The Clann: Crave (#1)

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.