Nightshade (Nightshade Series #1)

by Andrea Cremer

Overview

Calla is the alpha female of a shape-shifting wolf pack. She is destined to marry Ren Laroche, the pack's alpha male. Together, they would rule their pack together, guarding sacred sites for the Keepers. But then, Calla saves a beautiful human boy, who captures her heart. Calla begins to question everything - her fate, her existence, and her world and the orders the Keepers have asked her to follow. She will have to make a choice. But will she follow her heart if it means losing everything, including her own life?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781101198346
Publisher:	Penguin Young Readers Group
Publication date:	10/19/2010
Series:	Nightshade Series , #1
Sold by:	Penguin Group
Format:	eBook
Pages:	496
Sales rank:	108,746
File size:	1 MB
Age Range:	14 - 17 Years

About the Author

Andrea Cremer spent her childhood daydreaming while roaming the forests and lakeshores of Northern Wisconsin. She now lives in Minnesota, but she thinks of her homeland as the "Canadian Shield" rather than the Midwest.

Andrea has always loved writing and has never stopped writing, but she only recently plunged into the deep end of the pool that is professional writing. When she's not writing, Andrea teaches history at a very nice liberal arts college in St. Paul.

In the little spare time she can find, Andrea stares up at trees, rescues infant rabbits from predatory cats, and invents names for pug puppies with her husband. She has an unfortunate tendency to spill things—white carpets beware!

Editorial Reviews

Cremer's first novel stretches the current vogue in high school teen romance from vampires to werewolves. Granted it is not that much of a stretch, but it feels somehow healthier. It also helps that Cremer has dispensed with any problems of disbelief by simply invoking the "magic" word. Thus the seventeen-year-old-on-the-cusp-of eighteen heroine, Calla Tor, can whisk from attractive, fully clothed female to luxuriously furred, alpha wolf and pack leader in the blink of an eye. Back again, too, with nary a fear of mussed hair. But there is trouble afoot in Calla's home territory—Vail, Colorado, and its surrounding forested mountains. The trouble begins with the arrival of Shay—a human—into Calla's private Mountain School and life. Suddenly the were-world unfolds into its levels: the Guardians (Calla and her wolves-in-disguise family and friends), and the Keepers (the masters of the Guardians—all with highly developed perverse tastes.) And maybe scarier levels waiting in the wings? When Calla learns she must combine her pack with her male alpha rival Ren's, the joyous hunting runs in wolfish form change their tenor. Other issues appear, too: Can Calla love a human and keep her pack safe? What has she actually been guarding all these years? And what really happens on Blood Moon Night when the cusp turns and she becomes eighteen? Suffice it to say that Calla's first-person tale is a page turner and should have adolescent girls flocking for it in droves. And when they have consumed it? Never fear. Andrea Cremer has a sequel waiting in the wings. Reviewer: Kathleen Karr

Children's Literature - Kathleen Karr

Teenage werewolves dominate an exclusive high school in Vail, Colo., in this supernatural thriller. Something else dominates the werewolves. Calla, the alpha female of the Nightshade pack, is scheduled to mate with Ren, the alpha male of the Bane pack. She develops divided loyalties, however, when Shay, a human she's assigned to protect, begins to fascinate her... This may be sounding familiar, and also recognizable is the novel's sexual tension: The mere touch of either Ren or Shay can drive Calla to uncontrollable, ultimate bliss, to the extent that her urges sometimes overpower the plot. The portrayal of the animal instincts and behavior of the wolf-teens rings true, however, and Cremer builds a compelling world, moving her plot forward with well-paced drive that easily holds readers' interest. On the surface, this is not much more than an imaginative B-grade paranormal-suspense story. The book's underlying themes of individualism and freedom, however, lift it to a higher level, and they will probably have a chance to play out in a sequel--one readers won't have to feel too guilty about looking forward to. (Paranormal romance. 14 & up)

Kirkus Reviews