Vampires, and Werewolves, and Dragons, Oh My!

Calling all monster lovers, I have the book for you! Sticking to the spooky theme for October, I have the perfect book suggestion for the perfect, cozy fall night in. This book was the most anticipated YAL novel of 2020, and I can agree it was such a good read. It was so good that any chance I had I was reading it. I couldn’t put it down.

Crave by Tracey Wolff has it all from haunting far off places hidden in the Alaskan wilderness to a fun and flirty hate-to-love relationship between the main characters. I really enjoyed everything this book had to offer. From the very first page, I was hooked and hanging onto every word. I am not really into vampire books, but I actually thought this one was very well done. This is Wolff’s first book I can say she really hit the nail on the head with this one. While some might take this as another Twilight wanna-be, I think people who both are and aren’t fans of the ultimate vampire book will really like this one. I thought it was just another parody of Meyer’s work, but it wasn’t.

I first found out about this book from Instagram; Every time I went to scroll through my feed this book would pop up. So, I caved and decided to preorder it. This book came out in April, and since I was still quarantined with nothing to do, I thought why not? I never have time to read for pleasure during the school year, so I obviously had to take advantage of this opportunity. Plus, the semester was winding down, and my workload wasn’t as heavy as normal.

As soon as I got it in the mail, I started reading it, and for the next three days I didn’t do anything else. This book was not a hard read at all, and the hardback cover had bigger print so it was easy to read through each page quickly. The characters are what really drew me in because I am a sucker for the arc of the mysterious bad boy and quiet new girl. It might be an overdone arc, but I still love it and will never get tired of it. It screams Young Adult Literature romance, but I think that’s why so many people will love it so much. The characters are also so vibrant and really jump off the page. Side note: there is a character named Macy! While it is not the same spelling as my name, I still appreciate another Macy. Anyways, back to what I was saying, Wolff really brings the characters to life. I was able to connect with them so easily, and I love when I feel like I know the characters on a more personal level.

There are also many other traditional tropes throughout this book, such as, the new girl trying to fit it, the out-going and funky best friend, parents are out of the picture, a strange new place with a lot of secrets, flirty popular boy takes interest in the quiet new girl, mysterious bad boy has to stay away from new girl, new girl warned of mysterious bad boy, etc. All of these have been done before, but I think Wolff brings something new to the table. When you’re reading the book, it doesn’t feel like these have been done time and time again because like I’ve been saying its all about the characters.

Also, there is a second book called Crush. It is already out in stores! It came out in September, and I have yet to get a copy which is just insane. I am so ready to dive back into this world. I also just want to say that releasing a book in April and then September is VERY unusual for authors. Most take a year from the previous book release to come out with the next one. All the writing, editing, and publishing processes take a long time, but Tracey Wolff was able to pump out two decent-sized books out in a year! AND the third book is set to released in March of 2021, again, another fast release! As an avid book reader this is fantastic news. I don’t know though, if this will be a trilogy or if Wolff plans on expanding the series even further either way, I am very excited to see where this series will go.