Nightshade (Nightshade, #1; Nightshade World, #4) in Once Upon a Twilight blog

Apr 17, 2010 Katieb (MundieMoms) rated it it was amazing

Shelves: mundie-moms-review, books-i-own, arcs-i-own, 2010-100-book-challenge, debut-author-challenge, signed

Nightshade is an amazing, spelling binding story that had me glued to the pages until I finished it. From page one, Andrea had me completely captivated not only with her characters and her amazing world building, but with her writing style. I was I felt like I barely had time to put my seat belt on, before I was whisked away in this thrilling read.

18 year old Calla Tor is a warrior and alpha of the Nightshade pack. She's a resilient, strong female leader who is torn between tradition and her hea Nightshade is an amazing, spelling binding story that had me glued to the pages until I finished it. From page one, Andrea had me completely captivated not only with her characters and her amazing world building, but with her writing style. I was I felt like I barely had time to put my seat belt on, before I was whisked away in this thrilling read.

18 year old Calla Tor is a warrior and alpha of the Nightshade pack. She's a resilient, strong female leader who is torn between tradition and her heart. Her tradition is Ren, the hot alpha male of the Bane pack, to whom Calla will be marrying after they graduate from their Mountain School. While she loves Ren, her heart is falling for Shay, an outsider who makes Calla question everything she's been raised to believe. She's never questioned her pack's traditions until now. Calla has a choice to make, follow what she's been raised to do and believe, or follow what she feels is right.

Nightshade has a wonderful cast of many different characters, all of whom I felt connected to in some way. They're real, bold and I felt like I was there in on their secret (which no humans are allowed know about) as I was able to learn more about their packs. I never once felt lost in who each of them are and what their roles are in Nightshade. The Pack life was brilliantly written and more than I had hoped it would be. Being a wolf girl, I absolutely love Andrea's unique wolf mythology, as Nightshade is not your stereotypical werewolf book. I really enjoyed getting to know the characters in both human and wolf form. Calla and Ren have two strong packs and while their pack members may not always get a long, their pack is making adjustments now for what it will be like when they're united as one pack.

Andrea has written two different, yet equally commanding characters with Ren and Shay. I'm left feeling just as torn as Calla is. I understand Calla's fight against Ren and her pull towards Shay. Ren is a leader, a fighter and seen as a player, though I think there's a lot more to Ren than what we see through Calla's eyes. Don't get me wrong, Ren and Calla's sexual tension leave the pages smoldering. Ren has a way at jumping off the pages at you and Shay has a way of making you fall for his quiet confidence and bold bravery in a world he's just starting to learn about. He challenges Calla and makes her think for herself. I don't envy Calla and the choice she has to make.

Andrea leaves no shortage of romance or action. It's perfectly blended, and mixed in with an amazing wolf pack dynamic that I've never read in any other book before. Nightshade's vivid setting completely mesmerized me and left me wishing I could spend the day running patrols through the woods that cover the mountain side that both Nightshade and Bane packs guard.

Full of all the right paranormal elements, including other mythical creatures/characters, Nightshade left me breathless, wanting more and thinking about it long after I had finished reading it. I am really looking forward to reading it's sequel, Wolfsbane, when it's released next year. ...more

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Jul 12, 2010 Heather rated it it was amazing

Enter to win an author signed ARC here http://fireandicephoto.blogspot.com/2... ends 12/15/10

I just finished this book last night and have been procrastinating picking up another book because I want it to linger in my mind. Nightshade easily slides into my best summer reads list with five stars. It is an amazingly sexy and captivating story that I burned through and savored. First of all the cover is a huge hit for me. The glitter, the cala lilies the purple...love! Second, the plot is one you'l ...more

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Aug 01, 2010 Ashley rated it it was amazing

Shelves: ebook-shelf

Nightshade
Author: Andrea Cremer
Publication Date: October 19th 2010
Publisher: Philomel
ISBN: 9780399254826
464 pages
Source: Received from Holly's ARC tours.

borrowed from amazon: 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 be ...more

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Sep 22, 2010 Mary Lindsey rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Andrea Cremer has woven a dark, intelligent story that kept me reading all night. Woven into this sensual shapeshifting romance are much deeper societal themes that will appeal to mature readers as well as teens.

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Mar 24, 2010 Megan (magan bagan) rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fantasy

Absolutely fabulous!

I fell in love with this book from the very beginning and it's not difficult to figure out why. Not only is the cover art for this debut novel breathtaking, but the story itself is intriguing and wonderfully researched.

Calla Tor is an alpha for the Nightshade pack, Guardians, she leads her young pack and is the perfect warrior for the Keepers they are sworn to fight for. Everything is planned and provided for them, including who they'll mate with, and when Calla unthinkingly ...more

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Mar 30, 2010 Cynthia Lopez rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorite-books

When I read that Nightshade was about werewolves I immediately added it to my list, I was eager and excited about getting the chance to read it and get my next fix on another great werewolf story. What I was not expecting was to be blown away by Andrea Cremer's unique take on werewolf mythology, not only do we get werewolves but there are other types of magical and mythical creatures that I wasn't expecting.

Nightshade to me was pretty incredible, from the very first page you get swept away into When I read that Nightshade was about werewolves I immediately added it to my list, I was eager and excited about getting the chance to read it and get my next fix on another great werewolf story. What I was not expecting was to be blown away by Andrea Cremer's unique take on werewolf mythology, not only do we get werewolves but there are other types of magical and mythical creatures that I wasn't expecting.

Nightshade to me was pretty incredible, from the very first page you get swept away into this fast paced world of werewolves and magic that Andrea Cremer has created. The werewolves have their packs and their leaders, Calla and Ren are the ones that will be the future leaders and have been arranged to be married to form a new pack together. In Nightshade the werewolves only purpose is to be the protectors of the keepers and their secret sites, they are not allowed to let any human know what they are or date and marry whoever they want. To me it seemed more like slavery the way they are treated by the keepers, yes they give them money, houses, and cars but they are not allowed to make their own decisions about the big things, everything has to be approved by the keepers and if not there are consequences and possibly death. At times I wished that they would just go wolf on these bully warlocks and rip their throats out or something.

Calla and her friends seem to accept their fate even though Calla can't stand Ren and his womanizing ways, she's willing to marry him for the future of the pack and because she pretty much has no other choice until Shay comes into her life and stirs up trouble. We get a really complicated love triangle in this one, we have the hot bad boy Ren that causes a lot of sexual tension between him and Calla and can get the reader's thoughts all muddled and make you feel like your melting. Then there's the sweet and brave Shay that is also very hot and not willing to take no for an answer even when he knows he can get killed. I personally had a hard time picking between the two so you can definitely understand Calla's frustration, does she follow her heart and gut feelings or should she obey the rules and tradition? There's plenty of difficult choices to be made in this story and most of them fall on poor Calla.

We get a lot of characters in this one but they are very well written that you feel a connection to each one and feel like you're right there, a part of their little group seeing the story unravel right in front of you. The story is woven perfectly that you don't feel like you're missing something or confused while you're reading even though there are a lot of things happening at once and we have many characters, it's not hard to keep up. The ending is definitely one that I did not see coming and when I got to it I kept flipping the pages back and forth to see if some more words would appear by magic but of course it didn't and it just left me desperate and yearning for the next one. Nightshade is one of my favorite books of the year, I loved it's unpredictability and twists that keep you on your toes while reading and its brave and tough heroine, I definitely recommend it and can't wait to finally own it and read it again! ...more

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Apr 20, 2010 Damaris (GoodChoiceReading) rated it it was amazing

Imagine growing up always following the rules and thinking that you know everything about your life and your family, only for it to all fall apart one day, and all because you met a boy.

That is exactly what happens to Calla. All her life she has known how her life was going to turn out and knew what to expect. She knew the rules of her kind and what was expected from her. Calla also understood that she does not get to pick who she loves or gets to marry and she is okay with this. That is until s ...more

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Jul 27, 2010 Crystal rated it it was amazing

I wasn't sure about this book when I got it (I'm not even sure how I received it, but I was thrilled when I did). Then I started reading it. Wow - the story completely sucked me in. I love love triangles and they abound in young adult fiction lately, but this one seems a little different to me. The whole book takes ordinary subjects written about in YA fiction currently and gives them all a completely different spin.

Calla is a great character. She knows exactly what will happen with her life, it ...more

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Aug 22, 2010 Mummy Cat Claire rated it it was ok

Shelves: series, ya-novels, read-in-2013, audio-book

When this book came out it was super popular. The cover is very pretty and it did the job drawing readers in.
I had started this book several years ago and just wasn't able to get into it. I finally made it back to this book.
I found the book on CD at my local library, I thought this would be easier to read the book. I was right, because I never would have made it through to the end.
I found that the story I imagined wasn't even close. While the book is about wolves and people, going with werewolv When this book came out it was super popular. The cover is very pretty and it did the job drawing readers in.
I had started this book several years ago and just wasn't able to get into it. I finally made it back to this book.
I found the book on CD at my local library, I thought this would be easier to read the book. I was right, because I never would have made it through to the end.
I found that the story I imagined wasn't even close. While the book is about wolves and people, going with werewolves was super popular, Cremer added in many different elements to the book.
I found the book to be creative but nothing really new was introduced. Cremer used almost every supernatural being ever created. What was a little new was the world she introduced to the reader. I found Calla's world to be pretty interesting. Cremer did a pretty good job at developing and explaining this world. It started to become clear that things were oppressive rather than based on necessary protection, as they were taught. This concept of oppression was interesting to me. Shay had quoted some philosophy theory that I liked but can't remember what it was.
I liked Calla but she was quite serious. Not a fun, loving person but almost stern. Shay and Ren had a wild streak but revealed it differently. By the end of the book, I liked Ren. I felt he was handed a bad deal in life. Maybe in book two the reader will get to know more about his character. In this book, he was painted more of a player than anything, until the end.
Shay was fun, serious, and thoughtful. I think he was a good match to Calla. The other characters were ok. They were less mentioned in the book. As the series goes on, I can only assume their characters will be better developed. This book really didn't talk about them.
The things I didn't like about this book were the topic of homosexuality. I just felt it was an unnecessary add in. It had no bearing to the plot. Cremer rambles too, but not in a good way. I found that even when the characters are conversing...I didn't care. It was so boring. I pushed the skim button on the cd player several times. *gasp*. Seems a sin but I just couldn't take the crap. Ugh!
Also, I found the ending to be quite anti climatic. I'm not sure if Cremer added in too many clues or failed to add a twist or something but from the middle of the book I had guessed the ending. But even with the guess, it was not very exciting. Not how I pictured the book ending. I found, I liked my imagined ending much better.
Overall, I chose 2 stars for this book because I thought some of the situations were not appropriate for teens. I felt that, while, they were just suggested, I certainly understood it. The sexuality in the book wasn't something I would want my teen reading. Add in the slow times and it's just not something I really enjoyed.
Maybe one day I'll make it to the second book. But, right now, I have no plans to read it. ...more

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Aug 11, 2010 Brandi rated it really liked it

Shelves: paranormal, young-adult

Conflicted about the events & outcome of this book...Many times I was irked by what happened in the love triangle & I found myself upset with Calla. I don't want to give anything away, but I really found myself leaning towards one guy in particular...who someone might call the "wrong" guy. At times I felt like I knew what was going to happen but was hoping against hope that it wouldn't- which of course it usually did.

Even though Calla & one of the guys' behavior bothered me, I did give this book ...more

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