This may appear to be Twilight 2.0, but Crave is uniquely its own! And I enjoyed every single bit of it!
Rating: 5/5
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.
This was such a fun read! I loved basically everything about it. That being said it was definitely cheesy, but I’m all for it! I’m such a sucker for these paranormal romances. This was a great one to add to the must-read list! I can’t wait to start the sequel, I’m dying to know what happens next.
This was a great one to add to the must-read list! I can’t wait to start the sequel, I’m dying to know what happens next.
The premise seems to be what we usually see in these paranormal romances. New girl meets bad boy who dismisses her from the start and is an extreme jerk. Yet she can’t help but be attracted to this bad boy. They constantly meet and he shows conflicting emotions. Boom! They kiss. Oh no! Conflict! Everything works out. Then, bad boy says “We can’t be together, I’m a danger to you.” New girl responds, “No, I refuse to believe that. I love you!” Book ends.
Okay! Obviously, there’s a little more to it than that. But if you’ve read a handful of paranormal romances, I think you’ll agree about that summary. That basically sums up all of these books, they tend to follow this general storyline.
The actual premise follows Grace who lost her parents and is moving to Alaska to live with her uncle and cousin. Her uncle is the principal of a boarding school located way up in the mountains. Immediately on arrival, Grace meets bad boy, Jaxon who tells her she’s not safe and should leave. Grace can’t help but feel an instant attraction to Jaxon despite all the warnings, even from Jaxon himself to stay away from him. However, shortly after Grace is constantly finding herself in danger and being saved by Jaxon. Grace starts wondering how true Jaxon’s first warning really was.
Going into this, I knew there were vampires. But with the way the school is described, the decor, and the way the students are grouped. It was clear there were more than just vampires at this boarding school. I honestly really enjoyed this aspect, I loved that there were more than one or two types of supernatural beings in this book. We often don’t see that.
It was clear there were more than just vampires at this boarding school. I honestly really enjoyed this aspect, I loved that there were more than one or two types of supernatural beings...
Speaking of which, I was honestly surprised by how late in the story this all comes out. It’s not until well into the book that we’re finally told straight out what’s going on at the school. I mean it was very entertaining because we as readers knew exactly what was going on, but Grace was left completely in the dark. I especially loved all the references we see sprinkled throughout the book, including a Twilight reference. I was cracking up so hard when I read the twilight reference. Besides the references to what was going on at the school, this book is filled with all sorts of pop-culture references that were so much fun to read. Especially the chapter titles, I don’t remember the last book I read that had actually chapter titles.
Speaking of Twilight, immediately after starting Crave, I felt like this was just a remake of Twilight. Everything felt so similar at the beginning with how Grace met Jaxon and Jaxon’s cold shoulder. However, I was pleased that as soon as that thought came, I was proved wrong! This may appear to be Twilight 2.0, but Crave is uniquely its own! And I enjoyed every single bit of it.
Immediately after starting Crave, I felt like this was just a remake of Twilight... This may appear to be Twilight 2.0, but Crave is uniquely its own! And I enjoyed every single bit of it.
Crave is definitely a chonker, being over 500 pages long, it’s actually pushing 600 pages. But even with that longer length, I felt like I cruising right through this. It was so easy to read, and usually, these types of books are that way. I read the first book of the Lux series, Obsidian in just one day and that one was almost 400 pages long. It’s why I enjoy reading them so much. They’re so easy to read and very entertaining. Paranormal romances are unquestionably a guilty pleasure read for me.
Now the ending was not at all what I expected. After all the events throughout the book, I had not expected the book to end the way it did. It raised so many more questions. I’m honestly very confused by this ending. I need to pick up the sequel like yesterday!
As characters go, I really loved everyone we met mostly. Grace was a great main character to follow, I loved hearing her inner thoughts and seeing her strong personality. The only thing I didn’t love was her name, to me, it felt way too generic. Plus Grace is the name of our main character in The Wolves of Mercy Falls series by Maggie Steifvater, so it seemed even more like, “why did you pick that name?” Okay, rant over. Besides Grace, I loved Macy, her cousin, who was so funny and energetic. Now Jaxon, Mr. Bad Boy. Oh, man. He was something else. I loved him in the end, I loved getting to know him and seeing how much he cared for Grace even when he didn’t act like it.
Overall, this was a great read. I loved every bit of it and can’t wait to be starting the sequel. Which I’ll be planning on picking up in April! If you have a love for fantasy and paranormal romances like I do, then I highly recommend trying this one out. Especially if you loved Twilight or vampires in general!