Nightshade series, book three
Philomel, 2012 - Owned in personal collection
I finished Bloodrose the other day. While I was happy to know how the series turned out, and relieved that book three was better then book two, Wolfsbane, I was still disappointed in the trilogy as a whole. I will be donating them to my Library in hopes that some other reader finds them and loves them the way I’d hoped I would.
So, why was I disappointed?
While I didn’t have the visceral reaction some readers did, the way that Cremer wraps up Calla’s love story was too neat. Not only does one love interest get removed from the situation so that she doesn’t have to really make a choice, but she also has the one potential obstacle to her happiness with the other fairly neatly dealt with...I think 8 years ago when I bought these books maybe I would have been happier to just embrace the HEA, but between feeling emotionally removed from the characters and now expecting far more complexity from my main characters and book plots, I almost felt cheated. Real life is way messier than that and I just wanted...more I guess.
I was happy that Calla took a little more charge of her own destiny in this final book, but for a girl who was supposedly strong enough to inspire others she still felt somewhat wishy-washy to me. I felt more strongly connected and intrigued by side characters like Adne, Connor, and Bryn. Not to mention Sabine. Honestly, Sabine was the character I wanted Calla to be...the choices she continuously made were difficult, but you never doubted her resolve. She knew what she wanted and what she was willing to do to get it. Even Calla said how she admired Sabine as their story progressed.
Final thought - An eventual mostly satisfying conclusion to the plotted storyline marred by a less than satisfying romantic plot.
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