Review of Crave (Crave #1) by Laura J. Burns and Melinda Metz

Overview
Shay could never do the things her friends could--never try out for sports, never go to parties, never fall in love. Because of the mysterious and incurable blood disorder she was born with, she can barely make it through three days of school a week. 

But now, her doctor-turned-stepfather has a brand-new treatment that he thinks will change everything. And it does. As soon as the new blood starts pumping into Shay's veins, she has visions of a different life...Gabriel's life. She sees an orphanage, loss, fangs, blood, and lust that she can't explain. 

Is Gabriel real? And if he is, could he really be what she thinks he is?

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Recommended: Yes!

                          About Crave
Available as: Paperback $9.99 from Amazon.com , E-book $9.99 from Amazon.com Kindle's Edition , NEW $9.99 Paperback from The Book Depository

                                                    Recommended Ages: 15 and Up

E-book: 288 pgs.

Published: September 21st 2010 by Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing

For This Review: *Self-Provided E-book Copy*

My Star Review 

While Crave is most assuredly another vampire novel it has an interesting start and all-around premise. Shay is a teen girl who has been sickly all her life. From her perspective we see how much she despises being thought as the Sick Girl. Her stepfather soon finds a new solution to inject for Shay's solution. While she gets better though she receives flashback visions of a guy named Gabriel who isn't at all sickly but strong and powerful like no other person. Shay notices too that he's not human but a vampire! Being extremely bored with her life she opts out to search him out at Martin's lab only to find Gabriel chained down to his office. Shay can't possibly allow Martin to keep doing this especially since Gabriel has given her the strength to fully experience life. Yet being involved with vampires is very dangerous considering they are wary of almost all humans. 

What has to be an endearing quality of Crave is that the story starts out slowly but not in a tedious way so as to let readers see into Shay's mind and then switches to Gabriel the vampire's perspective which had a pull you in effect. Laura J. Burns and Melinda Metz did a great job in building the character development since they worked together on Crave. While the story isn't full of action throughout it does have its good moments of suspense. It's a very original new idea in vampire consideration for how vampires really are. Laura J. Burns and Melinda Metz  take a different spin on vampire conversions, their dietary requirements, view of humans, and more that's plain unique. Also underlying the vampire dynamic was familial bonds that was truly touching. Worth a read if you're one for never tiring of reading novels with vampires. Look forward to Crave's sequel Sacrifice.
Overall: Amazing read!
Genre: Vampires, Young Adult 

                                 About the Authors
Laura J. Burns is a Californian author originally from Long Island, New York. After being a YA book editor for a while, she now spends her time on the writing side. She often collaborates with fellow author Melinda Metz, with whom she writes the Wright and Wong mystery series, featuring a young detective who has Asperger's. 

She was closely involved with the creation of the Roswell High series, and later became a staff writer on the Roswell TV series. 

She likes vampires, werewolves, celebrities, and TV. And big dogs. 

Melinda Metz grew up in San Jose, California. People sometimes ask if she knows the way there. She kinda does, but she has an off-kilter sense of direction, so to be confident of arriving, it's better to consult some kind of navigational device. Her mother tried to teach her to read in kindergarten, but Melinda had no interest. She also had no interest in learning to write her name. (FYI, when Melinda was in kindergarten it was all about finger-painting, play time, and naps.) Eventually, she mastered both and even majored in English at San Jose State University.