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.
My Review
I bought this book solely because I’ve been obsessed with Twilight lately, and this cover is 100% Twilight. Right? Right. While Crave does have similar vibes to Twilight, it’s not quite the same. Which is good, because no one likes to read the same book written by different authors, but I was looking forward to that type of narrative, so I have mixed feelings.
Let’s start with the characters. Grace is very naïve, and it feels like she didn’t ask important questions about the different supernatural species and what their species means for her current situation. Jax, our vampire love interest, has an intriguing history given his princely position. This element was actually super interesting, and it wasn’t explored very much except in snippets of backstory. I hope we get more in the sequels. Jax is definitely similar to Edward Cullen. He’s got the angst thing down.
Something I very much didn’t like about this book were the pop culture references both of the characters make. They took me so out of the story, especially the Twilight one. Why was that necessary? Don’t break the fifth wall if you’re a paranormal romance writer. It’s weird. Also, Jax and Grace have cheesy dialogue and text messaging scenes that are supposed to come across as romantic but really just sound pathetic. I wasn’t impressed by them.
Now, for what I did like. I liked the dichotomy of watching everyone in the school react to Jax and Grace’s relationship, more than I actually liked Jax and Grace’s relationship, unfortunately. Their romance is very shallow, but the side characters and how they feel about Jax and Grace truly make the book. Oh, and the chapter titles were super fun! I loved them. That’s how you can safely break the fifth wall without it being disruptive to the story.
One thing I do have to mention is that there seemed to be an editing error towards the end that really had me scratching my head, as it throws the story out of whack. This is kind of spoilery, but not really. So Grace says she’s Jax’s “mate” in her head before anyone else even mentions the term. This really bothered me. Also, the bad guy is predictable. Even the motivation behind the plan was predictable. The dynamic between some of the bad guys was cool, though. I wish that had been explored more.
I know I’m bashing this book a lot, but it did manage to entertain me, and it was super easy to read, despite being almost 600 pages. I like paranormal romance and supernatural creatures. I had just hoped for more character and plot development, and I think this could have been amazing if some things were changed versus how average it sits as is.
All in all, Crave is a fun YA paranormal book. I would
have liked it more if I’d read it in the early Twilight years, but it’s
still entertaining, and I might pick up the sequel. However, I’m tired of
werewolves being the bad guys or the weak ones compared to the vampires. It’s
annoying. Werewolves are sooo much cooler.
*Note: I purchased a copy of this book myself. This in no way affected my opinion/review.
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