Monday, September 28, 2015

Nightshade by Andrea Cremer


Title: Nightshade (Nightshade #1)
Author: Andrea Cremer
Genre: Young Adult, Paranormal, Urban Fantasy, Supernatural
Publication: October 19, 2010

My Rating: 2/5

Calla Tor has always known her destiny: After graduating from the Mountain School, she'll be the mate of sexy alpha wolf Ren Laroche and fight with him, side by side, ruling their pack and guarding sacred sites for the Keepers. But when she violates her masters' laws by saving a beautiful human boy out for a hike, Calla begins to question her fate, her existence, and the very essence of the world she has known. By following her heart, she might lose everything- including her own life. Is forbidden love worth the ultimate sacrifice?



First, let's just take a moment to appreciate that BEAUTIFUL cover.


This series seems to be pretty popular and it actually caught my attention a long time ago, so I finally decided to pick this up and see what it was all bout... I will say that it didn't meet my expectations, but I still enjoyed it.

To me, the main character is trying way too hard to be feared and respected, she also hates to be girly and thinks it's something stupid and weak. I can completely understand this, but it's like she gives every little thing so much importance, when it's not even worth it. Relax, girl.

Other than that, she's not too bad. I like how strong she is and I understand she's got it tough. She has to mate this womanizer because she's just supposed to, pretty much hand over her pack to him because he's the male alpha, and suck up to him, the Keepers and most men around her.

So you can see that the one thing that kept bothering me the whole time was how much sexism there's in this story. Ok, dear werewolves and Keepers, I understand just how precious tradition is to you... But really? In this century?



First of all, Calla isn't even allowed to kiss boys for being an alpha female, but Ren, an alpha male, has all the freedom to go and sleep with half the girls there. I would've been mad as hell if I wasn't allowed to even kiss one boy when being forced to marry a guy who's been around town.


Another important part of this book is the love triangle. I've mentioned before that I don't really enjoy love triangles, and this time it wasn't any different. But in this case it was mostly because I didn't really like any of the boys. Let's just break it down:

Shay:
- I don't know why, but I can't see him as a grown teenage guy, I always imagine him like a younger boy and I just can't get over that! Maybe something to do with his personality?
- He doesn't agree with the sexist traditions of the packs, so I really appreciate that.
- Uhm, Shay, honey... What's your problem with Pride and Prejudice? If you think that it's just a story about marriage and love... then please go read the book (Sorry, had to get that one out).
- Why oh why are you always risking Calla's life, man?? He doesn't care one bit about her safety.

Ren: 
- I'm sorry, I don't usually like guys who sleep with pretty much every woman hanging around.
- His possessiveness is a little bit too much.
- Apparently he really likes Calla, which surprised me a lot. But I don't know if he could be faithful to her or actually become more like his dad.

Even so, I think I like Ren a little bit more than Shay.

Maybe I didn't fall in love with this book or anything, but I did enjoy reading it. I might pick up the sequel to see what happens, I'm actually very curious, but I hope that there's not as much sexism in that one, I'm almost sure that that's what ruined this for me, if it weren't for it, maybe I would've really liked it!

Have you read this series? Any other paranormal books you might recommend?

Thank you for reading! Bye-Bye! 

17 comments:

  1. Oh my gosh yes, the cover is flawless! But ick, I don't think I'll read this book if there's this weird double standard. Unless the book creates a commentary on women's expectations to stay pure and men's revered exploits then I'll probably skip it <3

    xx Bash | Hey Bash | bloglovin'

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    1. Yes, that was pretty awful! I was always so angry -_- If I do pick up the sequel I'll stop reading if that's still part of the story, because it seems like that book will be heading in another direction, we'll see :/

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  2. The cover is beautiful and I like the rough summary of the book but I have to agree with you about this whole sexism thing. It's just not something I like to have in books. Great review.

    LEJA

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    Replies
    1. Yes, the cover is beautiful! :) But yeah, I didn't like that part of the book, and it was actually a very important part! :/ Thank you for your comment! ^-^

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  3. Great review! This one sounds good from the summary, but I agree with others on here. I may have to skip it lol. :P

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    Replies
    1. Thank you!! Yeah, if someone had told me that there was so much sexism in this, maybe I would've skipped it too! :P

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  4. good post) very interesting!
    http://www.mosaictrends.com/

    ReplyDelete
  5. Very interesting! Wow!

    xoxo Jacqueline
    www.hokis1981.blogspot.com

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  6. Gosh, I'm sorry, but this isn't up my alley at all. I'm generally not a fan of YA or stories with which dominance is played up by a LOT, but the fact that sexism is ingrained? No thank you.

    Have a lovely week, Carla!

    May | THE MAYDEN

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Haha yeah, you might have to skip this one then! :) If I had known all that, I probably wouldn't have read it.
      Thank you! Have a great week!!

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  7. awwww suna genial <3
    me gusta ese tipode libros... sobre todoahora cuando se nos acerca el otońo :)

    un besito guapa!

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  8. I think this is a fair review and I do love that cover <3 But I doubt I am going to end up reading this book. I really don't like the sound of how there is such a yawning difference between the way men and females are treated...

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    Replies
    1. I seriously hated that part of the story :( I might try reading the sequel, but if that keeps being a problem, I'll just have to put the book down.

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  9. I really enjoyed reading this review, Carla! You're made some excellent points!

    I read the whole series some time back, so I'll tell you that, although I agree with you about the sexism, I think the author was really trying to criticize it. As you have pointed out, Shay didn't go along with it. So I think Cremer actually had both Shay and Ren in the story so that she could contrast the two boys' very different attitudes toward male chauvinism.

    I really like Calla. She's a very strong character, and I love to read books with strong female characters! Maybe she overdid the "I'm not the girly type" thing, though.

    As for Ren, I have very mixed feelings about him. He could be very charming and sweet, but he was a player. And he was willing to go along with tradition, most of the time. He was controlled by his father and the Keepers. Not good husband material! Shay, on the other hand, was very much his own man. Oh, I swooned over him!!

    I really enjoyed this series, so I recommend you do continue with the rest of the books. Hope you enjoy them!

    Thanks for the nice review!! : )

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