Nightshade by Andrea Cremer

Title: Nightshade
Author: Andrea Cremer
Genre: Paranormal romance, YA
Release date: October 19, 2010
Publisher: Philomel
Series: #1 in Nightshade Trilogy
Source: Personally purchased
452 pages

Calla is the alpha female of a shape-shifting wolf pack. She is destined to marry Ren Laroche, the pack's alpha male. Together, they would rule their pack together, guarding sacred sites for the Keepers. But then, Calla saves a beautiful human boy, who captures her heart. Calla begins to question everything - her fate, her existence, and her world and the orders the Keepers have asked her to follow. She will have to make a choice. But will she follow her heart if it means losing everything, including her own life?

Review:

When a friend of mine first started reading this book and kept blabbing on about how amazing it was, I figured it would be another boring werewolf book that involved full moons and hunters with silver bullets, but I couldn't have been more wrong.

I absolutely fell in love with this book. First of all, it's about time that we have a strong female character that can out-do the guys. Also, it's nice getting away from the typical "werewolf" stereotype. It seems like the author put a lot of thought into her writing because of all the background information that she came up with about the Guardians (the wolves). Also, she made the book seem realistic, not like a made up fantasy that has no connection with the real world.

Calla is such a strong character and Cremer made her seem like a real person that had feelings, not just some character in a book without a personality. Oh, and we can't forget about Ren. He is just... perfect. He's extremely attractive and has a strong personality, but you can tell he really cares about Calla. At first, you'll probably think he's a bit of a jerk, but I promise he'll get to you. He sure got to me. Then we have Shay, who just stuck out from the second he was mentioned. I mean, how can you not stick out with a name like Seamus Doran? Anyways, he's a part of Calla's little love triangle and he'll eat away at your heart from the beginning, except not as much as Ren(;

The Guardians are ruled by the Keepers, who control everything that the Guardians do. It kind of gives a suspenseful feeling, like you know that something is bound to happen with the Keeper/Guardian relationship, but we won't talk about that. I promised there wouldn't be spoilers.

But anyways, all in all, this book really didn't have any cons for me. There were a few parts that seemed a bit overly detailed and seemed like they dragged on, but otherwise I can't find much to complain about when it comes to this book. Anyone who likes paranormal needs to read this book.