Bloodrose: A Nightshade Novel [Hardcover]

 

 

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The Nightshade series has wormed its way into my heart, and after reading the first two I was utterly enthralled and dove right into the third,and final, book of the series.

There is always something bittersweet about ending a series because it's just so permanent. Good books bring you into their world; and I found myself personally invested in the outcome of Bloodrose and its characters.

I want to say this: Bloodrose broke me a bit. Forget the throat, these wolves went straight for the heart and didn't leave anything behind. And I am going to try very, very hard to write a review that explains my position without spoiling anything. So yes, as always, this review is SPOILER-FREE (although it may contain spoilers for the first two books).

Reasons to Read:

1.'A strong, captivating beginning:

I was overjoyed as I was reading the first half of the book, as everything seemed to be turning out the way I hoped it would! Calla really impressed me with how she stood up for herself and you could finally see her coming around as an independent young woman/wolf. Her maturity becomes evident in so many ways (until she seems to falter a bit...) and you can really see how far she's come in the three books.Also, there are some really great scenes and plotlines involving Ren which were very well done.

2.Unexpected characters:

I appreciated that Andrea took the time to develop some secondary characters that hadn't been dealt with much in Wolfsbane or Nightshade; Sabine ended up being one I thought was extremely well done in this way. I'm one of those readers who enjoys understanding secondary characters and their roles, both independently and in relation to the main characters. So I was ecstatic with how many people were further explored.
3.Adventure and death:

It's war, and the last book of the series- you just know there are going to be some deaths. It's realistic to assume so, and I'm not going to reveal who dies, but there are some characters who we end up losing. But all of it takes place in the midst of the greatest adventure we have yet to see in the Nightshade world- finally we are off exploring and acting on this brilliant plan that Wolfsbane spent the entire time thinking up and proposing. FINALLY. It's extremely satisfying, but don't let that fool you- it's scary and leaves you holding your breath. Often.

I'm going to restrain myself from going on a spoiler-filled rant now; because there were a couple issues I had with Bloodrose. I'll save the spoiler chat for you another day (SOON). I will say that Calla did not live up to my expectations. I mentioned above that I loved her in the beginning- well, I didn't love her by the end. I felt like she had taken steps forward only to take a few strides back to where she was. It felt unnecessary to me, and I kept wanting to grab her by the shoulders screaming "WHY ARE YOU DOING THAT?!" hoping to knock some sense into her. Alas, that did not help.

Also, the ending- say what?! It felt like a HUGE build up to being left with so little. All of this action and choices being made, and I just kind of sat there scratching my head, wondering what on earth had just happened. And why everyone in the book seemed so accpeting of it. So, overall? I liked it. But I didn't love it the way I loved the first two books. I was really hoping for more, and maybe I was just too optimistic. It could also just be that I'm sad that it's over and it was fun while it lasted, but now it's finished. I just really wanted to be left with something more besides nursing my aching heart.

ARC received from Penguin Canada for review; no other compensation was received.

This series didn't hook me right away. Book one was ok, book two became wonderfully dark, and this third and final book left me with chills. I loved the unconventional elements - there were some very surprising twists on generic situations. I was getting horribly sick of love triangles, magic swords, prophecies, etc, etc, but Andrea Cremer brought new life to a sometimes tedious genre. What a delightful book to encounter!

I would have rated this less than a 1 if I could have.

After so much promise in the first two this last edition of the trilogy was an extreme let down. Depth of feeling was missing, sincerity went out the window.Calla who was likeable in the first two - became a manipulative selfish player casting honesty out the window. The characters in this book seemed far more one dimensional than they were in the other two.

The death was predicatable - rather than resolve this phoney triangle in a meaningful heartfelt and sincere way the author sadly chose to just kill off what she apparently perceived as the fly in Calla's ointment. Instead of forcing Calla face the situation she created and contributed to - her dishonesty to one character was rewarded by not being forced to own up to anything and being allowed to trot off to her happy ever after at the end. I barely made it through to the end of the book because by then I couldn't care less what happened to the characters anymore. The supposed great love story aside from showing a few lustful moments that held no depth had no magic, no substance. I suppose we were supposed to care about them but I thought the character that died held far greater depth and interest than what we were left with at the end. Very dissapointing. EPIC FAIL.

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