The Clann: Crave (#1)

Must I say - I love when there is a twist in vampire stories. Why should the guy always be the vampire, not the girl? So, basically Crave pulled me for most of that reason - Savannah is a vampire going through her, er, vampire puberty and there is Tristan, her ex and totally off limits to her. Both their families have warned them to stay away from each other and while I found the Clann's reason plausible, the Vampire Council one did not make much sense - they were that afraid of a fledgling vampire? Anyways, leaving that aside, I felt the book to be quite good - the pace was good, even though I felt it was dragging in the middle. The development of the relationship between Tristan and Savannah was so sweet - I do love Tristan, he is such a great boyfriend, even if acting a teeny bit obsessed. But compared to the stalkers she had (which I actually found hilarious for some reason), he was pretty mild. Also, I want to have Anne as my best friend - pretty please? I found all the characters to be well-written, even Emily with her big-sister helpfulness, and Savannah's nana - even though major part of the book deals with only Savannah and Tristan. As for the ending, well - the prologue pretty much gave it away so I wasn't surprised - just dreading it and now dreading it even more because of what might happen in the next book.

Crave by Melissa Darnell (The Clann #1)
January 4, 2013 by Teen Blurb

Crave by Melissa Darnell (The Clann #1)“No, no time for guilt right now. I had to focus on passing this test, and then we could go home. Just one test to pass. A test I was genetically destined to fail.“

-Melissa Darnell, Crave

Savannah Colbert has been a social outcast her entire life. Growing up in a small town where the “Aristocracy” are a group called “The Clann”, Savannsh has no idea why they call her a “freak” and why when she was in fourth grade her best friends turned on her.

Tristan Coleman is drawn to Savannah, like a moth to a flame. Being a the heir to The Clann throne is not what Tristan wants. He wants to be a normal kid and get a football scholarship, but his parents have other plans for him. Tristan keeps trying to stay away from Savannah, but the attraction is too strong.

Savannah discovers a dark secret about her linage-will Tristan still look at her the same way when he finds out? What Savannah doesn’t know is that Tristan has a secret too-one that could tear them apart.

This tale of two star-crossed lovers is “Romeo and Juliet” meets “The Secret Circle”. Melissa Darnell has created a story that has you conspiring with Savannah and Tristan so that they can be together.

You will laugh, cry, fight, and wonder with the characters. Move over Twilight, and welcome The Clann series!

Crave has a gorgeous cover, and an interesting publisher’s summary that really draws you in, and makes you want to read the book. It sounds really intriguing, to say the least.

A chapter or two into this book, and I fell in love with the author’s writing. It was really vivid and descriptive and, well, magical. I felt like I was there with the characters, watching everything unfold. It flowed really nicely from page to page, and the speed stayed consistent. This book switched POV’s from Savannah to Tristan, but the switches seemed natural, the flow never once breaking. Normally, forbidden romances aren’t really my thing, but the way the author wrote it made it seem almost fresh and new. She had a web of complicated back-stories, yet she writes it in a way that makes sense, and they feel really intriguing. I felt myself wanting to know more, more, more.

Unfortunately, though the speed stayed consistent, it stayed consistently slow. I felt like Crave could’ve been an introduction or a prequel to an actual novel, as nothing really happened until I was nearly three quarters through the book. So that was about 300 pages of, well, very slow plot development, if any. The publisher’s official summary sounded so promising and had a lot of potential and, reading Crave, I was rather disappointed, to say the least.

I found myself putting this down quite a few times not only because of the pace, but because of the character’s choices, and how everything was set up. Savannah… everything she was told seemed to go in one ear, and come out the other. Frankly, she hardly listened to anyone, and barged headfirst into decisions that seemed obviously wrong.

And, while the back-stories were intriguing and enticing, the actual story at hand wasn’t as intriguing or enticing. The author had created a complicated, magical word of witches, vampires, and mortals. She could honestly expand her story in any direction she’d like. It held so much promise, and I was really looking forward to seeing what she’d do with her story. But here, I found another disappointment. Because the author didn’t really do anything about the vampires or the witches. Most of the plot was centered around Savannah, Tristan, and their forbidden love. Now, I said at the beginning that the author made it seem fresh and new. And, at the beginning, she did. It seemed so out-of-the-ordinary. But as the book progressed, she just seemed to drop back into a typical Romeo and Juliet story, and…

I’ve seen some really high ratings and gushing reviews of this, so I guess I might just be a sour apple and a picky reader? The author’s writing was amazing, and one of the highlights to this story. It has a deep, complicated love story, and a somewhat original idea behind it all. If you’re a fan of paranormal romances, you might want to check this out.

Savannah Colbert has a strange attraction to Tristan, the egotistical jock who stopped talking to her in fourth grade. Tristan has a strange attraction to Savannah, a cute redhead who he is forbidden to speak to. And he doesn’t know why. The tagline really says it all: Secrets, Bloodlust, Magic (The Clann)

I desperately wanted to fall in love with Crave. My arms were wide open, ready to embrace any twists and turns that came along with the fellow characters within the 400-some page magic and bloodlust novel. The narration switches first-person between Savannah and Tristan, and the first fifty pages were a little info dumpy, but it didn’t deter me from reading because I wanted to see where the book progressed. When the narration switched to Tristan, I was drawn in a bit because the Clann was somewhat intriguing. Sadly, the intrigue got squashed by the characters. I feel like if you take out who is narrating (i.e. Tristan or Savannah) you wouldn’t be able to pick which, their voices way too similar. The dialogue for the most part between all the characters fell in the same category. Except for Anne, Savannah’s loud and confident best friend. Some of my favorite moments were with Anne speaking her mind and bantering with Tristan.

The book was well written (I could picture everything) and there was a strong voice, but that strong voice belonged to each and every character to where I just couldn’t connect to anyone. If the plot was a little faster, I may have lasted longer with the book. But I stopped at a little over two hundred pages. It kills me inside to put a book down, knowing I’ll never come back to it. And it also kills me to give a poor rating when I know the author is talented and poured her heart in this story. I sadly give it two stars, but I do think other readers may enjoy Crave, particularly those who like high school romances similar to Twilight, Gossip Girl, or The A-List series. For me, however, Crave just didn’t make me hungry for more.

I just want to say that I really like the cover. No idea why, I just really do.

Crave had an interesting concept. Sure, there was the typical forbidden love thing going on, and it was full of secret societies, so it's not like it was a new idea, but the way the Clann worked was interesting. They're the typical dictators, in a way, but they were still different. more interesting. They've told every member of the Clann that they're not supposed to have anything to do with Savannah and because of that, Savannah is subjected to bullying every day.

And then she changes. I thought Savannah bought it a little too easily when her parents explained to her that she was becoming half vampire, half witch. She only thought it was a joke for about ten seconds.

Tristan and Savannah were great characters. Tristan doesn't want to follow in his father's footsteps, and in a way, Savannah is the same way. She doesn't want to be what her father is. And I felt bad for both of them - other people kept trying to control their lives.

Crave switched off between Tristan and Savannah's narration, and I just want to say that Darnell did a great job at making their narrations different. Savannah's was smoother, more beautiful, while Tristan's was much simpler. At the same time, though, I felt like something was missing from Savannah's narration. I think it was just because for the first half of the book, I couldn't relate to her. Once she started having more interactions with Tristan, I started to feel a lot better about her. And Tristan? I loved him. Even when he wasn't talking to Savannah, he was still trying to protect her.

The secondary characters are where I really had problems, mainly on Savannah's side. Her best friend, Anne, annoyed the heck out of me. I feel like she always made Savannah sound weak when she was talking about her. And Savannah's mom? Her mom was the kind of parent most teenagers hate and constantly want to rebel against. She was controlling Savannah's life and she was always telling Savannah it was going to be okay. There were times I seriously questioned if her mom was just that naive, or if she was just trying to make Savannah feel better, which I think was pointless considering what was happening.

Overall: I may have had some issues with it, but I really loved the plot, especially the last fourth of the book, which was full of twists. The romance between Tristan and Savannah never felt like it was going too fast or too slow, and Darnell managed to turn a cliche concept into something I found really interesting. 4 stars.