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.

OwlCrate Unboxing: September 2018 (Masters of Disguise)

Here's what was included in my September 2018 OwlCrate box, which came in the mail on Thursday. The theme for September's box is "Masters of Disguise".

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My September @owlcrate box came today, and I love it! I’ve really been in the mood to read a lot of fantasy books for the past several months, so I’m super excited to read the August book of the month, Mirage by @somaiiiya. I plot of Mirage sounds really cool. 😀 As for the items that were included in this month’s box, my favorite item is definitely the Harry Potter mug. The picture on the mug is beyond cool! Even though I usually take showers, I’m really excited to try the Nemesis foaming bath soak, which was made by @leeloosoap. 😀 I’m also excited try the lip balm that was inspired by The Kiss of Deception. 😀 I don’t know how much I’ll actually use them, but I also really love the fingerless gloves. 😀 Even though I still need to read @veschwab’s Shades of Magic trilogy, I also love the art print of Lila Bird. I think it looks really cool. 😀 All in all, I think this is another really fun OwlCrate box. 😀 #bookstagram #owlcrate #owlcrateunboxing #bookblogger #bookblog #bookhaul #bookaholic #bookaddict #bookworm #mirage #somaiyadaud #harrypotter

A post shared by Taylor Madison Street (@tmswriter6) on Sep 20, 2018 at 6:15pm PDT

Subscription plans start at $29.99, plus shipping. The people who run OwlCrate are all very nice, and they’re really great at answering any questions that people may have about OwlCrate on Twitter, Instagram, or via email. I highly recommend subscribing to OwlCrate, especially if you’re a fan of YA books. If you’re interested in learning more about OwlCrate, or subscribing to it, you can check out their website here. For the record, I wasn’t asked by the people who run OwlCrate to promote their business on my blog; I’m only mentioning OwlCrate here because I really love OwlCrate a lot, especially now that I’m reviewing books for my blog instead of TV shows. 

Finally, in case you’re unaware, I've reviewed Jeff Zentner’s debut novel, The Serpent King, which was OwlCrate’s book of the month for March of last year when the theme was "Writer’s Block". I've also reviewed P.S. I Like You by Kasie West, which was the book of the month for August of last year when the theme was "Fast Times at Y.A. High"; as well Audrey Coulthurst's book, Of Fire and Stars, which was the December 2016 book of the month when the theme was "Epic".

Here are links to all of the other previous OwlCrate unboxings that I've posted on my blog. However, I have a lot more OwlCrate unboxings that I've posted on my Instagram page in case anybody is interested in checking those out.

OwlCrate Unboxing: January 2017 (Classic Remix)

OwlCrate Unboxing: February 2017 (Run away with the Circus)

OwlCrate Unboxing: April 2017 (Head Over Heels)

OwlCrate Unboxing: May 2017 (Comic Explosion)

OwlCrate Unboxing: June 2017 (Make It Out Alive)

OwlCrate Unboxing: July 2017 (Wanderlust)

OwlCrate Unboxing: August 2017 (Something Wicked This Way Comes...)

OwlCrate Unboxing: September 2017 (Mythical Creatures)

OwlCrate Unboxing: October 2017 (Find Me In the Forrest)

OwlCrate Unboxing: November 2017 (Castles, Courts and Kingdoms)

OwlCrate Unboxing: December 2017 (Seize The Day)

OwlCrate Unboxing: January 2018 (Fearsome Fairy Tales)

OwlCrate Unboxing: February 2018 (Hidden Worlds) 

OwlCrate Unboxing:March 2018 (Across The Galaxy)

OwlCrate Unboxing: April 2018 (Shadows & Secrets)

OwlCrate Unboxing: May 2018 (Fight Like A Girl)

OwlCrate Unboxing: May 2018 (Fight Like A Girl)

Here's what was included in my May 2018 OwlCrate box, which came in the mail today. The theme for March's box is "Fight Like A Girl".

My May @owlcrate box came today, and I absolutely love, love, love it! I’ve always really enjoyed stories that involve strong female protagonists, so I’m very excited to read Sky in the Deep by @adrienneyoungbooks. As weird and random as this might sound, after reading the plot synopsis for Sky in the Deep that’s on the cover, I’ve decided to include Sky in the Deep in my dysfunctional families themed TBR for June, which is something that I’ve been planning for months. I honestly love all of items that they’ve included in this month’s box, but my favorite item is definitely the copy of Catching Stars by @caylakeenan1. It also sounds like a really interesting book, so I’m very excited to read it as well. Based on the picture that’s on the side of the container, I think the wall hanging looks really cool. Most of the time, I don’t get too excited about the art prints that are included in OwlCrate boxes, but I really love the Six of Crows art print. It’s definitely my favorite out of all the art prints that I’ve received in OwlCrate boxes. 😀 I love both of the pins that were included in this month’s box, but I especially love the Hermione Granger themed pin. 😀 I also love the Wrath and the Dawn/Flame in the Mist tassel bookmark. 😀 All in all, this is definitely an especially fun and awesome OwlCrate box. #owlcrate #owlcrateunboxing #bookstagram #bookhaul #bookaholic #bookaddict #bookblogger #bookblog #skyinthedeep #adrienneyoung #harrypotter #acourtofthornsandroses #sixofcrows #flameinthemist #thewrathandthedawn #reneeahdieh #thechildrenofbloodandbone

A post shared by Taylor Madison Street (@tmswriter6) on May 19, 2018 at 10:47am PDT

Career of Evil: We're three books into the series, and Cormoran Strike is STILL down on his luck (Book #3 in the Cormoran Strike series by Robert Galbraith/J.K. Rowling)

I’d like to start off this review by saying that I’ve definitely been putting off reading and reviewing Career of Evil for quite a while, not because I didn’t like The Cuckoo’s Calling and The Silkworm, I loved both of those books. The reason I’ve been putting off reading Career of Evil is because I found Paula Hawkins’ book The Girl on the Train to be a rather challenging book to review. When I review something, I really like to talk about it in great detail, but since that book is a mystery novel, I was really unsure of how to approach writing a review for it, and it’s definitely the same thing with this book. Books in the mystery genre are definitely one kind of book that I don’t think a person should have a ton of details about the overall plot of the book and especially the end of the book ruined for them before they read it. I’m really going to try and find the right balance between discussing my thoughts on this book, while hopefully not giving too much away in case anybody who reads this review hasn’t read Career of Evil yet; that being said, here are my thoughts on Career of Evil.

When it comes to Career of Evil, my overall reading experience with the book was definitely very weird. The reason I say that is because I started out absolutely loving the book and thinking that it had potential to be the best book yet in the Cormoran Strike series, only to have my thoughts on the book to take a turn for the worse the further into the book that I got. I’ll start this review off on a positive note and say that I love that Robin was so personally affected by the case they were trying to solve in this book, which involved an unknown person sending Robin a woman’s leg in the mail, and Strike and Robin trying to figure out whose leg it was and who sent it.

Maybe this will sound weird to some people, but reading Career of Evil really made me think a lot about the TV show Desperate Housewives and how the season mysteries were the most interesting when at least one, if not all of the women, were involved with the mystery in some way. In my opinion, the show definitely suffered in season two due to the fact that the whole mystery with Betty Applewhite was so completely splintered off from the show’s core housewives for the most part, but I digress.

Don’t get me wrong, I loved The Cuckoo’s Calling and The Silkworm, and neither Strike and Robin were all that connected on a personal level to the cases in those books. However, having Robin be so connected to the case they were trying to solve in this book really contributed a lot to my enjoyment of the book. It also gave Robert Galbraith/J.K. Rowling the chance to really continue to develop Robin as a character even more in this book. Robin definitely has a very sad past when it comes to the fact that it was revealed that Robin was raped when she was in college, which subsequently led to her developing a case of agoraphobia and leaving college. That whole reveal definitely helped me to understand Robin as a character even more than I did before. I also found Strike’s reaction to this reveal and how it impacted their relationship throughout the book rather compelling, especially in terms of the drama that it caused between them.

Descendants: So, does the rotten apple fall far from the tree? (My thoughts on The Isle of the Lost by Melissa de la Cruz)

Let me start out by saying that I wasn’t originally planning to read and review The Isle of the Lost by Melissa de la Cruz at this point in time. However, since the Disney channel original movie Descendants just aired, I decided to binge read The Isle of the Lost since it serves as a prequel to the movie; that being said, here are my thoughts on the book.

Right off the bat, I have to say that I really liked this book, and it definitely serves as great set-up for the movie since the book ends right where the movie begins with Ben deciding to let Mal, Evie, Jay and Carlos out of the Isle of the Lost and come to Auradon, but I’m getting ahead of myself.

Given the fact that Mal is the daughter of Maleficent, Evie is the Evil Queen’s daughter, Jay is Jafar’s son, and Carlos is the son of Cruella De Vil, this book really reminded me of the TV show Once Upon a Time since the show really plays around with famous characters from various fairytales, as well as other books like this book does. Once Upon a Time has even featured Maleficent, the Evil Queen and Cruella De Vil. However, both this book and the movie Descendants is obviously doing its own thing with the characters just like Once Upon a Time has also done its own thing with fairytale characters throughout the course of the show’s run.

The overall tone of the book and the fact that the characters seem to view things that in the real world are typically considered bad behavior and bad emotions as being good in their minds and things that are considered good behavior and positive emotions as being wrong really made me think a lot about the book series A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket and how those books are kind of depressing in a very comical way. The fact that the overall tone of this book felt very reminiscent of A Series of Unfortunate Events is definitely one of the things that I liked the most about this book.

However, while overall tone of the book reminded me a lot of A Series of Unfortunate Events, the way their school and their classes were described reminded me a lot of the Harry Potter books and the classes that the characters took at Hogwarts.

While I really liked all of the characters in the book, Carlos was definitely my favorite character. Despite the fact that all of the characters in the book were raised to be evil, I feel like the parts with Carlos had the most heart and were at times kind of sad, especially whenever Carlos would talk to the others about what it was like to have Cruella De Vil for a mother.

Glee: Preview Kurt, Blaine, Sebastian, Season 4-TVLine

Here's an article where Chris Colfer shares some scoop with TVLine's Matt Webb Mitovich about what's going to be happening with Kurt while Darren Criss is temporarally in away from the show preforming Broadway’s How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. Colfer also talks briefly about what the top-secret plan is to keep Kurt and the other graduating seniors around next season in the following excerpt from the article:


“My word is fun,” the actor shared on the Golden Globes red carpet on Sunday night. “I really think it’s a great idea and I’m looking forward to it. It’s never been done before.”

Regardless of how Kurt remains in the Glee picture, the fact is he will be graduating from McKinley High — and that is where Colfer suspects bad boy Sebastian (recurring player Grant Gustin) comes in, as a rumored Season 4 regular.

“Maybe he’ll take Kurt’s place?” Colfer ventured. “[People] are going to hate me for saying that, but it’s just logic.”



Link to the full article:Glee Preview -- Kurt, Blaine, Sebastian, Season 4