Ratings81
Average rating3.4
This entire book reads like fanfiction, the story is one you've probably read a million times, and the writing is not particularly brilliant but it gets the job done. Do I love it? No. Do I hate it? Also no.
I will probably read the rest of the series, but I would not recommend you read this unless you just have nothing better to do with your time.
(4.5, rounded down)
YALL THIS BOOK IS 100% BETTER THAN TWILIGHT. I LOVE ALL THE CRINGE JOKES.
This was an easy and interesting read. I really liked the story and the characters. The writing style.. not so much. It was kind of cringy, especially the ‘teenage puppy love' way the FMC was made to act and the constant ‘swooning' over nothing. Also the continuous use of ‘AF' was super annoying(‘hot AF, sexy AF' etc).
If you can get past that, this book is a really good read. I liked the school setting, the ‘different groups' of students
DNF at 11%.
I can see something in his eyes. Something powerful and terrible and all-consuming.
This book... I didn't have much expectations when I started this and maybe that's why I'm rating it just as ok.
Honestly, I saw vampires plus academy and jumped on board, even though after seeing the cover I was definitely worried about the similarities with Twilight and that's the reason why my expectations where low. It is similar to Twilight in a lot of aspects: Grace moving to a different town; Jaxon worried about being a monster; their first encounter; the first time Grace's in danger; 2 love interests from different factions/groups. But I think Crave was actually a weird mix of various best selling YA books or vampire TV shows: Twilight was all over the story; the academy description gave me vibes of Hogwarts/Vampire Academy; the way the “factions” or groups behaved gave me a very tiny vibe of Divergent (but it might just be me seeing stuff after 592 paaaaages!); also The Vampire Diaries (Jaxon and his brother's story just felt a spin of Damon and Stefan's relationship) and Legacies was very entwined here too.
It just felt like the author took something from several of these books/shows/movies, changed it in some way and put it in the story. I get that books and TV shows/movies can and will influence an author but there were too many elements entangled here in my opinion.
It bothered me that the academy aspect of the story wasn't fleshed out at ALL. So much potential thrown away and the book has 592 pages... I mean... there was definitely opportunity to flesh it out!
Oh, and The Order (Jaxon's faction or group or whatever) had so much potential too but none of them are developed... Annoying.
The insta-love/obsession came out of nowhere and they were obsessed with each other in two days... So, yeah, exasperating is an understatement.
There was diversity in the characters but most of these characters were underdeveloped. Also, the ones who were a little more developed were villains or were siding with the villain side. This rubbed me the wrong way. Some of these characters might have a bigger role in the next book, but that possibility doesn't make this less shady.
What I liked:
- Other supernatural creatures, besides vampires, in the academy (very, very interesting and again so much potential);
- Grace's character at least until she started obsessing about Jaxon because then she just went downhill (so this didn't last long);
- Some characters like Grace's uncle, Flint, Macy, Jaxon;
- The gothic castle setting;
- Hilarious scene with a book, I think you can guess which one;
- The ending was very interesting.
I don't know if I'll read the next book. It might depend on my mood and I might check the reviews to see if it got better and if the diverse characters are finally developed and play a role in the story. Or I'll just forget about it entirely. It can go either way.
I love a shitty book. I loved Twilight, 50 Shades. I love a series of garbage. This...was beyond even what I can enjoy. As I was listening to this and walking around my house, my partner thought I was angry at him because of the noises I was making.
The characters were shallow, and I'm surprised the main character wasn't named like, Belmione for how heavy handed this text was. Woof.
I really wanted to like this one. Booktok seems to love it. Unfortunately, I could not get into it.
Other reviews likened Crave to Twilight and I have to agree. Girl transplanted to a new town and school, then meets brooding, hot boy. The writing wasn't the best either. It was kind of juvenile.
My library loan ran out on it and it was easy to bail and go on to the next book. Sorry, Booktok!
This review is also featured on Behind the Pages: Crave
When Grace's parents die in a tragic accident, there is only one place left for her to go. From sunny California, Grace is sent to her uncle's boarding school in frigid Alaska. But it isn't just any boarding school, all manner of supernatural creatures attend and Grace joins in the middle of a power struggle. Vampire Jaxon Vega has taken an interest in Grace, and it hasn't gone unnoticed. Will Grace be another pawn in a deadly game, or are his feelings for her real?
While Grace could be an entertaining character to follow at times, she was extremely naive. While I understand the naivety was intended, I was also confused by it. Why would the book blurb talk about vampires if it wasn't mentioned until halfway past the book? At a certain point, Grace rationalizing away all the strange occurrences around her grew repetitive. It also slowed down the plot progression.
Tracy Wolff spent a long time word building. The setting wasn't all that different from the real world, so I am not sure why all the build-up. Yes, there was magic, monsters, and the politics surrounding them but aside from that, the school wasn't all that different. Gothic castle aside, I didn't think the beginning needed to be so drawn out. And I had a hard time believing Grace's uncle would drop her in the middle of monsters, and not warn her. Especially after all the incidents that surrounded her started cropping up.
I can see the attraction of this book. Jaxon Vega hits all the right buttons. He is dark, brooding, and mysterious. He is the bad boy someone can pine after and still have gentle qualities that make a heart swoon. The tensions between Grace and Jaxon were tantalizing, but it came too late in the story. Not a series I will be continuing.
3,5 estrellas.
creo que esta va a ser una reseña larga o no pero recién termine el libro y tuve que prender la computadora para poder plasmar todo lo que me hizo sentir el libro, tanto positivas como negativas.
Vamos a empezar por el hecho de que lo comencé a leer porque no tenia ganas de estudiar y también porque leí que era el cliché mas grande del mundo y dije SI. Era una lectura que necesitaba por una simple razón NO QUERIA PENSAR y puedo decir que efectivamente cumplió con lo prometido.
Ahora, tuve varios problemas con el libro. El primero que puedo mencionar es lo extenso que es, 65 capítulos para que en 50 pase todo lento y en los últimos 15 me meta todo el drama como si quisiera realmente acabar con la escritura.
El corte entre algunos capítulos me parecía innecesario, sentía como que los utilizo para hacer una especie de punto y a parte, párrafo nuevo.
Los personajes me parecieron meh, sentía como que les faltaba algo de personalidad. El único que me gusto fue Jaxon y puedo decir que Flint, mención especial a mekhi.
De lo que respecta a la trama, mucho no esperaba considerando que es un cliché, bastante quemado pero que tal vez lo ejecuto bien, pero hasta ahí nomas.
No puedo decir que no lo disfrute porque realmente lo hice hasta el punto de sacar el ebook en clase para seguir leyendo.
This book is just everything. It is funny, inyresting a d just generally fun. The only downside is that we/reader knew stuff would happen as it said on the back but we were over 1/2 when it jappened in the book.
But the way the book is weitten just take over for that
While I really did enjoy the book. The author does a great job telling the story in Grace's voice in what I call “Real Time”. It really is as if you are “hearing” her thoughts as they come. There's something about a story written this way that gets me.
Grace is a witty teenage girl who has been through something terrible and is brought in to a world she didn't know existed. She then goes through a few terrible things leading to the big bad. Throughout it all she stays the same caring girl she was at the very beginning. Setting her own pain aside to assuage or protect the emotions of those around her.
I am a huge Twilight fan and I have a feeling this series is going to give that a run for my favorite spot.
I don't know that I agree it being a YA book. Maybe if YA is 17+. Maybe I'm being too “prude”. I don't know.
I went in completely blinde, just know it was “like twilight”. And that it is! It's an obvious twilight spin-off with actual supernatural stuff, just like divergent/ hunger games. As a teen I would have loved this though. It has a lot of pop-culture references which is a book-ick for me personally. If you're into teen paranormal romance this is the book for you. Since they're free on audible right now I'm gonna finish them anyway.
Ha estado bien para un comienzo de una saga, pero la verdad que me esperaba más. Espero que los siguientes libros me gusten más (que según he visto, a la gente le encantan los siguientes libros, así que tengo esperanzas).
La relación de Jaxon y Grace no acaba de convencerme del todo. Además, el comienzo se me ha hecho demasiado largo y pesado. Aún así, le daré más oportunidades con los siguientes libros, sobre todo por ese final que me ha dejado con bastante intriga.
vampires, dragons, witches, werewolves sorry I mean wolf shifters, weirdly dated pop culture references, Igloo coolers full of blood, “the DTF emoji”, living gargoyles???
https://www.frowl.org/worstbestsellers/episode-227-crave/
I was just looking for a fun, entertaining, superficial, light read. But this was C.R.I.N.G.Y and toxic as f*ck.
3.5 Stars
Crave is... not great. It's an overly-drawn out young adult series opener, all of its major plot points were easily predictable, and it's a borderline spoof of Twilight— if the cover doesn't spoil you for that right off the bat.
BUT. It's enjoyable and entertaining and I think this could be one of my new guilty pleasure series, in the vein (no pun intended) of The Selection, Shatter Me, Ice Planet Barbarians, so on and so forth. The Percy Jackson-esque chapter titles were one of the highlights of this book, and I found myself unable to put this down at times. My ratings reflect my personal enjoyment over the actual quality of a book, and this one was entertaining as hell.