Maitreyi Bharath
We as readers tend to overuse the phrase “I couldn’t put this book down”. I’ve devoured a host of books over the years. There aren’t many books that keep me hanging on to every word, transport me into a whole other world, and make me impatiently flip pages until there aren’t any left to turn.
Tracy Wolff’s Crave has most definitely secured a place in this special category. Wolff has crafted a whole new world filled with plot twists, paranormals, romance, hilariously horrible jokes, and wonderfully in-depth characters that will have you craving for more with each inked syllable.
We begin on a freezing day in Alaska. Grace Foster’s parents have died in a car accident, turning Grace into an orphan. Now she’s been forced to move from the warm beaches of California to the freezing landscapes of Alaska, where she will live with an uncle and cousin she hasn’t seen for almost a decade.
When Grace gets to Katmere Academy, where her uncle is the headmaster, things feel off. Right off the bat, she bumps into the devastatingly beautiful and supremely cold Jaxon Vega. The tension between them is hot and immediate, but Grace sees through Jaxon’s intimidating exterior and uncovers “an agony so deep I [Grace] can barely see it behind the layers and layers of defenses he’s erected. But I can see it. More, I can feel it calling to my own pain.”
After 3 near-death experiences in her very first week, strange conversations with her friends, and developments in her relationship with Jaxon Vega, Grace is hit with new — and terrifying — information: Jaxon Vega is a vampire. And Grace’s cousin is a witch. In Katmere Academy’s part of Alaska, Grace is the only human around for miles.
As Grace navigates the newly twisted reality of her life, it becomes more and more clear that someone is trying to get rid of her. But who? And why?
Underneath all this tension, mystery, humor, and passion is a story about healing. Grace is recovering from the intense grief of losing her parents, while Jaxon is hiding his emotions and dark past deep inside himself. Tracy Wolff uses Grace, Jaxon, and their friends to illustrate the pain of losing someone and the need for a human — or non-human, in Grace’s case— connection to heal one’s wounds. The plot twists continuously reveal just how extreme and dangerous pain and grief can be, affecting one’s character and actions until it consumes one completely.
However, Crave may not be appropriate for readers below high school age. Crave is filled with rich detail and wonderful characters, but it also contains frequent cursing, gore, and slightly intimate scenes. Although I love the wonderful chemistry, action, and plot twists in Crave, I felt more comfortable skipping the more descriptive romantic and gory scenes of the book. Even without those scenes, I thoroughly enjoyed this book’s humor, characters, and Wolff’s amazing world-building.
Overall, Crave is an amazing novel, filled with humor, action, romance, and a beautiful story of letting go of the past and healing with loved ones. If you’re looking for your next favorite read, I guarantee that you really won’t be able to put this one down.
Image from Goodreads.com
The Eleight 
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