Snakeroot (Nightshade Universe, #7) (Nightshade Legacy, #1)

by Andrea Cremer

[Angie]

Snakeroot can be summed up in one word: boring! Nothing happens! After the brilliant ending of Bloodrose, I had high hopes for this series. Unfortunately, the first two-thirds felt like an extended epilogue, and the last third was build up to nothing. With the Guardians back to being wolves and the Rift closed, the Searchers are the only magical beings left. Or so they think. Logan is looking for a way to get his powers back, and to do that, he needs to release Mosque Mar. Adne has been having nightmares where the evil Keeper talks to her, but she doesn't dare tell the others. She just might be the key Logan needs.

Aside from being boring, Snakeroot is also slightly confusing. This comes from the fact that there are six POVs! Why do we need to follow this many characters? It would have been fine with just Adne and Logan, and maybe Ren. But there's also Connor, Sabine, and Sarah. The story ends up jumping around a lot, as we witness how everyone is coping with the end of the war and this new threat. All of that was not needed! Perhaps Adne and Logan weren't up to enough to fill a whole book, so the author threw in everyone else? Who knows, but it didn't work at all.

There's also some really annoying short cuts in Snakeroot. Ren is trapped between the living world and death, so he's roaming aimless, unsure of what to do. Then Logan summons him and all of a sudden he knows his purpose! Really? He is magically enlightened, but he doesn't know the rules of his new position. If he could learn his purpose out of nowhere, couldn't he have learned all of it?! Whatever. The second convenience was that Logan needs Adne for whatever he's up to. Well, she decides that she needs to talk to him, and seeks him out. Way to cut out a lot of potential drama and excitement!

Snakeroot was a disappointment. I didn't expect to love it, but I was hoping these books would continue the trend of getting progressively better. An interesting plot is introduced, but that's all it is. An introduction. There's no progression, since we're bounced from character to character instead of moving forward. Luckily, Snakeroot doesn't suffer from a lot of the annoyances of the Nightshade books, so maybe I'll give it another chance.

Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.