Hear Her Howl (Bloodrose by Andrea Cremer)

A review of 

Bloodrose by Andrea Cremer

Possible spoilers ahead if you haven’t read Nightshade or Wolfsbane. I have tried to make this as non-spoilery as I could.

There's no backing down. It's time to fight for freedom, or surrender to destiny. 
Failure is not an option. The pack's alliance is crucial to their victory. 
But in the end, the future of their world lies in HER hands.  

And if you thought my previous review of Wolfsbane was incoherent, this just might be even less so. 

No, seriously, I have no idea what I was thinking.

So, back when Bloodrose was released (too lazy to check the exact month/date) a few months ago, I hadn’t even started Wolfsbane. But based on the reaction that most reviewers and readers had, I had a bad feeling. I mean, a seriously bad feeling. There was no way this book could have a happy ending, was basically what I was thinking. 

And then it ended happily. Yet another proof of the talent that Cremer has. 

Of course, there were things that I cried about, obviously, but in general? I consider this a happy ending. I mean, endings are difficult. They’re probably difficult to write and they’re difficult to read. Nobody wants the story to end, but it has to. So how to do that, when things can’t be perfect? I’d rather have an ending that’s unhappy, then an ending that has the main character riding off in to Happily Ever After. 

So, I liked what Cremer did with the ending. The whole story revolved around a freak of nature -kind of thing, something that was seriously wrong. So, the ending couldn’t be a Happily Ever After. Except it kind of is, but the characters obviously have to work for that, have to build it. 

Also, the things I liked about this ending so much was that, Cremer has all the plot twists, all the cliffhangers and what-nots tightly in her capable hands. And she just had to tie them off, simply. It felt natural, like this is meant to be -which I suppose is the idea. 

Now, I’m pretty sure people are expecting me to mention Ren. I’m not going to. He was an idiot in the beginning, but he came through. It felt like both boys grew up a little. After all, both had lived in a world where things had been carved ready for them, just waiting for them to do as told. Shay and Ren work through that and fight for what’s right. Okay, it sounds cheesy, sorry. 

Calla grows too. She really becomes the Alpha that her pack needs. It is a shitty situation, that she handles well. And I did like how her internal struggle with doing what she wanted and what was neutral, or good for everyone. A lot of writers portray struggles like that, but Cremer really, really, pulled it off. 

All in all, I think Bloodrose is - at least in my opinion - the best book in the trilogy. My another favorite might be Nightshade just because it’ll always be the baby of the group, before all the bad things really begin. 

But Bloodrose is the final stand and even though there is this feeling that bad things are coming, it isn’t burdened by it. And the writing moves just as spectacularly as it does in the previous books. It’s like Cremer’s racing towards the ends just as eagerly with her writing, as the reader is when reading it. 

I just can’t get over the fact how many tiny details Cremer puts in her books, all these little things that are just amazing. My favorite moment is definitely the final battle against Bosque Mar. That was beautifully done, it was rather classic in the sense of good guys versus the big bad guy. But with that lightsaber of course. 

Final thoughts: If you’ve read the previous books, you’ll probably want to read the last one, too. But if you’re still feeling hesitant, thinking where the story will go, if there’s anything to look forward to, I really say you should. Bloodrose is definitely an excellent last piece of a trilogy and just excels in  most everything. There’s excellent dialogue, adrenaline-pumping action scenes, a bunch of awesome characters, an especially awesome leading lady, heart-wrenching boys and a lot of bad guys.