Title: Crave
Author: Tracy Wolff
Release Date: April 7, 2020
Genre: YA, Fantasy, Paranormal
Rating: ★★★★★
Thank you to Entangled Teen and Tracey Wolff for a signed advanced finished copy!
Synopsis
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.
Review
Grace has lost everything in a matter of months. After the unexpected death of her parents she now had to leave the only home she has ever known in sunny San Diego to move to Alaska and attend a private academy where her uncle is headmaster. At least she has her cousin Macy to show her the ropes and make her feel as much at home as possible. Something seems odd about Katmere Academy and Grace just can’t seem to put her finger on what though. All she knows is she’s falling fast and hard for the dangerous Jaxon who she should probably be running from but somehow keeps finding herself running to.
Crave is supposed to be the new Twilight and I call BS on that. The writing is pretty good, there’s no love triangle thank god and our heroine might be a lamb but she’s not going down without a hell of a fight.
Grace was completely oblivious to everything going on around her to the point where it was just downright hilarious at times. We know from the synopsis that Katmere Academy hosts the newest generations of monsters, what those monsters are I won’t say, but I did have fun trying to guess for myself. This of course goes right over her head, even though the monsters are pretty stereotypical and hints of what’s really going on are constantly dropped in her lap. She’s just like “yeah that’s weird must be an Alaskan thing.” After everything she’s been through though she has only come out stronger. I loved her snark, fast comebacks and witty banter.
Jaxon was a little harder to peg down. Luckily there’s a few chapters at the end of the book that are scenes from his perspective that really put you in his head so you can see how he feels about everything going on. He comes off like a frat douche that thinks the world revolves around him while also appearing, sad, distant and downright intimidating all in the space of one conversation. You can tell he just cares too much though and I loved that about him. Plus how sexy is that name and a scar to boot? Be ready to swoon girls, Wolff has brought us our new favorite bad boy.
The romance was a tad to insta-love for my tastes but I kind of expected that going into it since is is a vampire romance. For someone so smart and in tune with herself though I didn’t find it believable that Grace would fall for Jaxon seconds after meeting him. He isn’t a jerk to her though so there’s no asshole alpha-make troupe going on here which I appreciated. The novel takes place in the span of a little less than a week though and I would’ve liked Grave to have been eased into the whole thing more. After reading Jaxon’s chapters I totally understand his response to Grace though and think his actions and feelings were on par.
Crave was just so damn witty in and of itself. From the Twilight references, Grace’s favorite show being Legacies, a shows about a magical creatures boarding school, to the chapter titles that made me burst out laughing periodically. My favorite chapter titles is probably “Is there a wooden stake in your pocket or are you just excited to see me?” It never took itself too seriously and I loved the fresh take it had not only on vampires but other magical species as well. Don’t let the Twilight like cover trick you, Crave will have you craving more of its badass heroine and it’s cinnamon roll of a vampire.
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