Crave is a Teen & Young Adult Coming of Age Fantasy novel by Tracy Wolff. Read summary below.
Crave Summary
My whole world changed when I stepped inside the academy. Nothing is right about this place or the other students in it. Here I am, a mere mortal among gods…or monsters. I still can’t decide which of these warring factions I belong to, if I belong at all. I only know the one thing that unites them is their hatred of me.
Then there’s Jaxon Vega. A vampire with deadly secrets who hasn’t felt anything for a hundred years. But there’s something about him that calls to me, something broken in him that somehow fits with what’s broken in me.
Which could spell death for us all.
Because Jaxon walled himself off for a reason. And now someone wants to wake a sleeping monster, and I’m wondering if I was brought here intentionally―as the bait.
READ; Werewolf Cop Summary Review by Andrew Klavan
Crave Book Review
2.0 out of 5 stars Skip the first 250 pages and the book is… (barely) readable. (Some Spoilers)
Reviewed in the United States on January 4, 2021
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A couple of things first about me. I’ve neither read nor saw Twilight. Nor have I read/saw Harry Potter. I’ve haven’t even read Vampire Academy. While I am no stranger to YA and have read a few indie paranormal academy books, Crave is just BAD even by YA standards and that’s not saying much.
Crave is about seemingly human Grace’s transition into an Alaskan Elite Paranormal School, Katmere Academy.
Hold on… back it up.
Why would a squishy human go to a school with werewolves, and dragons and vampires and witches? Because her parents died a month prior to the story and her last known living relatives invited her to leave her dreary life and sunny California to close out her senior hign school year in dreary AND frigid Alaska. Yeah… constantly worrying about hypothermia and living with relatives you haven’t since you were five along with hundreds of strangers is just the thing bust a bout of depression. To top if off, Grace’s uncle is the headmaster of the academy and knows full well there’s a race war brewing among the student s — the main combatants are, you guessed it, vampires vs. shifters. To make matters worse, in Uncle Finn Foster’s infinite wisdom, Finn decides to not tell Grace anything about the school or the students and even puts out a gag order among the student body. That plan works out so well that Grace nearly dies three times just bumbling around before Uncle Finn spills the beans. The love interest, Jaxon, may be onto something there when he tells Grace her uncle secretly hates her.
Oh well, it’s a start at least.
Now, I’m not expecting high literature from a YA novel because let’s face it; YA is the fast food of fiction. In the same way you know McDonald’s is bad for you, you revel in the guilty pleasure because it’s bad. What’s really a downer is that Crave could’ve been half way decent if it wasn’t for the authors bad story plotting decisions. Some of the better parts of the story was when Grace is alone and is left to muse over the details of the castle. It is extremely sad to say that the building itself has more character than Grace considering how much loving detail is given about each room to make them unique. I got to say I was impressed. Most YAs take a utilitarian approach to setting description. Some of the lore, as scant as it was, we do get about paranormal creatures in Crave was interesting as well. And here’s were Wolff drops the ball here.
There are two ways to tell a paranormal romance/academy story. You can tell from a viewpoint of a character coming in with eyes wide open or you can tell it the way Wolff did with a character fumbling around blithely in blissful ignorance. Most YAs take the direct approach because it’s lends itself better to storytelling. The author can spend time showing how their werewolves, vampire, dragons, [insert magical critter here] is different from every other offering. Using this approach, the reader can watch the main character grow and learn about themselves. Because really, we all know the main character can’t be some plain vanilla human. That “plot twist” is so tired it’s not even a twist. For all those out there who were surprised at twists in the end of Crave, all I can say “Heh.”
Anyway, writing good dramatic irony is hard. It’s literally painful to watch Grace turn a blind eye to all the extraordinary shenanigans going on. When Wolff decided to have Grace not acknowledge blatantly obvious hints, she effectively nixed the paranormal and turned Crave into a romance/academy book. I don’t know about other readers, but I came for the paranormal and was willing to suffer through “romance” if the story was any good. Because YA romance is almost always awful. It’s just a question of how bad. Crave nearly takes the cake in awfulness.
Yes, there’s the insta-love thing going on. It’s so horrible that the whole story takes place over the span of two weeks. Grace is hopelessly in love with the misunderstood bad boy in the first few days. The insta-love itself isn’t horrible it’s just Wolff’s insistence on keeping everything PG maybe slightly PG-13. So instead of the countdown to pants off and terrible euphemisms for certain antamony parts in various gratituous sex scenes, the reader gets pages of Jaxon and Grace standing around giving each other meaningful stares all the while Grace is screaming in her head, “I want Jaxon. Why won’t he touch me already.”
I’m not a fan of sex scenes. I find them boring and pointless. Sexual tension is even moreso. That’s not even romance. For the first 250 pages, you’re existially reading nothing. There’s is no plot because the author turns Grace into an idiot and uses annoying stall tactics such as awkward segues, incomplete sentences, and interruptions the moment anyone tries to inform Grace about the school. It would be cool if there was some sort of spell or gaes preventing students or cousin from talking but nope…. everyone is just an idiot. To break up the monotony, Wolff tries to insert witt and humor by dropping pop references. Ugh… no, just no. Pop references dates a story and ages a character. I don’t believe a 17 year old would be into Silence of the Lambs or Top Gun or even heard of A Few Good Men. When that doesn’t work, the author randomly puts Grace in life and death situations and bid to keep eyeballs on her book.
After 250 pages, Grace finally learns Katmere’s open secret and story finally begins to open up. Grace sets out to learn about her follow paranormal student and she and Daxon start doing couple things and move on from meaningful stares. So yes, I advise everyone to read maybe the first 10 pages, just to get a feel for the writing and the characters, then skip ahead 250ish pages. You won’t miss anything. The author has this annoying habit of rehashing events thus contributing to the ridiculous page count. I start to get interested and hopeful. Then the ending came and… oooohhh… it is something AWFUL.
The thing about having a non-exisiting plot and ignorant main character is that an author can literally pull whatever contrived plot out their behind and make it canonical. And that’s exactly what happened. I’m not going to spoil it .
All I got to say that it might be wise to put the book down at page 423. Pick up the book at that final chapter 64 if you want to see that little ending twist. Even that might not be worth it you’re not intending to pick up the second books.
TL:DR version, heh, sorry I had to. The book has this “charming” penchant of characters literally vocalizing text/l33t speak. Crave is not a good read at all. It’s lacking on both the paranormal and romance fronts. Grace is a bland and insufferable character. It’s annoying how she feels sorry for various people who are trying to kill her. She spends too much time playing armchair-therapist. There’s too much time wasted with people standing around staring at her. If all those scenes were cut, the book would have probably trim down at least 200 hundred pages. Not having an informed Grace from the get-go was a terrible decision on the author’s part. I didn’t bother with Jaxon’s viewpoint chapters because they were just padding on an already bloated book. Seriously, why would I want to reread dialog and scene action that was in the story proper.
The book gets a two star rating just from the potential lost from not bothering to explain about the lore of castle or the creatures
Unless they are free or heavily discounted to a dollar or two, I’m going to pass on the other books in the series.
About Tracy Wolf Author Of Crave Book
Tracy Wolff Author Of Crave Book, She is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of sixty-four novels that run the gamut from young adult action adventures to new adult romance and from women’s fiction to erotica. A long-time lover of vampires, dragons and all things that go bump in the night, Tracy loves nothing more than combining her affection for paranormal creatures with her love of writing tortured heroes and kick-butt heroines. When she’s not writing (which is a rare occurrence), she can be found trying out new recipes, offering make-up tips online, wandering comic book/gaming stores with her sons, and watching movies or plotting stories with her besties. A one time English professor, she now writes full-time from her home in Austin, Texas, which she shares with her family. She also writes as Tracy Deebs and Tessa Adams.
Crave pdf, Paperback, Hardcover Book Information
- Publisher : Entangled: Teen; First Edition, 5th printing (April 7, 2020)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 592 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1640638954
- ISBN-13 : 978-1640638952
- Reading age : 14 – 18 years
- Grade level : 10 – 12
- Item Weight : 1.5 pounds
- Dimensions : 6.1 x 2.05 x 8.45 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #1,632 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #7 in Teen & Young Adult Coming of Age Fantasy
- #10 in Teen & Young Adult Vampire Fiction
- #13 in Teen & Young Adult Paranormal Romance
- Customer Reviews: 4.4 out of 5 stars 18,965 ratings
Get A Copy Of Crave pdf Or Paperback By Tracy Wolf
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