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

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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