Calla Tor was born for a purpose. She was raised as a alpha of the Nightshade pack, and on her eighteenth birthday, she will be mated to the young alpha of the Bane pack. She will form a new pack with him, to fight for and defend the Keepers and their sacred sites.
But when a new human moves into town, he makes Calla question everything she ever thought about the Keeper's cruel system. Calla finds herself falling in love all too quickly - too bad, since she's already claimed. Will she be able to lay down everything, even her life, for a forbidden love?
Entertainment: ★★★★★
I've been looking forward to this book for almost a year now - you may remember my participation in a little promotion project. I can't believe it's taken me this long to get around to reading Nightshade - especially since it was quite as good as I expected.
Plot: ★★★★★
Very interesting & exciting. The romance didn't overwhelm the intrigue/adventure side of the plot, instead serving as a tasteful non-gooey addition to it. It kept me on the edge of my seat for hours, with no idea how it would turn out. In fact, the ending was pretty startling - and now I can't wait for the next book!
Characters: ★★★
I liked Calla very much - I thought she was interesting, had great depth, and grew & changed over the course of the book. Her romance was interesting - all passion. I like that she didn't sit down and talk about her feelings for fifteen pages at a time, as heroines in love are apt to do; instead she sort of lived in the moment, which made for a character I really enjoyed.
That said, I didn't get the impression of any real depth to any of the side characters (although I did appreciate the tasteful inclusion of a few homosexual characters; it was well-done and much classier than in many of the novels I've read lately.) Shay, especially, was pretty and sweet but didn't seem to have much else going for him. Hopefully the next book(s) will allow him to expand into a proper love interest.
Writing: ★★★★★
Well-written, nothing to complain about here. In particular, I liked the dialogue. I thought it flowed nicely and was entertaining to read, not to mention seeming pretty realistic.
And I don't really have a category for this, but I thought the book was beautiful. The cover is stunning, of course, and in addition there's these cool pages (at least in the hardback) at the beginning of each chapter that show a moon gradually getting full and then waning again; it's interesting and I liked the artistic touch.
End Result: five stars.
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