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! ♥