Crush is a young adult paranormal romance book by Tracy Wolff, the second in its series. It picks up almost exactly where it left off… for Grace, that is. Grace learns she is not all that human, after all, and along with that new life-altering piece of information comes a deliciously funny mind-hitch-hiker that she cannot seem to shake. In order to evict her new tenant she must go on a supernatural scavenger hunt, of sorts; fraught with danger, that she cannot best on her own. And if that was not hard enough to cope with, in walk the two people who wish nothing more than death on her the most. Will she survive this unscathed, or will she finally meet the maker so many wished for her too when she first arrived at Katmere Academy?
Crush, like Crave, was so easy to read. The way Tracy Wolff writes you never have to second guess who said what or what that means, which I really enjoy because there have been times before when reading a fantasy/paranormal book that I’ve had to reread a line a few times to understand what’s going on.
And I just adore being in Grace’s mind. She has so much fire, humour and love that you cannot help falling in love with her. Even when she is faced with the hardest situations someone of her age- or of any age for that matter- should be in, she still tries her hardest to look out for those around her. To protect them even when she cannot protect herself any longer, that makes you ache for her bleeding heart.
I also did not think I’d say it, considering all that has been said about him, but I am in love with Hudson! His sarcastic comments, arguments and pretty much every interaction he has with Grace had me laughing if not smiling at the very least. I would say he’s the total opposite of his brother Jaxon, but you can see glimmers of similarities. For instance, they both care so deeply about everyone and that need to protect is very strong, but where one is overburdened by it, the other tries his best to mask it with a devil-may-care attitude. On occasion, this mask will slip and you get to see the softness in him, what he’s really feeling under all that front, and it’s so endearing.
It would be a disservice to Tracy Wolff’s effort in naming each and every, 127, Chapters of Crush if I did not make note of my favourite heading. I loved both Chapters 15 and 16, but Chapter 64: Pardon My Existential Crisis won out in the end.
There were many little moments of characters or lines written that I loved, but from Chapter 107 until the end of the book, I was on the edge of my seat. I know Grace had a team for a lot of the book, but it was from that point you really got to see how genuinely heroic she is, again. Grace is nothing if not bloody resilient!
There was not a lot I disliked about the book, but it did not have the same I-can’t-devour-this-book-quick-enough feeling that its prequel had on me. At first, I was so excited to have some more of that young love Grace and Jaxon action back, but Jaxon started to annoy me a little bit. He always has to try to fix and protect everything and everyone. Which is very charming; but he always has to protect Grace, and in doing so hides stuff from her. I became irritated on her behalf because I think she’s proven time and time again that she is strong enough to protect herself and she will certainly try her hardest to protect the ones she loves, even to her own detriment; why keep hiding stuff from her? Then when they were researching and hunting down the first three items needed, it felt like the prelude was a lot longer than the actual action, which left me feeling a little unsatisfied.
I devoured the beginning and the ending half of the book, but it took me a lot longer to read the middle of the book, for the reasons stated above. That is why I have rated this book Four out of Five Stars. I loved it and I’m very excited for the next one to arrive, but I was just craving a little more in the middle of the book that even Hudson could not fix.
I’d recommend this book to anyone that loves a young adult or fantasy book, of any age. Crush is full of adventure that is fraught with danger, and has a very healthy mix of romance and humour. I cannot wait to see what Tracy Wolff has written into Grace’s next book.
Favourite Quotes
““Emotions are absurdly messy all the time.””
page 424
““If it gets you to stop crying, then you’re damn right I mean it,” he answers. “This isn’t something you can fix. It’s just something you have to endure. Whatever happens next, I promise I won’t blame you for it.””
page 500
“Silly boy, can’t he see that I’m already destroyed? Already broken into so many pieces that I can’t even imagine what it would feel like to try to put them back together again.”
page 567
“If I don’t make a stand, if I don’t make a point of showing them that they can’t do whatever they want to whomever they want, then what’s to say they won’t do this again?”
page 589
“A girl can only take so many things going to shit around her at any given time, and I pretty much feel like I’m at my quota right now. Just saying.”
page 599
““Where you come from, what you endure, are only fractions of who you are and what you can become. The true test is what’s inside you… and what you do with it.””
page 681-682
Finer Details
Title: Crush
Author: Tracy Wolff
Pages: 684
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
Publication: 2020
Language: English
Rating: 4/5