Review: Bloodrose (Nightshade #3) by Andrea Cremer

Bloodrose
Author: Andrea Cremer
Series: Nightshade #3

Synopsis (goodreads): Calla has always welcomed war. But now that the final battle is upon her, there’s more at stake than fighting. There’s saving Ren, even if it incurs Shay’s wrath. There’s keeping Ansel safe, even if he’s been branded a traitor. There’s proving herself as the pack’s alpha, facing unnamable horrors, and ridding the world of the Keepers’ magic once and for all. And then there’s deciding what to do when the war ends. If Calla makes it out alive, that is.

In the final installment of the Nightshade trilogy, New York Times bestselling author Andrea Cremer creates a novel with twists and turns that will keep you on the edge of your seat until its final pages. A dynamic end to this breathtaking trilogy.

Review

Note: If you haven't read any of the other Nightshade series books, I advise you to not read past this first paragraph. This review contains spoilers from the previous books.

I can't even begin to describe how amazing this book is. It took a turn I wasn't even expecting at all, and I'm still having trouble deciding whether I like where she took the story line or if I'm upset by it. I will say that I was completely caught off guard and the thought never even crossed my mind that it would end up like it did.

Bloodrose picks up where Wolfsbane left off. Calla is back in Vail to rescue Ren who, we discover at the end of Wolfsbane, is actually Adne's older brother. After convincing Ren that the Searchers are the good guys and it was actually Emile and the Keepers that betrayed him, they all arrive back at the Academy, to Shay's horror. Calla's world begins to spin out of control. She has two alpha males literally fighting for her attention when they should be focusing on how to retrieve the other pieces of the Elemental Cross to win a war that's being going on for far too long. There is a lot of action in this book, between Shay and Ren fighting over Calla, the Searchers and Guardians at the Academy going to each of the sites that have the pieces to the Elemental Cross within their depths, fighting against the Keepers and the Guardians who chose to stay and the Guardians who the sites. Many people are lost in battle, some of which I never expected would die. It was heartbreaking.

I will admit that at times I really didn't like Calla in this book. Throughout the series she's gone back and forth between Shay and Ren, not knowing who she cared for more or who she wanted to be with, and I've sympathized with her. She's been confused from learning that her entire life has been a lie, and it's been hard on her, thinking her whole life that she was going to be with Ren and that her duty was to protect the Keepers from the Searchers. But when she ran away to save Shay, that all changed. She discovered that the Keepers were actually the bad guys, and she suddenly had a choice. She could be with and do whatever she wanted, but she couldn't get Ren out of her head. Once he came to the Academy, I thought, "Okay. Now Ren is here and she'll finally decide on one of them", but all she did was go back and forth again. Even after all the things that happened between her and Shay before they rescued Ren. At that point, I started to get frustrated. It was like she had absolutely no self-control around either of the boys. I get that the Keepers kept her sheltered from any kind of physical contact with a male, but still. She should've had more control than that. She did finally choose in the end, but at some moments in the book I wanted to jump into the page and smack her just to remind her that she's messing with the feelings of two guys who were madly in love with her.

Like I said before, the ending was an absolute shock to me. I never even saw it coming. It wasn't at all how I imagined it to go, but it was still a beautiful ending to a story filled with a lot of hatred, anger, violence, and bitterness. I truly enjoyed reading this series and I'm looking forward to reading the prequel to this wonderful story.

I rate this book: