I had the fortune of coming across this book in my digital local library. After reading the synopsis, I knew that it was for me.

Plot

DANICA SHARDAE IS an avian shapeshifter, and the golden hawk’s form in which she takes to the sky is as natural to her as the human one that graces her on land. The only thing more familiar to her is war: It has raged between her people and the serpiente for so long, no one can remember how the fighting began. As heir to the avian throne, she’ll do anything in her power to stop this war—even accept Zane Cobriana, the terrifying leader of her kind’s greatest enemy, as her pair bond and make the two royal families one.

Trust. It is all Zane asks of Danica—and all they ask of their people—but it may be more than she can give.

I won’t lie. This wasn’t the most original plot I’ve ever heard, but I feel that it was handled with such care, that I loved it. Danica is the princess of her people, and Zane is a prince. Their kingdoms have been at war for centuries, making the feud between the Capulets and Montague’s look like a childish spat. I genuinely thought that this had the potential to be a tragedy, much like Romeo and Juliet or Tristan and Isolde. At first, their union is tenuous at best, what with the lack of trust. Getting to know Zane better from Danica’s perspective was very interesting. I enjoyed seeing their relationship blossom slowly.

Where I do draw the line, however, is the ‘mystery’. Granted that I didn’t uncover one of the assassins myself, it was otherwise very obvious who the other one was at least. The idea that Zane might be surprised is understandable, but Danica really should have known better. I do wish that the novel had more twists and turns, but this is why I believe that it is more of a character driven novel, rather than a plot driven one. For what it is, it is a rather gripping tale, however. I finished it in one sitting, on my iPhone, until about 2AM because I’d started it late.

World Building

The creatures that A.R. created were altogether unique. Admittedly, the Serpiente were my favourite. All the characters are shifters, and they have inherited their second form from an animal. Therefore, Zane is a cobra, and Danica is a hawk. I liked the differences that they had, but I liked that Zane did point out that both had something in common: They both descended from humans and had a human form. I really enjoyed the old world feel it had, although from what I recall, the date is never specified. Or if it is, it isn’t clear whether it is the same year for the humans, as their societies are different.

Characters 

World Building

I’ve read a few vampire novels, and of course my natural progression was to find a werewolf book, and then voila, I found Nightshade. At first, I was under the belief that it would purely be a werewolf novel, no other paranormals in sight.  I was wrong, but that wasn’t a problem. It made for a more interesting novel.

Now, what really gets to me is how we are told that the ‘Searchers’ are the bad guys, but we don’t know why. It’s just what we’re told, and for some reason our MC, Calla, is trained to kill them. I suppose on some level it makes sense as this is all Calla knows. She’s been brought up never to question her masters, the Keepers, of which Lumine Nightshade is her main mistress. The packs are named after their head Keeper, thus the Banes are named after Efron Bane, and the Nightshades after Lumine Nightshade. I wish this had been explained earlier.

It is also never really explained why the Searchers and the Keepers hate each other, except for the fact that the Keepers pretty much behave like iron-fisted dictators. Not to mention that they hunt the Searchers to kill. Well, not personally of course. That’s what the Guardians (the werewolves) are there for. By now you are probably wondering what the Keepers and Searchers actually are. At the beginning of the novel, Calla’s ‘school mates’ are divided into three major categories: Guardians, Keepers and humans. This hints that the Keepers are not human, unfortunately it takes forever for Calla to actually spell it out to the reader that they are WITCHES! Would telling us this nearer to the beginning of the book have been so painful? Just wondering.

 But why would a werewolf have a master? Surely it goes against the instincts of an alpha to take orders. This was mentioned in another blog I read, and if I’m honest, I hadn’t thought about it too much up until then. I’ve come to realise that if I question things too much in a YA book, I won’t enjoy myself as much because I’ll be too absorbed in the impossibility of such a situation. So naturally, when I was told that Guardians had to be submissive to their masters, I was like ‘OK’. Now I’m thinking ‘Why didn’t Ren totally bite Efron Bane’s head off?’, considering the way he treats Sabine.

Romance

Character Summary

So I’ve already covered aspects of this, so this paragraph won’t be long. Cremer has added quite a few interesting characters in her novel. I quite liked Calla’s younger brother Ansel. I know right? Ansel? I thought he was a girl! Cremer doesn’t seem to do ‘normal’ names. Another example is Dax. I’m sorry Cremer but Dax is the stuff that my dad and I used to use in our hair. It kept my hair nice and shiny, thanks to the sheen stuff and it kept it oiled (which with Afro hair is very important! My hair is forever getting dry and breaking!).

Enough mockery now. I generally liked the characters and I enjoyed the dynamic between the Banes and Nightshades. Their interactions were fascinating, and I was forever wondering when someone would do or say something bad enough to cause a fight. Let’s face it- they’re ANIMALS!

Now here’s for the important part:

Calla

A capable and strong warrior, Calla Tor should be everything you look for in a main female character. She is loyal to her packmates, she can hold her own in a fight and from time to time she can even control her infatuation with bad boy Ren. I like that she’s a tom-boy. One of the quotes that comes to mind when referring to make-up is:

Final Rating