Reviews with content warning for Grief - Anhelo

Reviews tagging 'Grief'

Anhelo by Tracy Wolff

51 reviews

natgoe's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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michalaj10's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Was this the best book I've ever read? Not even close
Will I read the rest of the series? Absolutley, they're my new guilty pleasure.

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ashleyvharris's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

A fun, romantic vampire story that feels inspired by some of the 2000’s most popular YA series, most obviously, Twilight.

The derivativeness of book 1 is crystal clear, but Wolff never tries to hide that or pretend otherwise. She embraces the role that Twilight has played in her writing by briefly mentioning the book and acknowledges its existence in the world she’s created. Although, I think the execution of this scene isn’t quite smooth enough, I recognize Wolf’s intention.

I enjoyed the characters in Book 1 a lot. Most of them felt well-defined and dynamic. Jaxon Vega clearly a stand out as the tortured anti-hero, the final and additional chapters from his perspective were wonderful and added extra dimension to his character and those particular scenes.

Understanding this is Book 1 of a 4-book series, I couldn’t help but be a little frustrated with the ambiguity of some details. Wolff doesn’t dive into many specifics of how the supernaturals operate within the world she’s building which leaves a lot of gray area for readers. Other details, like
Amka’s note for Flint in the library or Lia and Jackson’s altercation in the gazebo
, are described but never explained.

Overall, the plot isn’t the strongest, but Wolf’s characters make up for much of it with witty dialogue and believable interactions. The real star here, much like in Twilight, is the love story. Grace and Jaxon have chemistry and tension for miles and it’s easy to root for them. I’m looking forward to what plot twists throw their course off track and how they find their way back to one another.

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leonormsousa's review against another edition

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adventurous funny lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

Is Crave the next literary masterpiece? Clearly not. Does it deliver everything that it promises? It sure as hell does! It’s funny and addicting and I honestly didn’t expect to enjoy it as much as I did. It’s the kind of book that keeps you hooked and entertained while maintaining a very lighthearted vibe. It almost feels like a bit of a parody on those typical vampire young adult stories and that’s exactly the kind of edge that makes it so interesting! It’s maybe not the kind of book where you’ll find the cream-of-the-top characters (and character development) or a plot that completely blows your mind but once again, that’s not what you are looking for in a book with such a comedic aspect to it (if you are, maybe it’s time to switch expectations). While I usually tend to almost “ignore” the titles of book chapters, Crave’s are so so good, that you’ll have a good laugh just scrolling through the content page. There’s not much else to say except that I’m now very upset that I decided to only read books I already own since I do not own book two in the series so I’ll have to wait to read it 😢 In the meanwhile I do recommend this book, although I think you really need to get into it with the right expectations to be able to enjoy it for what it is!

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theespressoedition's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

You know that it's a good book when you literally can't put it down, fly through it, and then have the worst book hangover ever after reading it. That's how I felt about Crave.

The best way to describe this book is a throwback to 2010's YA paranormal romance - and I loved every second of it. There's no depth. There's a ton of cringe. There's teen angst. There are all of my favorite paranormals (vampires, werewolves, dragons, witches, and gargoyles). There are moments that get your heart racing and other moments that make you roll your eyes. It was fantastic.

I buddy-read this book, and if you were to go through the comments we wrote during our buddy-read, you would be cackling. We were ridiculous with the number of times we predicted things, laughed over cliches, and just fangirled throughout the book. It was so fun to read with someone else who grew up loving the same kind of books as I did because it just made the experience even more enjoyable.

Honestly, if you were a Twilight or Vampire Academy fan, you will love this book. I'm gonna even go so far as to say "love this series" because even though I haven't read the rest yet, I can't see myself being anything less than obsessed with the next few installations in the series. In fact, I have a strong desire to just toss aside my carefully planned TBR to binge them all! It's that good.

Don't go into this thinking you're going to read some profound fantasy with political intrigue and emotional depth. Look elsewhere for that. But if you want something REALLY FUN and nostalgic, this is definitely the next book you should pick up!

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navyaaa's review against another edition

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funny lighthearted mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.0

Oh my god have I never hated reading a book so much. This book put me in a reading slump. You know that this book is going to be shitty in the first two chapters. The only aspect I feel like this book did justice to is the way trauma and grief are written. and even that doesn't really last very long.

If I was given this book when I was 14 or 15 I would've eaten it up. This is like a Wattpad book that is just worse. I read so many books that are better than this trainwreck on Wattpad that don't get any clout. I keep seeing that this book keeps getting compared to twilight. Honestly, reading twilight was better. Way better than reading a book where everything about the book is just insanely bad. It angers me so much that the most minimum expectation I had for this book ended up being very high. I knew it was not the best written or developed book but still, this was just bad. No offense to anyone who has loved the book but this was garbage and I would not continue reading this series or recommend it to anyone else.

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forthesanityof1's review against another edition

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adventurous lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

Read this on a whim for October because I wanted something with a bit of horror/supernatural in it. This was like an alternate timeline Twilight but Twilight was better. I liked the inclusion of different supernatural beings, but I wish their differences and attitudes were more fleshed out. It feels like I only learned about vampires with no real emphasis on the others. Even the vampire stuff was uninteresting until the end when they were talking about hormones in animal blood versus human blood and how that affects sensitivity to sunlight. That was super interesting. More lore please.

I also have a gripe with several other aspects of this book. I know it's YA and geared towards teens, but there are ways to make stories like this marketable to your target audience without talking about Harry Styles and Dr. Pepper and emoji pants. Those very specific details added nothing. I already knew how young the MC was from the beginning and from other aspects of the narrative. I also disliked the over-usage of text talk, the word "like" and "very" and "really." It ruined the atmosphere the author was building in several scenes and would also lead to unnecessary detail or narration from the MC that added nothing to her character or the story. All it did was make me, as the reader, angry.

Additionally, I want to talk about the development of the relationship because it feels very internet psychology (I'm a therapist) and not necessarily in a positive way. The insta-love/lust/connection at the beginning was forged through curiosity, boundary violations, and some sense of shared trauma over a single moment undercut with lust. I found this to be unique but still not my personal type of story I would rush over to read if it was pitched as having some "deeper" connection between the MC and the love interest. I did appreciate the openness of a few of the conversation, but again, it felt like I was hearing the author speaking (probably from her own therapy experience) instead of the character. I also wonder who, exactly, Grace is? The book opens with her grief and trying to keep herself together. Somewhere along the way, that just...disappears. The source of her grief is never mentioned again until the last 70 or so pages when the author drops in a few very out-of-the-blue plot twists that had little to no lead up (i.e. I cannot trace back through the book and pinpoint subtle hints or clues) and destroyed the narrative quality she'd been creating. Genuinely have no clue where one in particular came from and the MC's reaction to it left a lot to be desired.

Despite all of this, I did have a relatively enjoyable time. I tried not to take it too seriously and over-analyze everything, but the bad parts really stood out as bad parts. I would point out the same things in any book, regardless of targeted age group. I'll probably read the rest of the series because it was easy and not super complicated on my very tired brain. I did enjoy some of the character interactions and I think aspects of it are genuinely interesting. When

Jaxon brought her a copy of Twilight, I started cackling like an idiot. I loved the self-awareness.

. I do wonder how the future relationship will go because it feels like the author has affirmed a lot of insecurities from both characters that would normally be drawn out over the course of the series. We shall have to see.

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