Book Review: Crave (Book #1 in the Crave series) by Tracy Wolff

Right off the bat, I have to say that while Crave definitely isn't a literary masterpiece when it comes to the quality of Tracy Wolff's writing; I still loved this book in a guilty pleasure sense, and I had a ton of fun reading it. Prior to reading Crave, I have to admit that I was half-expecting this book to be some kind of Twilight spoof. Even though Twilight is mentioned in this book, I would say that this series is definitely its own thing in terms of how it not only portrays vampires, but how it also portrays various other kinds of fantasy creatures, such as dragons. One of the things that Tracy Wolff does that definitely helps set the Crave series apart from the Twilight series is to have the Crave series take place at a boarding school. Plus, I definitely enjoyed the romance between Grace and Jaxon A LOT more than I ever liked the romance between Bella and Edward in the Twilight series, but that’s not saying much. While Grace and Jaxon’s relationship had its own unique kind of drama in this book, I definitely appreciate the fact that their relationship didn’t immediately feel nearly as angst-ridden as Bella and Edward’s did. Plus, while Grace did annoy me at times throughout the book, I’m really glad that she wasn’t as eager and willing to give up her humanity and become a vampire just to be with a guy that she’s only known for a couple of weeks like Bella was to be with Edward.

 

Another major plus that Crave has on its side, is the fact that the overall plot of the book played out very differently from the way that I had originally been expecting it to prior to reading the book. It was far from being predictable, as far as I'm concerned. While I don’t have a lot of issues with the overall pacing of the plot of the book for the most part, which is definitely a good thing considering the fact that this is a really long book, I do think that the pacing of the ending of the book drags a little bit.

 

One thing that I thought was really cool about Crave is Wolff’s portrayal of dragons. It’s established that the character Flint is a dragon, and while there’s a lot of things about this book that are definitely rather cliché, this is the first fantasy book or story that I’ve encountered where it’s established that people can also be dragons. Since this is the first story that I’ve encountered where it’s established that people can be part dragon, I definitely have to give Wolff credit for her including the character Flint in this series. I’m really hoping that Wolff will expand upon that aspect of Flint as a character, and the concept that people can be part dragon in general, as the series continues since she didn’t explore that very much in this book. Plus, I simply liked what we saw of the character Flint in this book.

That being said, the thing that bugged me the most about Crave is the fact that, even for a YA novel, Wolff's writing came across as being a bit too adolescent at times, especially when it came to her writing for Grace's internal narrative. For example, there were times throughout the book when Grace would describe Jaxon's appearance, or something Jaxon does as being "sexy af". Even though I don't think it's all that big of a deal to use that kind of shorthand when a person is texting or talking to someone on social media; Wolff using that kind of slang at times in Grace's internal narrative kind of made Crave come across as if it had been written by an actual teenager to a small extent. The idea of someone using that kind of shorthand, as much as Grace does throughout the book, when they're alone with their own thoughts that are running through their mind just doesn't come across to me as being good and realistic writing.

 

On a somewhat silly and random note, I’m wondering if Tracy Wolff is a fan of the TV show Legacies, and by extension The Vampire Diaries and The Originals; because she mentioned Grace watching it several times throughout the book. Perhaps she only mentioned the show in this book because it’s about vampires, and this book series is also about vampires, but either way, Legacies being mentioned multiple times throughout the course of the book stood out as being a little odd to me.

Ultimately, despite the fact that Crave definitely isn't a literary masterpiece when it comes to the quality of Tracy Wolff's writing for the book, I still had a TON of fun reading it, and I found the book to be incredibly addictive; which is why I didn't give Crave a lower score than I did in the end. Plus, I'm definitely very excited to read the second book in the Crave series, Crush, so I can find out what happens next after the cliffhanger that this book ends on!

That being said, my final score for Crave is 8 out of 10.