Review: Crave by Tracy Wolff

Hey all, Dani here.

It’s Saturday and I’m still posting! Actually by the time this post goes up, I will have gone on a trip to the zoo with Damian and a geeky friend couple we like hanging out with…and then I’m pretty sure the plan was to go to Barnes & Noble because I had the realization that I had only purchased one (physical) book in the entire month of July, which is a travesty that must be corrected. Haha.

Anyway, another day and another review. I am going to hopefully have a whole bunch of reviews up over the next month or so. Because I have books that I read last year that I still would like to review. Plus I really need to get some of these backlist NetGalley reviews up as well. Anyway, today is not a NetGalley read, but it is one that I was convinced to pick up after hearing quite a few people talking about it on the Bookternet.

I was actually hesitant about trying it because the cover so obviously gives off Twilight rip-off vibes. So, if you feel that way too…perhaps what I have to say about this read will convince you to give it a try.

Instant New York Times Bestselling Series
An Amazon “Best YA Book of 2020”
Glitter Magazine’s #1 Pick for “Best YA of 2020″
Optioned for Film by Universal

My whole world changed when I stepped inside the academy. Nothing is right about this place or the other students in it. Here I am, a mere mortal among gods…or monsters. I still can’t decide which of these warring factions I belong to, if I belong at all. I only know the one thing that unites them is their hatred of me.

Then there’s Jaxon Vega. A vampire with deadly secrets who hasn’t felt anything for a hundred years. But there’s something about him that calls to me, something broken in him that somehow fits with what’s broken in me.
Which could spell death for us all.

Because Jaxon walled himself off for a reason. And now someone wants to wake a sleeping monster, and I’m wondering if I was brought here intentionally—as the bait.

***INCLUDES 3 BONUS SCENES FROM THE HERO’S POV***

Reading order suggestion of the Crave series:
Crave
Crush
Covet
Court

Charm, the missing four months of time between Crave and Crush, can be enjoyed anytime after reading Crave.

My Thoughts:

Rating: 4 stars

All right, let’s get this out of the way…yes, this book cover gives off Twilight vibes. So does the summary. Honestly, so does some of the content. However, it also pretty much makes fun of Twilight and other YA romance books like it, so I found that to be pretty amusing and entertaining. Oh, and this book not only has vampires and werewolves, but it also has witches and DRAGONS!

Also, wow, seriously, the books in this series have some length to them. They’re all like 600-ish pages, which is incredible. I mean, okay, at times I feel like some of it could have been pared down a bit, but I actually didn’t mind the length. When I picked it up to read, I read 50-100 pages pretty quickly.

I also found myself needing to stop several times to just chuckle at the absurdity of it sometimes. I don’t think this is a book you want to walk into thinking of it as serious and deep content. It’s a YA paranormal romance that is kind of sort of but not really satire. Like, there is an awareness in the narration of the ridiculousness of an average human girl being pursued by supernatural creatures, like a much-older vampire.

When I finished reading this book, I made sure to pick up books two and three the next time I went to the bookstore, because I know I’m going to keep reading them. These books hit the spot for me in a way some historical romances do…there’s a comfort in the ease of reading them as well as in the somewhat predictable nature of the story. But neither of those reduces the enjoyment factor.

And there is quite a lot that goes on in this book, and while Grace does learn some things, it seems very clear that things are about to get a whole lot more complicated, and the ridiculousness is about to get even more chaotic.

But I do think it’s cool that this is all set at a prestigious boarding school located in the middle of nowhere in Alaska. That seems like a pretty smart place to put a school of supernatural creatures so they can use their special skills and be away from the prying eyes of humans and all of that.

I’m going to have to pick up the second book soon, because I am curious about what will happen next…because there was a couple different unexpected things that popped up at the end of the book…but I’m not going to talk about that here. I try to avoid spoilery discussions whenever I can.

All right, well that is all from me for today, but I will be back soon with more geeky content.