Review--Snakeroot by Andrea Cremer

 

Fans asked for it, and now they've got it!

Andrea Cremer is continuing the story she began in in her internationally bestselling trilogy: Nightshade, Wolfsbane and Bloodrose.

Bosque Mar haunts the dreams of both Adne and Logan, trying to escape for the Nether, where Calla, Shay and the other Guardians trapped him in the final battle in the War of All Against All...

Will he turn Adne to the dark side? Will Logan reclaim his birthright? And will darkness take over our world?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Digging deep down into the TBR pile I brought up Snakeroot by Andrea Cremer! It was the continuation of the Nightshade trilogy, meant to start off a new trilogy, but since it’s been seven years since its release and there are no other titles to be found, I take it this series didn’t take off as well. A shame too, because this was an amazing read!

It’s been seven years or perhaps longer since I read the conclusion to the Nightshade trilogy and you can imagine how sketchy my memory was regarding it. Luckily, Andrea does a good job at giving bits and pieces of information to help jive my recollection. Though I can honestly say I did not remember this new cast of characters well at all, but that’s okay since this was a new series.

Adne has been having nightmares lately, ones she can’t explain that keep her up at night. Something dark is coming, she can feel it. She’s afraid that it ties back to Bosque Mar, the great big evil entity that everyone worked so hard to send back to where he came from. But there’s no way he can come back, right?

Well, Logan believes otherwise. Logan was one of our nefarious enemies from the Nightshade trilogy and it seems he hasn’t let go of his old ways, not even with the deaths of his “people.” He’s determined to bring Bosque Mar back whatever the cost, he has no compunctions against killing anyone or betraying anyone. He’s a guy without morals.

Things start off on the wrong foot when there’s a robbery in the ancient house where Adne and everyone else lives. Someone has stolen books from the library, books with spells in them that can lead people to do all sorts of bad things.

I will say that I was not prepared for so many different points of view in this one. I forgot to look back to see if this was a Nightshade occurrence as well, I want to say it was, but yeah, bad memory. Lol. What made it hard was not always remembering who these people were. There were so many names being thrown out that it was hard to keep track of who was Team Good and who was Team Evil and who was Team Not Good. Yeah, there was more than two sides here it would seem.

What was also bad was struggling to remember what kind of world we were in. What the rules were and such, what are typical happenstances and what was out of the ordinary. The little things that help to shape a world series. Feeling like an outsider myself to this once beloved series, I still found myself enjoying the story, if being a bit confused here and there, it was still an enjoyable read.

The characters definitely were what made the story for me. I took their lead on the plot and just went with that direction. Of course, knowing the previous backstory would’ve been a huge help, I was still able to grasp, vaguely, what had happened. I was also excited to see some familiar faces if distantly in this one, that was an added surprise!

What’s even sadder is that this is where things end, at the beginning of the new beginning. Who knows what dangers would’ve happened, will the characters who were in peril still be there or will good prevail once again? Will characters make surprising decisions that change the course of the story? All things that can never be answered. This is what happens when you take too long to return to a series, I initially thought this was a standalone add-on, but it was meant to be so much more. If you’re wanting to read the original Nightshade trilogy, I would still recommend throwing this one in there, simply for the joy of returning. True, it will end with cliffhangers, but that just seems to be the way of things lately.

 

Overall Rating 3.5/5 stars