Charm

   Wolff, Tracy.  Charm.  Entangled:Teen, 2022.

Pages: 592 

Age Range: Adult (This is listed for high school, but I disagree due to content.)    

Genre: fantasy

Setting: The Shadow Realm

Themes: friendship, love, betrayal, don't judge a book by its cover             

Merits: The storytelling keeps a reader engaged because there is a great deal of action and settings that are unique in the Shadow Realm where everything is purple. 

Unique Quality: This is book 5 of the Crave series and covers the missing four months between Crave and Crush.  It reveals the true Hudson Vega rather than his portrayal as a villain.

Detractors: There are sexual situations, great violence, and death, including a beloved pet.  The book series order is: Crave, Crush, Covet, Court, Charm, and Cherish.

Main Characters:

Grace Foster - during the months when she is a gargoyle, Grace lives in the Shadow Realm. She must locate and analyze her inner strings to find her love for Hudson and her inner gargoyle to save the people in the Shadow Realm.  She is a hard worker, a positive person, and approaches her fears with passion to be a better person who helps others.

Hudson Vega - the annoying roommate at first, Hudson’s true colors are revealed as compassionate and loving especially when he cares for his pet and Grace. Portraying him as an elementary teacher in the town in the Shadow Realm also gives him depth beyond his surface superiority as a wealthy vampire.

The Shadow Queen - trapped in the shadows for challenging the God of Time, she brings her army of shadow creatures to kill so that she can return to the real world.

Plot:

The book begins with Grace and Hudson trapped in his apartment, yet they’re not in their own world.  They have crossed time barriers somehow. (Actually, Grace jumped in front of Jaxon to save him and turned into a gargoyle.  These four months as a gargoyle are what happens in Charm.)  Grace finds Hudson annoying and condescending.  Hudson finds her frustrating and far too peppy.  They can’t leave but soon they have to venture out since a dragon is attacking their home. They end up in a purple shadow realm and take cover in a farm for a few weeks.  The people are kind, and they help Grace and Hudson to stay hidden from the Shadow Queen and her army.  It was her dragon that was seeking them out.  This farm has many small creatures that appear as shadows, and one takes a liking to Hudson.  She goes everywhere with him and cuddles him. Grace is surprised by his gentleness with her, and when they move on to the city where they could possibly get back to their own time, the “dog” goes with them.  Grace sees Hudson differently now as he works on the farm, provides love and care to the pet, and plans how best to save them.  

To gain entry into the city, they join a musical group who is auditioning.  These musicians become their friends as they find out their stay in the city may be forever.  The time barrier does not open. It’s all because of the Shadow Queen, who once challenged the God of Time.  Her punishment was to be banished to this Shadow Realm.  The people there have made it their home, and life there is good. Hudson and Grace get jobs, rely on each other, and fall in love.  Hudson had seen their bond and knew Grace was to be his mate, but it took Grace much longer to discover this.  The mayor of the town is manipulating all of the people. He needs to break out of the shadow Realm and turn back time, but in doing so, all will be altered.  Some of them may not even exist, so he must be stopped.  

Grace and Hudson finally discover the secrets of the dragons after the mayor manipulates them into killing one. They watch the dragon’s essence go into the mayor thus enhancing his powers and helping him to gain what he needs to turn back time and cross into the real world.  However, they have just killed the last one.  Or so they thought…  In the town square there is a statue of a woman and a dragon.  She is a gargoyle like Grace, and she explains how to change them back to real beings, even though it will cost her life.  That’s what gargoyles do.  They help others, even at their own risk.  So, the gargoyle becomes real, and the dragon does vaporize her as well as several others as Grace and Hudson try to get it to not kill the mayor and not let him cross the time barrier.  They need the dragon to die and share the essence which will cause the mayor to be overpowered.  A huge setback occurs when the dragon kills Hudson’s pet.  Such sadness and rage fills Hudson, but Grace is able to keep him focussed despite the loss of their friend.

The Shadow Queen has entered the city and sent her shadow creatures - spiders, roaches, ravens, wolves - to attack the city dwellers along with Grace and Hudson. They have to take care of killing the dragon close enough to the mayor without letting him into the sun and his escape. Intense battle and loss occurs before the dragon is killed and the mayor’s powers overwhelm him.  The essence also enters Grace and Hudson, so Katmere can’t be far now…