Review at a Glance
- Title: Crave
- My Rating: 5
- Genre: Paranormal YA
- Format: ARC*
- Publication Date: April 7, 2020
- Author: Tracy Wolff
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Book Blurb
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.
Giveaway
Win a copy of CRAVE by Tracy Wolff (US Only)
Starts: 7th April 2020
Ends: 21st April 2020
My Thoughts
There are so many things I want to say about Crave that it’s hard to know where to start.
I’m an unashamed fan of Twilight. I binged those books and even reread them. They are ridiculously entertaining and the perfect form of escapism, unless people take them too seriously. So, I knew going in that I would be predisposed to like Crave unless it was woefully bad.
It was not.
Do you want to know when I fell in love with Crave? Not just liked it, but really loved it? Pg 196. Now before you tell me, “that’s too far in the book. How could you not have loved it by then?” I will tell you that I was already binging the book, completely geeking out over Tracy Wolff’s writing style and feeling Grace’s vibe, when the main love interest, Jaxon (our vampire) sends the naive, unsuspecting Grace a gift.
He sent her Twilight.
And I died laughing.
She had no idea about vampires, and the fact that she wanted to read it because she wanted to see what all of the fuss was about all of those years ago, made me feel only slightly old. What’s beautiful here is what Tracy Wolff did. She lets her readers know she’s in on the joke, the undeniable similarities, but also marks the exact moment Crave will be different than Twilight. From this point on, the books diverge entirely, with Tracy Wolff building her own tortured and captivating cast that is far from sparkly.
I can barely put into words how much I enjoyed myself while reading Crave. I found every excuse I could to read another page because I just liked it. I felt the tension, the drama, but also the lightness and fun of teen love. I love that this book made me remember the feelings I had in high school even though, obviously, my high school was nothing like Grace’s.
About 75% through the book, you really start to realize the far reaching implications of everything that is happening. Yes this is a YA fantasy novel about two teenagers, kind of, falling in love, but you can also see where the series is going. It will outgrow these more childish constraints, as we all do, and become a more mature and consequential version of itself.
The end of Crave was spectacular, with so much action it was almost hard to keep up with and a cliffhanger ending that left me craving more – see what I did there? Any fan of the young adult genre will enjoy Crave immensely.
Also, quick shout out to Tracy Wolff for adding the three chapters at the end from Jaxon’s perspective. I loved, loved, LOVED reading his thoughts and feelings, then adding that to what I already knew.
Thanks so much to Tracy Wolff, Entangled Teen, and the FFBC for my copy of Crave. Congratulations on the movie announcement!
Great review! I have seen some mixed reviews on this one, so I am happy to read that you had fun reading it. I loved that Twilight was mentioned (and even gifted). Also excited to read that there is going to be a movie!
I feel like most of the people who are critical of the book have lost sight of its purpose. It’s a book about vampires and teenage love, so I didn’t go in expecting anything earth shattering. It was purely entertaining and written in a pretty unique style. very informal and not to be taken super seriously. It was a lot of fun to read.