Wolfsbane by Andrea Cremer

Summary:
When Calla Tor wakes up in the lair of the Searchers, her sworn enemies, she's certain her days are numbered. But then the Searchers make her an offer, one that gives her the chance to destroy her former masters and save the pack and the man she left behind. Is Ren worth the price of her freedom? And will Shay stand by her side no matter what? Now in control of her own destiny, Calla must decide which battles are worth fighting and how many trials true love can endure and still survive. (from GoodReads)

Review:
After reading and loving Nightshade, I was super excited to read the sequel. I even asked for a copy for Christmas because I knew that I would want to own the book. Unfortunately, I was very disappointed in Wolfsbane.

All the things that I loved in Nightshade (the love triangle, the mystery, the dynamic of the packs, the history of the Guardians and Keepers) was totally gone. And Wolfsbane was so boring. One hundred pages in and I realized that nothing had happened. That continued until the very end of the book, when finally we got to see some action. The first 90% of Wolfsbane was an "infodump." The Searchers spend most of the book explaining stuff to Calla and Shay. I like being enlightened as much as the next person, but so much telling and not showing is not good writing. And nothing was explained very well; i.e. weavers. It's pretty cool what the weavers can do but it wasn't believable for the story.

Fans of Shay will be happy because he is the star of Wolfsbane, since Ren is in the book for about two pages. I don't really like Shay all that much so the fact that there was no Ren made Wolfsbane worse in my opinion. He was still in Calla's thoughts, making Shay jealous, but I need the real deal here.

The action sequence was the best part of the book, but I still thought it was contrived and could have been better. Once Calla is reunited with some of her pack, there isn't much urgency and a lot of chitchat. That could have been executed better.

Did I like anything in Wolfsbane? Honestly, the only thing that kept me interested was the relationship between Adne and Connor, two Searchers. And yet, I still want to keep reading (mostly so I can see Ren). Hopefully Wolfsbane was suffering from Middle Book Syndrome and Bloodrose will be a lot better.

Rating: 5 out of 10.
FTC: Christmas gift.

2011/Penguin Young Readers Group/390 pages.