Ooookay, Curious One. I just finished Crush. Yup, book two of the Crave series by Tracy Wolff. With exhaustion, I have to say, that it really only got good in the last quarter.
When it got good, it got GOOD!
I haven’t read the two chapters in the end from Hudson’s point of view, but by the time you get to the end of this, I will have. I don’t want those chapters to skew my thoughts yet!
So, to get started, I was trying to find some information on Tracy Wolff. It’s all sort of scattered between reviews and I can’t say for sure if any of it is fact from her own mouth. It does appear that she was an English professor at one time and now might be teaching writing to local college students, but I can’t confirm that yet. I’ll keep looking into it…
With that said, can I just say that the first half of Crush was an eyeroll. In the end of Crave, Grace turned into a gargoyle and that was the cliffhanger we were left on. So, naturally, Crush started four months after Crave ended. However, when we are reintroduced to Grace, she has amnesia. The last four months of her life are a blank slate.
Grace’s Return to Crush
It appears as though she saved Jaxon’s life by turning to stone and taking Hudson with her (into her mind I mean since he’s technically…not technically???… dead). I was a bit exhausted by this, but if it works out how I’m imagining it would, it’s going to be fine.
There is not too much to unpack in the first half of Crush. Okay…maybe there is, but it’s a handful of tropes and nuances that are a little bit exhausting.
Grace’s return is big and surprises everyone. She starts to have blackouts and tries researching her gargoyle heritage, with almost no success. Also, what was with that?? She has a notebook almost entirely filled with notes about her being a gargoyle and what that means and what she can do, yet she’s taken ZERO time to read over her notes to discover what she can’t remember while having blacked out.
There’s also been no information on these blackouts either, except the assumption that Hudson has something to do with it. Things happening because of Hudson seem to be a common excuse. Just saying…
Also, back to the research thing, I know that gargoyles haven’t existed in over 1,000 years because of genocide, but why is there absolutely zero knowledge about them from anyone? A school full of scholars and researchers and near-immortal beings has ZERO information to find? I think that is unbelievable. Especially since it’s been made a huge deal about how gargoyles were keeping the peace between all species and were wiped out by Jaxon and Hudson’s father. Surely a school would have a class about such things. Right?
The Gargoyle: Just Stone?
Grace is a bit annoying when she finds out about being a gargoyle, am I right? She is convinced for what seems like the entire book that all gargoyles can do is turn to stone…. Seriously… that’s all she thinks she can do. No flying, no offensive or defensive abilities, no sixth senses, nothing.
That must be why the most powerful vampire in existence slaughtered every single gargoyle until they were extinct. Must have been because they just turn to stone…. Absolutely….
Giving her a break, I can understand why I would be so annoyed by her character at this point in the series. In the span of 6 months, she’s had her world turned upside down not once, not twice, but three times now. I can give her some slack. But seriously, Curious One, what the heck?! One moment she’s awesome and strong and independent and demanding respect from Jaxon or Hudson or even her friends/Uncle Finn, yet the next page she’s simpering and scared and inconsolable. I can’t keep track of her character growth by any means.
On that point, how annoying would it be to have a “mate” (yes, I’m quoting that because I’m still convinced that something is wonky about her and Jaxon’s mating bond) who is constantly TELLING you that you’re powerful and amazing and strong, but then turns around at every single chance to SHOW you how weak and human and pathetic you really are. It’s exhausting and I’m only reading about their relationship, not living it.
A Few Points on the Chaotic
It goes without mentioning now that we all know that Hudson has taken up residence inside Grace’s head. I’m writing this on the assumption that we are all on the same page by now and are only sort of coming to terms with it. Acknowledging that Grace has fallen in love with Hudson, whether she wants to admit feelings or not. She’s got em’.
Also, let me point out a few things here. They won’t be in order by any means mostly because they’re all twisted around the same week-long period and is honestly a bit chaotic…
First…
What is going on with Flint and Jaxon? On one page my mind literally short circuited and said, “what the hell”. This was when Grace caught Jaxon looking at Flint’s sculpted abs and made a joke about how she couldn’t not look either and Jaxon got flustered? What?!? NOW I’m even more suspicious about their mating bond.
Why would Jaxon get flustered about something like that unless he’s not at terms with his own sexuality.
To continue that was later, right before the Ludares tournament, Flint revealed to Grace that he is gay. Her reaction was perfect for both her and Flint, as well as the character arcs, but then he reveals that with the mating bond, he was convinced for years that his mate was someone he was close friends with. But with the bond, when it comes to homosexual couples, the bond only gets triggered by touch for the person who has self-awareness about their preferences. So, Flint felt the bond, but the friend didn’t, because Flint is aware of his sexuality when the friend is not.
It’s Jaxon
Yes, you already know who that friend is, Curious One. Jaxon. Grace makes this realization too during the same scene and is both supportive of Flint and becomes very conscious of what she does with Jaxon when around Flint.
That little revelation about the mating bond, on top of the scene with Flint’s abs, I’m sitting here writing these thoughts with confusion, worry, and even more confidence in my theory of there being something wonky with Grace and Jaxon’s mating bond.
Then, out of nowhere, right before the fight of her life (I’ll touch more on this later) Cole (the douche werewolf that I didn’t talk about at all because he was so minor a character) comes out of the blue with that spell that Jaxon threw away in the garbage at the end of the first book and destroys the mating bond between Grace and Jaxon…… WTF
Second…
The Ludares Tournament in Tracy Wolff’s Crush
This sounds like such a fun thing for a school. It’s kind of like Quidditch on steroids. It would have to be when considering there are more than just witches and wizards in the school, but even still, it’s awesome!
Portals leading to unknown location with different feelings as you go through them, 30-second interval uses of all magics including flight, bracelets that protect you from severe damage/killing fellow students which allows you to not hold back for fear of death/maiming, a ball that grows hotter and vibrates stronger the longer you hold onto it and every person on the team has to have been in possession of the ball before crossing the other team’s goal line to win!
So simple, yet absolutely awesome!
There were like 16 or something groups who entered the competition. In order to win the bloodstone (I’ll touch on that more later) they had to win four competitions. Of course, the final competition was between them and Cole’s group. Yeah, the vengeful and super gross/evil/mean werewolf.
Oh! Each team also had to have all groups within their team. So, vampires, werewolves, witches and dragons all had to be represented. That’s cool too.
Anyways, they end up winning the tournament and obtaining the bloodstone! Yay! Go team! Grace also gets a much needed boost of confidence, because she actually won them their final battle. Or at least was a key player in winning, bringing the ball across the finish line.
Third…
(Remember to check out The Library if you’d like to support Time for a Book! Thank you for checking out my discussion of Crush!)
The Bloodletter in Crush
So, I’m a bit confused at what exactly her uncle is there for. He seems a little useless, at least as of right now. He rarely has the answer and his authority is constantly undermined by Jaxon. Her uncle also seems to be okay with letting these high school aged kids go on adventures that are to places that literally are life and death places that no one comes back from. A bit curious about that and him, to be honest…
So, the Bloodletter. At the end of Crave, we got the chapter from Jaxon’s point of view and were initially introduced to the Bloodletter. Read my review on Crave if you missed it. But, in Crush we got some more juice! Well, sort of.
The Bloodletter is supposed to be this ancient and terrifying vampiric creature who knows a crap-ton of stuff about everything. First off, if being a gargoyle is so rare and unheard of for over 1,000 years, why was this Bloodletter person not number one on Jaxon or even Grace’s Uncles list to go visit and learn from? Especially Jaxon. He was practically raised by her. I suppose it did mention that Jaxon went to visit, but she refused to help… maybe? I can’t quite recall exactly why she refused, she just demanded that when Grace wakes from her stone slumber that she be brought to visit her.
Okay, besides that, Jaxon takes Grace to meet the Bloodletter to find a solution to Hudson taking over her body and wiping her memories.
Not all Cages Are Bad!
They get there and some stuff happens, and Grace finally can hear Hudson’s voice inside her head. (I forgot to mention that part. She couldn’t hear him and couldn’t remember him taking over her body!) So, she takes down some mental wall and suddenly Hudson is there in her mind, but she also sees him when she’s awake and it’s like he’s actually physically there.
She also wakes up in a cage. Not like a real, metal cage and stuff that we would immediately imagine, it’s more like a “homey” cage. :’D so it’s not terrible…She wakes up and boom! Suddenly, Hudson is there and talking to her and Jaxon/the Bloodletter are on the other side of the bars convincing her to build a new wall that prevents Hudson from taking over her body. He will still be able to talk to her, but he won’t be able to take control. Supposedly.
During this trip to the Bloodletter, they also get the information and steps needed to get Hudson out of her mind. I guess he’s like… maybe alive or something? I can’t decide what exactly he is because when she does get him out of her mind, he just magically appears in full body and is back to normal.
Anyways, I get ahead of myself. So they get this list of 4 items needed to remove Hudson. The 5th item is extra, it will provide enough energy to bring Hudson back as a human, stripped of all powers and vampiric abilities. Of course, because Hudson is supposedly this terrible genocidal maniac, they are all on board with getting the fifth item to strip him of his abilities.
The Fourth Point in Crush
Okay, these tasks… what in the world?! An incredibly powerful stone from the witches, an alpha werewolf fang, an intact dragon bone, a bloodstone and a heartstone. So, they all make sense. Mostly. Something that is imbued with incredible amounts of power to channel to bring Hudson back to life. I’m not sure when it went from “get him out of Grace’s head” to “bring him back”, but it did, so here we are.
The witch’s stone and the alpha fang are coincidentally already collected by Hudson via Grace when he took over her body. So, they’re almost halfway there. Now, the dragon bone is in some unknown dragon boneyard that is a death sentence to get to.
The Bloodletter guaranteed that a bloodstone would come into their lives to have a chance to collect because otherwise it’s near-impossible to find one since they’re made under specific and rare circumstances. The heartstone is guarded by “the unkillable beast”. Yeah… unkillable beast… as if a dragon boneyard accessible only by dragons and winning the Ludares tournament weren’t hard enough, they also have to kill the unkillable beast to get the heartstone.
We already know they won the tournament, so 3 of 5 items collected. Really 3 of 4 if the goal to bring Hudson back as a human wasn’t important. So, they go to the boneyard and with some challenges, bring back an intact dragon bone.
The Inner Circle
Oh yeah, I forgot to say…
Grace and Jaxon have formed a little group too. They are the team that they trained with to do the Ludares tournament! So, Grace (gargoyle), Jaxon (vampire), Mekhi (vampire), Macy (witch), Gwen (witch), Flint (dragon), Xavier (werewolf), and Eden (dragon) are all in the inner circle with Grace and Jaxon now. It’s actually really cool, it’s like they’re forming bonds as high schoolers or something……………….
So, these kids are all going to the boneyard and the island where the unkillable beast lives.
Let’s recap here… They’ve got 5 items to get if they want to bring Hudson back as a human. They’ve got the four items needed to bring him back as a vampire. The fang, the witch stone, the dragon bone and the bloodstone. So, Grace has a weird vibe and doesn’t want to bring Hudson back as a human, but Jaxon refuses to listen to her and her friends are all too scared of Hudson and his genocidal history to want him to come back as anything but human, so she goes with them to help them not die while killing this unkillable beast.
After arriving and attacking the beast, which is chained up by the way, Xavier is killed. Very soon after, Grace decides to use her brain and realizes that the “beast” is actually a behemoth of a gargoyle. Its massive size means it is really old and very powerful and very wise.
Who Breaks the Mating Bond?
I think Grace might be hearing the voice of this gargoyle in her head, even before the trip to its island, but I can’t be certain. She’s got a lot going on up there. She also realizes that the heartstone is not guarded by the gargoyle, it is literally the heart of the gargoyle. Grace refuses to kill it and after revealing this to her group, Macy tries to free the gargoyle. She can’t break the chain, but the group needs to get Xavier’s body back and Grace needs to get back to the school to do the Ludares tournament again for real to join the circle.
I forgot to mention that part in Crush. I’ll get back to that in a moment.
So, after channeling magic through Grace, Macy is able to teleport them all back to the school. Xavier’s body didn’t come with, but it turned into light and he is at peace. I think. Macy runs off with Flint and Eden who are both severely injured and to bring back some blood for Jaxon who is completely drained of energy. Gwen is also in the infirmary from injuries sustained by the tournament.
This is when Cole shows up and breaks the mating bond.
Now, the Circle which is the ruling body of supernatural creatures is created by mated couples who win a tournament alone against 8 other supernatural creatures. The Ludares is sort of an exercise/mock play of the challenge or trial, if you will, to give students a chance at interspecies connections. Jaxon’s parents are the ruling vampire mate-bonded couple who control everyone and everything. They’re evil. They wanted to take grace to the vampire court and chain her up in the dungeon/kill her because she is a gargoyle.
That seems important.
Grace Wins! Barely…
So, Grace, at Hudson’s behest in her mind, challenged them to the trial in order to be the gargoyle’s advocate since she is the last gargoyle.
Make sense, Curious One? I know, I’m throwing a LOT at you. I’m glossing over quite a few tidbits, but if you don’t want this to be over 5,000 words, it is necessary for me to gloss!
Now, because Jaxon just got un-mated to Grace (his father knew about Cole’s plan in this, by the way) he can’t join her and help her win the trial. It’s said that no one can beat it alone, so of course, we all know Grace is gonna whoop some creature a$$!
She does, she wins, barely.
Before she went into the trial though, she freed Hudson from her mind. She channeled the magical objects by herself and set him free. He gave her a gift though and left his powers inside her, so she had an edge for the tournament. They helped her win.
Their father (Jaxon and Hudson’s father) was furious about everything that occurred. He bit Grace with an eternal bite (?) so she was dying. She gave Hudson’s powers back to him before she died, and he buried her in a stone grave. Not before doing severe damage to the school grounds and surrounding forest first though, because he was broken by her pain and guaranteed death because NO ONE was ale to survive the eternal bite from his father, which is how their father had wiped out the gargoyle race.
In anger and revenge, Hudson had also turned his father to a puddle of goo (?) which he will eventually heal from, but it will take time.
Again, the Crave Series Shows Perspective in “Crush“
Now, back to life, Hudson and Jaxon start to go at each other. Macy is able to interrupt them to bring attention to Grace’s tombstone, where Grace’s body is absorbing the stones that covered her tomb.
She’s alive!!!
So, Grace is alive, evil vampire father Cyrus is not a pressing issue right now and only one of their party has died, Xavier.
With all of that having gone down in a week, after Grace wakes up and get out of her stone tomb, Jaxon hugs Grace and is about to kiss her when Hudson blurts out “…if you wouldn’t mind, take your f****** hands off my mate.”
Mic drop!
Aside from the compulsive amounts of drama between Grace, Jaxon and Hudson, I did actually – overall – enjoy the story. Jaxon was winey and unbearable to me, which I hated because the author made him so “adult-ey” and mature with baggage to spare in the first book, to turn around and make him kind of whiney and annoying and pathetic in this book. Grace had decent development, if you give her some slack for having only actually been a part of the supernatural community for like 4.5 months now, 4 months of which were spent in stone which she doesn’t even remember, so giving her that slack, she was wonderful. I enjoyed finally getting some meat on the other characters I hope will continue to be built on and provide a bigger chunk of the series – especially Uncle Finn – but I want more of them all!
Finally, those last chapters from Hudson’s point of view! Whoa! Everything really did change!!!
Concluding “Crush“
The first chapter is when Grace first returns from being stone for four months. Hudson is incredibly confused and heartbroken when he realizes that she doesn’t remember anything about the two of them. It sounds like her mated bond to Jaxon disappeared (which is interesting to me) when she turned to stone. It also sounds like her and Hudson had grown really close, forming a plan with each other.
I’m not sure what the plan exactly was for, but I imagine it was a plan on how to get Hudson back to life and/or tell everyone something important… I personally think, from the way Hudson explains how it felt to have the “mating bond” between Grace and Jaxon reappear, that Hudson and Grace really are mated. As to whether she can be mated to two brothers at the same time?? I’m not certain about anything regarding that! Hudson also reveals that Flint’s brother (the one he killed during the “battle”) was his best and only friend. The betrayal from Flint’s brother hurt him deeply.
The second chapter we get from Hudson’s point of view was two years prior to Grace showing up at Katmere. It’s a powerful chapter to me. It gives us a glimpse and what Hudson truly is and who he truly can be. How he can control every particle around him. It shows us that real power comes from a combination of strength, kindness, honesty and self-reflection. It shows us that there is good in every bad person, just as there is bad in every good person. Perspective is everything…
Let’s dive again. It’s time for another book….
Check out the author of Crush, Tracy Wolff, at the following links:
Support Time for a Book!
You can support Time for a Book by visiting The Library!
You can like us on Facebook, follow on Instagram, or follow on Twitter as well!
If you enjoyed this discussion, check out some other discussions in the Fantasy, Suspense/Thriller, and Other pages! Make sure to check out the Time for a Notebook as well for notes on things book related! Thanks!!