Rift (Nightshade Prequel #1) by Andrea Cremer

I was very lucky to get this ARC at BEA and even get it autographed by the author!  I was very excited to read this book.  I love the Nightshade series, you can see my reviews of the books here:  Nightshade, Wolfsbane, and Bloodrose.  So I was very interested to go back and learn where it all started.  Yeah, we got the history run down in Wolfsbane, and then of course more in Bloodrose.  But to go back and actually follow the people from the history, well that is what makes me enjoy learning about REAL history.
So, knowing all this, at first, I was a little disappointed.  I don't know why, but for some reason my brain didn't think that we'd go quite so far back in time.  But once I kind of figured out that we kind of had to in order to get to the beginning of the story, I really got into the story and was hooked!  As with the original series, we have a strong girl as our main character.  Only now, we're in more medieval times, when women were expected to marry well to bring their family money and status.  Never should they be warriors.  And yet our main character is Ember, and she has gone off on her own into to practice with a fake sword, for as long as she could.  She could never let her family know, they wouldn't understand, and her father is a bit of a tyrant.  But her friend, the family friend, Alistair, when he comes back, now as a guard of the Conatus, he does know, and has always known she wants this.  Ember is promised to Conatus as repayment when her mother was having trouble giving birth to her, and they helped out. Her father does not want to lose her, it would be losing her possible marriage to another lord's son that would help his family.  But Ember cannot wait to be free and get the chance to do what she wants!
Her family is escorted to Tearmunn, where the "convent" or place of the Conatus is.  Ember must choose a path, the paths are between being a warrior, knowledge, and crafts. She chooses the warrior room, and soon must face a trial.  And the trial is something she never knew was real.  A creature, dead, yet living.  And she is able to defeat it.  When she comes out, she is welcomed into the Guard.  She now must train.  At first she believes she will be training with the other female guard member, Sorcha.  But when her father once again protests, Barrow says he will train her.  And now she is training with this man who she is in awe of.  He seems to be a great leader, as well as really know the way of a warrior.  As they train, she feels differently about him.  But she is not sure how.  Alistair surprises her by making a pass, saying he knows that this is why she became a warrior, so she could be with him.  This is of course not true, and her relationship becomes strained with him.
The Guard must fight many different supernatural creatures, as terrible things begin happening in the villages surrounding them.  One of the Conatus members is sucked in to the evil, by a name we've heard before, Bosque Mar.  He wants to make a deal to help the Conatus with these evil creatures, such as wraiths, again creatures we know from the Nightshade series.  We're left at the end with all of the Guard and other members of the Conatus having to choose to leave quietly to escape the evil that is taking over, or to choose to be a part of the new group.
And now, I have to read on!!  Can't wait for the next book in the series!

Feature and Follow Friday 6-1-12

Since I don't seem to be doing these weekly, or I wasn't because of how busy I was with school, I think instead of saying #1, etc., I'll post them as the date they are.  Feature and Follow Friday is a joint effort between bloggers to increase your following. It is hosted by Parajunkee and Alison Can Read. The point of the hop is to gain new followers, but also to follow others. According to Parajunkee this week, I follow you, you follow me. This week's question is:

Q: You are a matchmaker — your goal, hook up two characters from two of your favorite books. Who would it be? How do you think it would go?

This is a hard question for me!    But let's see, how about Jacob from Twilight, and Calla from the Nightshade series?  They're both werewolves, in their own way.  Both are pack leaders, which is similar to what Calla dealt with Ren about.  Except Jacob only became his own small pack leader at the end when he was doing what he felt was right, kind of like Calla left with Shay because she knew it wasn't right to kill him.  

So, what characters would you try to set up?

Nightshade by Andrea Cremer

This was another of the Penguin YA advanced readers books I got back in August. Wasn't sure if I'd like it. The cover is a little freaky for my taste. I know, I know, don't judge a book by its cover, but be honest, it's hard not to just a little. Anyway, this is another new take on werewolves and love triangles. Once I got into it, I really wanted to keep reading and finish it. Our main character is Calla. She is the alpha wolf of her pack, the nightshades. Since she was a baby she has been promised to marry Renier, the alpha male of another pack, the Wolfbanes. The plan is to combine the two packs into one in order to create a new young pack. In this case, the werewolves are guardians for the Keepers. They protect sacred sites from the Searchers.

The book begins with Calla saving a hiker from a grizzly bear. Something she shouldn't do. She even changes from a wolf to human form to save his life by giving him her blood. Now you might think this is how to create a new werewolf, but it is actually only part of it. They also have some incantation they must recite at the same time, so no, the hiker isn't changed. However, he soon shows up at the private school, in Vail, where Calla and Ren go to school. Turns out, his name is Shay, and he is the nephew of a big wig in the Keepers. And his uncle asks the young wolves to keep an eye out for him. Shay of course remembers what happened to him with Calla. And is intrigued by her. He also knows there are mysterious things going on in this school/town, and sets out to find out what is going on.

Calla is also intrigued by Shay. But one thing we can't tell for sure from this book is if she loves both Shay and Ren. It seems that she cares for both. And while she does tell Shay she loves him, she doesn't say it to Ren, but from her reactions to Ren's advances, it would seem she is interested in some way.

The end is quite a cliffhanger. It seems, as always, that the Keepers aren't quite the good guys that Calla was brought up to believe. And not only does it leave off at a cliff hanger, leading me to believe there is a sequel, when I typed the name in on Goodreads.com, there were sequels already listed, more than one. The fact that there are already this many planned sequels, makes me feel like I should give up my writing aspirations. I have story ideas in my head, but not enough to even finish or flesh out the story for one book, let alone a series. I guess I figure there are so many good authors out there, why should I bother throwing my crap out to be judged and rejected? So, currently debating whether to go ahead and do NaNoWriMo and write my stories just for me, like Stephenie Meyer said she does, instead of thinking what will be an actual published book. Or, to not waste my time. Thinking I'll have so much going on this November with my new online teaching job, that it might be a good idea not to worry about it this year.

Anyway, the book was good, and I'm eagerly awaiting the sequel, which who knows how long till that comes out, because this is an advance readers copy of a book that doesn't come out till October.