Book Review: Crush (Book #2 in the Crave series) by Tracy Wolff

Right off the bat, I have to say that my thoughts on the second book in Tracy Wolff’s Crave series, Crush, are rather complicated, because in some ways I liked it more than I liked Crave, but at the same time, I also thought that at times this book somehow managed to lack even more originality than the first book did. Crush also has a variety of other aspects to it that I definitely think could have been better. However, despite its flaws, Crush is definitely a really fun guilty pleasure book, much like the first book in the series was. That being said, here are my thoughts on Crush.

I thought that it was pretty interesting that a major plot point in Crush was Grace finding out that she’s a gargoyle and learning how to use the abilities that come along with being a gargoyle; because I honestly can’t think of any other YA books where the premise involves gargoyles. Grace discovering in this book that she’s a gargoyle is definitely something that I think helps set Tracy Wolff’s Crave series apart from other YA fantasy series. Grace finding out in this book that she’s a gargoyle definitely came as quite a surprise to me, because in Crave (The book) I really thought that Wolff was setting things up for Grace to become a vampire later on in the series.

 

However, I definitely think that there are a lot of missed opportunities on Wolff’s part when it comes to how she handled the reveal that Grace is a gargoyle. It seemed really weird to me that Grace pretty much didn’t seem upset or say anything at all about the fact that her parents had never told her that she was a gargoyle while they were still alive. She was simply initially in shock when everybody told her that she was a gargoyle, which is something I can completely understand. The other thing that frustrated me about Wolff’s execution of Grace discovering that she’s a gargoyle and how to use the magical abilities that she has as a gargoyle is how quickly she always learned how to do something. Instead of struggling to get the hang of her abilities for at least a couple of chapters and experiencing some genuine frustration, which could have led to some potentially compelling storytelling, Grace basically always figured out how to successfully use her abilities within a matter of a few pages; which typically led to lovey dovey moments between Jaxon and Grace that ultimately proved to be incredibly repetitive almost immediately.

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.

Bookstagram: My Insane (Overly Optimistic) August/September TBR!

Check out all of the books that I've included in my crazy huge TBR for August and September!