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

Nov 20, 2010 Samantha Young rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: books-i-own, favourite-authors, favourites, covers-i-love

Calla is a Guardian, a werewolf, and protector of the Keepers, powerful witches and warlocks. All Calla has ever known is life in a pack, with a witch as her pack’s mistress. As an Alpha female, Calla is to be mated to Renier, the young Alpha male of their neighbouring rival pack to form a third pack to protect the mysterious Haldis Cavern in their territory. Having pretty much accepted her lot in life, Calla is thrown into utter turmoil at the arrival of Shay, a human boy whose life she saves. Calla is a Guardian, a werewolf, and protector of the Keepers, powerful witches and warlocks. All Calla has ever known is life in a pack, with a witch as her pack’s mistress. As an Alpha female, Calla is to be mated to Renier, the young Alpha male of their neighbouring rival pack to form a third pack to protect the mysterious Haldis Cavern in their territory. Having pretty much accepted her lot in life, Calla is thrown into utter turmoil at the arrival of Shay, a human boy whose life she saves. Suddenly Shay has Calla questioning her entire existence and the often harsh, sometimes sadistic rule of the Keepers.

Oh wow, where to start? I’m completely in love with this book and cannot believe it sat on my bookshelf unread for so long. I was drawn to Nightshade because of the beautiful cover, title and great reviews. It did not disappoint. Calla is a fantastic heroine, her voice is so real and true and so wonderfully animalistic. The dynamic between the pack kids is brilliantly written. There is a particular scene in the beginning of the book that sums up the amazing imagery Cremer somehow managed to maintain throughout the entire novel. Calla is standing at her locker when Ren appears in the school corridor, his pack striding at his back. As he nears Calla, her own pack appear out of nowhere to guard her back. It was awesome and territorial and fraught with challenge. Just a brilliant example of Cremer’s depiction of the Alphas and their packs.
Plot-wise. Wow. I felt like I had dived into a universe where Underworld meets The Vampire Diaries. This is a pretty big book, but Andrea Cremer’s modern prose is so addictive and the plot so action-packed, intricate and intelligent that I got through it fairly quickly. The supernatural elements were surprisingly refreshing; the succubi, incubi and wraiths (not to mention a terrifying arachnid) were drawn in a way I’ve never come across before, and one of the final action sequences in the novel is so imaginative, I could see it really translating to the screen well – utterly cool.
The characters of Nightshade are vivid, three dimensional, the pack are truly like wolves – Cremer never once forgets to remind the reader of that fact, having them react to certain situations with their wolfy side dominant. Most importantly, I didn’t find the love triangle tedious, which is an extremely difficult feat. In fact I quite enjoyed the triangle, feeling myself pulled between Ren and Shay as much as Calla – I am a sucker for the big bad wolfe though, think I’m leaning more towards Ren.

Nightshade doesn’t shy away from darker more adult subject matter, so I’d say this is definitely for older teens (although there isn’t any graphic language). It made me laugh, gasp, hold my breath and just revel in its brilliance. When it ended I literally cried out in horror. I need the next novel, Wolfsbane, now!! Hurry up!

In my top five YA Paranormal.

Five Humungous stars!
...more

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Dec 01, 2010 Mundie Moms & Mundie Kids rated it it was amazing

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

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 26, 2011 Theresa rated it really liked it

Mesmerizing, thrilling, addicting! What a surprise Nightshade was to read! I couldn't put it down and ended up getting through its 480+ pages in just a few days! This is the first book in a trilogy.

This is a story of Guardians: wolves created by the Old Ones (witches) to help protect sacred areas and an unknown entity. They answer to the Keepers who provide them with money, education, a home, and anything else that may be needed. But in return the Guardians must follow the order by which their f Mesmerizing, thrilling, addicting! What a surprise Nightshade was to read! I couldn't put it down and ended up getting through its 480+ pages in just a few days! This is the first book in a trilogy.

This is a story of Guardians: wolves created by the Old Ones (witches) to help protect sacred areas and an unknown entity. They answer to the Keepers who provide them with money, education, a home, and anything else that may be needed. But in return the Guardians must follow the order by which their family tree has predicted its packs to be. Alpha mates have already been chosen in order to best serve and procreate additional packs.

Calla is used to being the alpha for her pack of Guardians, Nightshade. Only a senior in high school, Cal knows that the date is near and soon she will be a part of the union ceremony with another pack alpha, Ren. Ren and his Bane pack will merge with Nightshade to become a new pack of Guardians. With this merge comes the clashing of personalities and leadership. Afterall, Calla is not used to taking orders from another alpha but as the spouse to a male alpha, she will have to learn to step aside. But in the middle of the upcoming preparations a human teenage boy named Shay arrives at school.

Shay just happened to be saved by a white wolf on the top of a mountain only days before arriving to his new school. Unlike other humans, Shay doesn't seem to be afraid of the odd packs of teens and immediately falls for Calla. But Shay is surrounded by a secret that not even he is aware of and soon he and his new friends will all be in danger.

Kudos to Andrea Cremer for creating such an emotional yet strong lead female character. She knows where her duties lie, yet she struggles with the reasons as to why she should't fall in love with a human. But she is also an alpha and she has a hard time letting that go. Ren is a typical teenage boy with raging hormones who you just want to slap sometimes, but we all knew a few Rens in high school, didn't we? Shay is just as bad: he knows a relationship with Calla is forbidden, but he will he will go to extreme lengths to make it work. The pack members are a great group of co-characters who really add to the story and support their leads.

I'm really looking forward to the next book!

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Dec 23, 2010 Between the Covers rated it it was amazing

Shelves: young-adult, urban-fantasy

Nightshade is one of those books that got tons of hype around the blogging community before its release, and even more after - and in this case, it was 100% deserved. Although Nightshade is about werewolves, it really has something for everyone - great characters, well-developed setting, fantasy, a little history, and a lot of romance. And look at that cover - is it not beautiful?

Calla has never questioned what life has in store for her - she loves being a Guardian, and the Keepers provide for e Nightshade is one of those books that got tons of hype around the blogging community before its release, and even more after - and in this case, it was 100% deserved. Although Nightshade is about werewolves, it really has something for everyone - great characters, well-developed setting, fantasy, a little history, and a lot of romance. And look at that cover - is it not beautiful?

Calla has never questioned what life has in store for her - she loves being a Guardian, and the Keepers provide for everything her family could want. She's always done what she should, until she reveals her true nature to save a strange boy from certain death by a bear. Though worried, she thinks nothing will come of the incident - until the boy shows up in her class at the Mountain School the next day. It soon becomes clear that Shay plays a much larger part in her world than Calla ever realized; in fact, her world is not even what she imagined it to be. As she learns more of the Keepers' secrets, she finds herself drawn to Shay; but she is mated to Ren, the alpha male. Throughout the book, the tensions and romances heat up, all coming to a head on Samhain, the day of the union - the day for which nobody is prepared.

The world of Nightshade was excellently created. I loved the blending of actual history with a fantasy world. But more than that, I loved the characters. The Nightshade and Lumine pack members were quite diverse and yet all believable. Calla is definitely a strong, independent character, though not without her flaws and unique traits. And Ren and Shay - how could anyone choose one?

Occasionally parts of the story were a bit confusing, but as the reader learns along with Calla, that is to be expected. And the ending...well, all I can say is that I needed Wolfsbane yesterday.

Nightshade kept me turning page after page, eager for more, with its engaging story, sweet (and sometimes steamy) romance, and imaginative world. Andrea Cremer has a brilliant style, and I cannot wait to read more! ...more

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