking for something that is mostly romance, I recommend this. The ending was left wide open - like WIDE FREAKING OPEN - and it would be impossible for me to not pick up the sequel.
- Secondary characters. I'm sorry, but they were my favorite. They made me laugh so hard. Like Emily and Anne and Nanna. They were all really great with distinct personalities.
- The backstory. I loved the history with the Clann and the witches. I loved the story behind Savannah's parents' relationship. I was more interested in that stuff than the main story.
If you liked...
The Twilight Saga by Stephenie Meyer
The Paranormalcy series by Kiersten White
The Fallen series by Lauren Kate
then you will LOVE Crave!
Great! thanks for the share!
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