Review: Nightshade

Title: Nightshade
Author: Andrea Cremer
Date Released: October 19th, 2010
Pages: 454
Rating: 4 out of 5


Description:
Calla Tor has always known her destiny: After graduating from the Mountain School, she'll be the mate of sexy alpha wolf Ren Laroche and fight with him, side by side, ruling their pack and guarding sacred sites for the Keepers. But when she violates her masters' laws by saving a beautiful human boy out for a hike, Calla begins to question her fate, her existence, and the very essence of the world she has known. By following her heart, she might lose everything— including her own life. Is forbidden love worth the ultimate sacrifice?

Review:
This book was really good!  I pretty much loved it from start to finish!  This book was pretty action packed, full of drama, betrayal and secrets.  And you can never forget the love triangle!  I was pretty much torn between Seamus (aka Shay) and Renier (aka Ren), Calla's love interests, but settled with Ren (I'll explain later).  YAY! GO TEAM REN!

One thing that I absolutely loved about this book was the characters!!! Even though there were quite a few (there are already 10 characters in all when you count the whole pack), they were memorable and not confusing at all!  I have like short-term memory so, I think that if you told me the name of a character I wouldn't give you a blank/confused expression, I think I would know immediately who that person is.  I loved how all the characters were so diverse and all had different interests, and you can clearly see the difference between the Nightshade and Bane pack.  Calla was an awesome protagonist!!  She was strong and very smart, basically what every other girl out there in the world should be like. 

One thing that I didn't really like about Nightshade was that there were some major parts that sort of felt like when that part happened, it was like it was no big deal or it just happened way to fast and it was just sort of thrown upon you.  Maybe that wasn't the case for everyone and it's possible that I could have missed something, but that's how I felt.  But that's the only thing that I didn't like.  The rest was great :D

Another thing that I loved (sorry for switching between things I liked and didn't like): the plot!!!  The plot was pretty much really good, despite what I said above.  It's still really captivating and as I said before, it's full of action, drama, betrayal, sacrifices, and secrets. 

Now on to why I'm Team Ren (you can skip this if you want, may contain spoilers, highlight if you want to read it!): Honestly, it was hard choosing a side!  But I sided with Ren maybe out of pity?  I just felt bad for him because in the beginning he was kind of like the player, but then eventually he started developing feelings for Calla, right?  But then Calla just sort of left him... Oh, he also sounds really hot :D I feel really weird for saying that... but yeah!  He totally does.  Who agrees with me?

Basically, to sum it all up (if you don't really want to read the whole thing),  AWESOME book!  Everything was great from the character to the plot!  It was just that one little thing that I didn't like so much about it.  But other than that, I loved it!  I cannot wait for Wolfsbane coming out next year (July 26) ... and Bloodrose coming out in 2012.  Oh dear, that sounds like a really long time.  GO REN!

Cover Review:
If I had to use one word for this cover, I think I'd go with: gorgeous.  Isn't it so pretty?  From the lilies (or are they nightshades? :/ ) to the model and to the title, it just totally explains the book!  AND IT'S PURPLE!  I'm sorry but I'm a purple fanatic!!

I also wanted to know, Are my reviews too lengthy?  I noticed that this one sort of is and I just wanted to know so I can improve and maybe next time cut down on all of my explanations and stuff... Or do you guys think that it's fine?

Cleo :)

*Description from Goodreads.com
**Review copy purchased.