Stargazer - Evernight Saga - By Claudia Gray

To see the first book in the series, Midnight, click here!

"Evernight Academy: an exclusive boarding school for the most beautiful, dangerous students of all - vampires. Bianca, born to two vampires, has always been told her destiny is to become one of them. But Bianca fell in love with Lucas - a vampire hunter sworn to destroy her kind. They were torn apart when his true identity was revealed, forcing him to flee the school. 

Although they may be separated, Bianca and Lucas will not give each other up. She will risk anything for the chance to see him again, even if it means coming face-to-face with the vampire hunters of Black Cross - or deceiving the powerful vampires of Evernight. Bianca's secrets will force her to live a life of lies." 

Yet Bianca isn't the only one keeping secrets. When Evernight is attacked by an evil force that seems to target her, she discovers the truth she thought she knew is only the beginning…"

 Summary 

Stargazer is the second outing for Lucas and Bianca the young star-crossed lovers of Claudia Gray’s Evernight series. Written for the YA market, the Evernight series has all the right ingredients to be a hit with its target audience – vampires, vampire hunters and seemingly doomed first love. Gray writes confidently in Stargazer, delivering a well constructed story that builds upon the strengths of Evernight, her debut novel. These books really need to be read in order so if you haven’t read Evernight yet stop reading this review here (now!) because there be spoilers…

Stargazer begins at the start of a second school year for Bianca at the vampire-run Evernight Academy. Bianca’s first year was somewhat eventful. She found her true love in the form of Lucas, a fellow Evernight pupil. Unfortunately for Bianca, he turned out to hiding an important secret – namely that he was a Black Cross vampire hunter who had secretly infiltrated the school to spy on its vampire teachers and students. This was unfortunate for Bianca for two reasons – firstly because she is the living vampire child born of two vampire parents and secondly because once his secret identity was discovered he had to leave Evernight Academy in a dramatic style and their love became forbidden.

Lucas not being allowed anywhere near the Academy grounds does put something of a crimp in his continuing (now secret) romance with Bianca but where there is a will, young love can certainly find a way, and soon Lucas and Bianca set up secret meetings off campus. The absence of Lucas from most of the story leaves a bit of a gap where romantic relationship development would usually be and sometimes, as a reader, it’s hard to remember exactly why Lucas is the love of Bianca’s life. Yes, he has all the attractions that go with a forbidden lover, a powerful lure for any girl let alone a sheltered vampire child in the flush of first love, but his noticeable absence from the majority of the story means that their relationship stagnates during the course of this book. Over the duration of Stargazer Bianca spends a lot of time with a fellow vampire student Balthazar, and their conflicted relationship – neither of them being the one the other truly wants – was of much greater interest to me than the main feature.

Creepy mystery and drama are added to Stargazer’s plotline in the form of increasingly dangerous ghosts that start to haunt the Evernight Academy. It isn’t long before Bianca uncovers/reveals another terrible truth about her heritage as a vampire child and this is done in the same way it was revealed that she was a vampire in Evernight – as the narrator she knows, has probably always known, but hasn’t revealed the secret to the reader and doesn’t until the drama is heightened to maximum level.

While romance in Stargazer maybe a little lacking the plotline is put to good alternative use revealing more about the vampire world. There are many original ideas in Gray’s vampire mythology – one of the most fascinating being that vampires who are turned at young human ages never fully grow-up. Change being impossible for them because they are dead and essentially can’t change or grow further. The idea behind Evernight Academy – that it is a place to give sanctuary and rehabilitation into modern-day life for ancient, yet young looking, vampires who have lost touch with the modern world – certainly sparks the imagination. Combined with dangerous ghosts, a sneaky murderous vampire and the constant intrigue that surrounds the undead inhabitants of Evernight Academy there is plenty of vamp-centric excitement in Stargazer for readers to enjoy.

 Reception 

Stargazer was listed as "The # 1 New York Times Bestseller". Seventeen magazine praised Claudia Gray's Stargazer writing: “If you like Twilight, this book has even more drama.”. Kirkus Reviews wrote critically of the book saying "Bianca’s tendency to belabor every point, particularly the depth of her love for Lucas, makes for a dull narrative style, and three-dimensional characters are pretty much nonexistent. Despite the predictable romantic entanglements and the constant telling, the plot races along with a search for a crazed renegade vampire, threatening ghosts, uncovered secrets and a flaming climax with a significant body count. Fans of the first volume will be satisfied; insufficient back story means no one else will know (or care) what is going on." Stargazer received a rating of 3.96 on Goodreads.com which is the highest rating of the series.

 The review 

"The first book in this four-book series was a surprisingly strong read for me.  It was on the dramatic side and I had expected something that was simply a rehash of every vampire story I've ever read, but what I was most shocked about was that this book was fun.  This series has the serious love and the heightened emotions that make up the most entertaining stories.  With how much I enjoyed Evernight, I came into Stargazer with the expectations of meeting the same level of enjoyment, and the second book holds its own in the series as a whole.  Gray has established herself with this and some strong short stories as a solid writer in my book.  Her second book doesn't disappoint and makes the reader eager for the third installment.

 Teens Bianca and Lucas met at Evernight Academy.  Lucas was there for the first time, and Bianca's parents were establishing themselves as live-in professors like the rest of the educational staff.  Boarding school was not looking strong for either of them, but one thing they did come to like about Evernight Academy was their relationship with each other.  Bianca and Lucas fell in love the way starcrossed teenagers do, and it seemed like their relationship would be fairly normal until their reality started to unravel.  Bianca, as well as a majority of Evernight's population, was a vampire.  Lucas was a vampire hunter.  Things did not go according to plan.

Now, Bianca and Lucas are still in love, but they are no longer together at good-old Evernight Academy.  Lucas is stationed with the Black Cross, the most deadly and prominent of the vampire hunting groups, and is presumably far away from the goings on at Evernight Academy.  Balthazar seems ready to pick up the pieces and take over where Lucas left off, but Bianca can only think of the older vampire as a brother.  Balthazar has trouble accepting the fact that Bianca won't be his, but he can continue to hope as Lucas is out of the picture...or is he?

Evernight Academy has more in store for Bianca, Balthazar, and Lucas than they could have ever anticipated.  As tension between the school for vampires and the Black Cross heats up, so does the tension between Bianca and her love interests.  Bianca and Lucas find difficult ways to see each other, but the ultimate risk is worth it if it means being together.  The family Lucas knows at the Black Cross still doesn't realize that the mysterious Bianca isn't a trapped human student at Evernight, and a ghostly apparition that begins showing itself at the school also spells bad tidings.  Can Bianca and Lucas ever overcome the odds and be together, or is there more than just human/vampire tension that's keeping them apart? 

Claudia Gray does a great job of keeping Bianca interesting and relative in this sequel.  It had been about a year since I read Evernight, so my direct details of Bianca were fuzzy on the reading, but I easily slipped back into her narration as I started Stargazer.  Gray does a great job of establishing who Bianca was when the last book left off and then moves on.  Stargazer is a very important story in the series concerning separation between the protagonists.  It helps strengthen their relationship, but at the same time it helps quell the feelings of insta-love that Bianca seemed to give off in Evernight.  Bianca's a very likable character that is fun to read about because of the drama and stakes that she has going on in her life.  She's very sneaky and willing to go big in order to get what she wants.  It leads to her making some very teenage decisions.  However, I find her realistic as a teenager in regards to the rash decision making, and when things are important she's willing to fight for herself and for what she loves.  Bianca gets pulled in many directions because of the good people she sees in the Black Cross and the good vampires she sees at Evernight.  The moral conundrum that Bianca faces is what really makes her stand out for me in this book.  She faces this complex tug between the human and vampire sides, and the gray area that it actually is doesn't feel like an authorial tempt at a moral lesson for teenagers.  Everyone is the same, stop with the misunderstandings!  Bianca isn't afraid to question her beliefs, the people around her, and even Lucas and his beliefs.  Gray makes her a really great character in that regard.  Bianca is naturally suspicious and used to drama, and it allows her to show readers and herself that questioning is needed, even if it does make things more complex and difficult to deal with in the long run.

The characters that accompany Bianca in this volume really start to show themselves in terms of their complexity in the plot.  Some of them are merely there as villains and plot-needed people, but Gray manages to make them feel like real characters instead of just plot devices.  Balthazar is still just as rugged, sexy, and brooding as ever.  It may seem odd that he isn't the love interest at first, but I love that Gray is able to show his complex friendship with Bianca and hint at the darker parts of his past in Stargazer.  We as readers really get a stronger connection to what his character is supposed to have in terms of motivation.  Lucas was still quite heroic in this volume, but Bianca's questioning of his issues regarding vampires is very welcome, and I liked that their relationship wasn't shown as something that was without internal struggles.  Lucas is still on the "ridiculously perfect" side, but I have come to find him a good character despite the definition he seems to fit.  Bianca's parents, Lucas's family, and some of the vampire students (new and old characters) return with a sense of strong place as well.  Gray has a lot of side characters that I can remember (names non-withstanding - I'm bad at remembering names outside of the main characters) by personality and action, and I find that really great.  These characters don't all have a lot of complexity beyond their place in the plot, but they all work together very well and leave a good enough impression on me that I remember their personalities and interactions with Bianca, Balthazar, and Lucas.

 Gray's writing is really the biggest reason why I've come to find this series positively amazing.  It's a style that incorporates a fair amount of description and word use without overusing either one, and it really encapsulates the drama and intrigue of the world.  As a reader, I can also tell that Gray had fun writing this series.  That is what makes it so fun to read.  Gray's style sucks you in and gets you invested in the characters and story.  Whenever she pulls out a new twist, the reader immediately gets a sense of heightened excitement.  Gray knows how to take a book that in all reasoning should have been slow and make it fast paced by the way her style and the plot flow.  She turned Bianca's drama and moral problems into something that could also be addressed with a plot and with actual events that go on.  The middle books of series tend to focus so much on the character that they lose the sense of plotting, but Gray avoids that.  Stargazer felt fast and well-paced despite the higher focus on Bianca's struggles compared to the previous book.  Ultimately, the style is just something that is infinitely entertaining with this story.  Gray's won me over with it, and I've since come to enjoy the various short stories I've read from her because of it.  (In case you were wondering, she writes a really solid short story as well.) 

I can't be happier with the progress in Claudia Gray's series.  I know it's completed now (at four books) with a spin-off novel coming out in 2012 based on Balthazar (heck yes), and I aim to finish reading it in time for the spin-off.  Gray's writing is fabulous, and I always find it satisfying without losing the entertainment value it holds.  Gray really captures the readers emotions and gives them a story high in drama, characterization, and pure romantic fun.  It's got its share of angst and love-interest-confusion, but Gray makes it stand out with her voice and the ability to twist cliches into things that benefit the overall plot and the characters within it.  For anyone that wants to read a solid paranormal series for the YA set, I have to turn them towards this series.  It has its faults - and its vampires, which are as much a deterrent as a selling point these days - but I love it and that love only gets stronger as I read through it.

Cover:  I really love these covers, although the similarities to the first book in terms of how the face is positioned and what-not make it dull.  I like that the style is uniform, though, and it's an appealing uniformity."

My three favorite female authors of present

My three favorite female authors are:

1. J.K. Rowling: Why? Well, She is who brought me into this world. She demonstrated me how wonderful reading is. She teach me about the importance of friendship. And of course, taught me to never lose faith. 
2. Stephenie Meyer: Why? Well, She showed me the importance of true love, She taught me to give all for LOVE. She taught me the importance motherhood, and above all, to never reject this wonderful experience. She stressed the importance of this planet. We only have one and must be looked after, and that only a few do. But mostly SHE taught me how important it is LIFE. In every way.
3. Suzanne Collins: Why? Well, She taught me how terrible and terrifying it can be war. She taught me to fight for your ideals, although go against the rest of people. She showed me what it is real pain and how to overcome it. She showed me how cruel humans can be, but also the goodness inside those who are pure.

They are women who taught me to face what I touch me, both good and bad things. They taught me to have to be a woman with a lot of perseverance to succeed in a world that is still sexist. A world that claims to accept the differences and believe to be modern, but the only thing it does is to go against such acts. They taught me that if I want to achieve something, with all perseverance and good will you can! They have taught me to be my strong until the end, and win with much honor. Because the only battle is lost, Is the is renounced before even attempting to WIN.

The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks

"When her mother forces her to spend the holidays with his father in a village in North Carolina, Ronnie Miller a 17-year-old can not imagine a worse torture. Three years ago his parents separated, but she never got over it.

His father, concert pianist and piano teacher, living away from everything in a house near the beach, where Ronnie and her younger brother go to a holiday. In this idyllic setting, Ronnie discover the importance of different kinds of love that can populate a person's life: the one between parents and children, love for music and the most important to her first love for a boy ."

 Summary 

Veronica “Ronnie” Miller’s life was turned upside down when her parents divorced and her father, Steve, moved to Wrightsville, North Carolina. Three years later, she remains distant from her parents, particularly Steve, until her mother decides it would be everyone’s best interest if she and her brother spent the summer with him. Resentful and rebellious, Ronnie rejects Steve’s attempts to reach out to her and threatens to return to New York before the summer’s end. But soon Ronnie meets Will, the last person she thought she’d ever be attracted to, and finds herself falling for him, opening herself up to the greatest happiness – and pain – that she has ever known. Ronnie finds out that Steve has stomach cancer.From here she must overcome her fears, but above all should think about how to recover the time with his father.

 The Film Adaption 

The film version of The Last Song was released in the U.S. on March 31, 2010, Unlike previous adaptations of Sparks' novels, Sparks participated in writing the film's screenplay; after agreeing to the project, Sparks invited his college roommate Jeff Van Wie to co-write the script. With Van Wie's help, Sparks finished the screenplay before he began writing the novel. The Last Song is director Julie Anne Robinson's first feature film. The film stars Miley Cyrus as Ronnie, along with Greg Kinnear as Steve, Liam Hemsworth as Will Blakelee, Kelly Preston as Kim, and Bobby Coleman as Jonah.

 The Review 

"The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks is a ‘beautiful’ novel. Yes, that is the word that comes to my mind to describe the story. As I flipped through the last pages of the novel my eyes glittered with tears, of sorrow and of joy and after reading the book amidst the tears, I had a satisfied smile on my face, the kind one has after reading a good book. The book will take you through a journey of all these different emotions. Sparks has this innate ability to get to the heart of relationships and bring out the complexities therein. This novel touches an aspect of parent- children relationship, girl friend – boy friend relationship, brother-sister relationship and friendship in general. The novel has also been made into a movie. In fact, it was written to be made into a movie. The Last Song is perhaps one of the best of Sparks’ books and a must read for all who enjoys his writings.

The story might seem predictable but still it will move you to tears. All the characters seems real and are well defined. As Ronnie’s life changes, the readers can feel the way she matures from a rebellious teenager to a young woman of substance. I loved the character of Jonah too. He is intelligent, adorable and a witty child and the way he cares for his father and sister is simply moving. Steve, too as a father does his best to spend meaningful time with his children. His unconditional love for his children, patience with Ronnie and his belief in her and finally his love for music is remarkable.

The story gives an important lesson to its readers too. Forgiveness is the key to happiness. Life is too short to hold grudges against others. So, forgive and forget and move forward in life."

 If you want to know about its author, Nicholas Sparks, Clic here!

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

"A man has the ability to travel in time and revisit their love story ... Clare and Henry form a seemingly normal couple, they love and try to be happy. However, Henry suffers from a strange illness that led him to travel back in time, which allowed him to meet Clare when he was a child and sentenced him to face his uncertain, and perhaps tragic future. A very original and charming story about the passage of time and the endurance of love that surely fascinated from the first page."

 Summary 

Using alternating first-person perspectives, the novel tells the stories of Henry DeTamble (born 1963), a librarian at the Newberry Library in Chicago, and his wife, Clare Anne Abshire (born 1971), an artist who makes paper sculptures. Henry has a rare genetic disorder, which comes to be known as Chrono-Displacement, that causes him to involuntarily travel through time. When 20-year-old Clare meets 28-year-old Henry at the Newberry Library in 1991 at the opening of the novel, he has never seen her before, although she has known him most of her life.

Henry begins time traveling at the age of five, jumping forward and backward relative to his own timeline. When he leaves, where he goes, or how long his trips will last are all beyond his control. His destinations are tied to his subconscious—he most often travels to places and times related to his own history. Certain stimuli such as stress can trigger Henry's time traveling; he often goes jogging to keep calm and remain in the present. He also searches out pharmaceuticals in the future that may be able to help control his time traveling. He also seeks the advice of a geneticist, Dr. Kendrick. Henry cannot take anything with him into the future or the past; he always arrives naked and then struggles to find clothing, shelter, and food. He amasses a number of survival skills including lock-picking, self-defense, and pickpocketing. Much of this he learns from older versions of himself.

"It's hard being left behind. I wait for Henry, not knowing where he is, wondering if he's okay. It's hard to be the one who stays."

-Clare-

 Genre 

Reviewers have found The Time Traveler's Wife difficult to classify generically: some categorize it as science fiction, others as a romance. Niffenegger herself is reluctant to label the novel, saying she "never thought of it as science fiction, even though it has a science-fiction premise". In Niffenegger's view, the story is primarily about Henry and Clare's relationship and the struggles they endure. She has said that she based Clare and Henry's romance on the "cerebral coupling" of Dorothy Sayers's characters Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane.

Time travel stories to which the novel has been compared include Jack Finney's Time and Again (1970) and the film Somewhere in Time (1980). Henry has been compared to Billy Pilgrim of Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five (1969). Science fiction writer Terence M. Green calls the novel a "timeslip romance". The Time Traveler's Wife is not as concerned with the paradoxes of time travel as is traditional science fiction. Instead, as critic Marc Mohan describes, the novel "uses time travel as a metaphor to explain how two people can feel as if they've known each other their entire lives".

 Audrey Niffenegger 

Audrey Niffenegger (born June 13, 1963 in South Haven, Michigan) trained as a visual artist at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and received her MFA from Northwestern University’s Department of Art Theory and Practice. She has exhibited her artist’s books, prints, paintings, drawings and comics at Printworks Gallery in Chicago since 1987. Her first books were printed and bound by hand in editions of ten. Two of these have since been commercially published by Harry N. Abrams: The Adventuress and The Three Incestuous Sisters. 

Initially imagined as a graphic novel, Niffenegger realized that her idea for a book about a time traveler and his wife would be difficult to represent in still images. She began to work on the project as a novel, and published The Time Traveler’s Wife in 2003 with the independent publisher MacAdam/Cage. It was an international best seller, and has been made into a movie. 

Niffenegger helped to found a new book arts center, the Columbia College Chicago Center for Book and Paper Arts. Niffenegger was part of this group and has taught book arts and fiction writing there, as well as the Newberry Library, Penland School of Craft and other institutions of higher learning. 

Niffenegger is a founding member of the writing collective Text 3 (T3), who publish the litmag little Bang. Niffenegger’s second novel, Her Fearful Symmetry, was published in 2009. In 2008 she made a serialized graphic novel for the London Guardian, The Night Bookmobile, which was published in book form in September, 2010. She is working on her third novel, The Chinchilla Girl in Exile. She has lived in or near Chicago for most of her life.

 The Review 

"The first time I saw the book's title could not help thinking something like "here we go again with the typical story about time travel" so I did not pay any attention. Only after a while I decided to start reading it, not because he had a special interest in him, but because my list of outstanding books and was running out.Novels and stories that deal with time travel so there are many, in my opinion, the difficulty of addressing this issue is no longer talking about what's happening in the past, if this can be changed, how it could be the future and so on., the difficulty really is to deal with a matter that we have all heard and making it practically new. I believe that this novel approach has succeeded in giving the matter quite original.The first thing we find is an unusual character, one who just do not want to relive the past, much less face the future. To Henry his "ability" often a curse because it can not control what you do or where to go. To give it even more interesting when Henry travels in time lose the clothes and all that carry over into the time so each time shift also becomes a struggle for survival.The co-protagonist of this novel is also very important because everything revolves around it. Since childhood, Clare, has had the opportunity to talk and meet a mysterious man who has always refused to answer questions about what will happen in the future. All he knows is that he will be her future husband and all that she is living, the real Henry will not know where they are known as all her past trips to be made where they are already married. Is not it interesting?To really see if it is original or not, I think he's talking about a plot of this book and I will divide it into three and I will explain briefly what it's each to yourself you can decide.The first part focuses primarily on the growth of Clare and the strange relationship with Henry, which will be for her a father, a mentor, a friend and eventually her partner and husband. How does this affect the life of the young? How does the condition? These and many other things raised in this first part enganchándote from the first page.After all these years finally the inevitable happens is that Henry meets Clare and the two marry. This, very briefly, the start of the second part of the story which will mainly focus on the difficulties that have to be happy. This is when you actually see it back in time for the protagonist is not so happy as to see his wife as a child. Unable to control it always runs the risk of disappearing at the most inconvenient thing that greatly hinders their attempts to live a normal happy life with the girl he wants.Nor is it easy to accept the "disease" of her husband and constantly living with the uncertainty of not knowing whether Henry will this time or not and does not know what state you'll find when you return.The novel continues to flow unabated, telling you everything you need to get to know the characters, to understand them and worry about what might happen. So without realizing it leads to the third party, where everything comes together the mosaic finally ending in a shocking end which I will not reveal. Obviously.If the story itself grabs the reader and forcing him to read more and more, the way it is written is the perfect support for giving strength to finish the novel.All that is told, is written in first person, from the point of view of Clare such as Henry. This dual perspective on things, it helps to understand things and see how they think the characters and how they feel. Another equally interesting thing is that in this way, we see only what someone is telling us by giving us a demo of the facts, which might then be complemented by the other partner.Finally another thing worth noting is how well the novel is structured and how well designed they are temporary breaks. The author manages to keep the suspense as they often know what will happen in the future but why not and vice versa.In conclusion, this novel would recommend it to all science fiction readers who want to read something original, why not also to all those who, although not of this kind, want to read a beautiful love story. 100% Recommended, I do not regret having read it and I encourage everyone to read"

The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks

"First there were fourteen years away, stolen cards, social impairments, war. Then an awkward compromise, sweeping passion, love improbable. Now, although the gulf that separates them is much deeper, Noah does not lose hope of being reunited with the only woman he has loved. Thus, through the pages of this mysterious book, we discover the story of a love that overcame all barriers imaginable and now, perhaps, can surmount the wall of oblivion."

 Summary 

The Notebook is a contemporary love story set in the pre- and post-World War II era. Noah and Allie spend a wonderful summer together, but her family and the socio-economic realities of the time prevent them from being together. Although Noah attempts to keep in contact with Allie after they are forced to separate, his letters go unanswered. Eventually, Noah professes his undying and eternal love in one final letter. Noah travels north to find gainful employment and to escape the ghost of Allie, and eventually he goes off to war. After serving his country, he returns home to restore an old farmhouse. A newspaper article about his endeavor catches Allie's eye, and 14 years after she last saw Noah, Allie returns to him. The only problem is she is engaged to another man. After spending two wonderful reunion days together, Allie must decide between the two men that she loves.

 Nicholas Sparks 

Nicholas Charles Sparks (born December 31, 1965) is an internationally bestselling American novelist and screenwriter. He has 16 published novels, with elements including cancer, death, pirates, and love. Nine have been adapted to films, including Message in a Bottle, Nights in Rodanthe, Dear John (2010 film) , A Walk to Remember, The Notebook, The Last Song , and most recently The Lucky One.

 Writing career 

Still in school in 1985, Sparks had penned his first (never published) novel, The Passing, while home for the summer between freshman and sophomore years at Notre Dame. He wrote another novel in 1989, also unpublished, The Royal Murders. After college, Sparks sought work with publishers or to attend law school, but was rejected in both attempts. He then spent the next three years trying other careers, including real estate appraisal, waiting tables, selling dental products by phone and starting his own manufacturing business. In 1990, Sparks co-wrote with Billy Mills Wokini: A Lakota Journey to Happiness and Self-Understanding. The book was published by Feather Publishing, Random House, and Hay House. Sales for this book approximated 50,000 copies in its first year after release.

In 1992, Sparks began selling pharmaceuticals and in 1993 was transferred to Greenville, SC. It was there that he wrote another novel in his spare time, The Notebook. Two years later, he was discovered by literary agent Theresa Park, who picked The Notebook out of her agency's slush pile, liked it, and offered to represent him. In October 1995, Park secured a $1 million advance for The Notebook from Time Warner Book Group. The novel was published in October 1996 and made the New York Times best-seller list in its first week of release.

With the success of his first novel, he moved to New Bern, NC. After his first publishing success, he wrote several international bestsellers. Six of his novels have been made into films: Message in a Bottle (1999), A Walk to Remember (2002), The Notebook (2004), Nights in Rodanthe (2008), Dear John (2010), and The Last Song (2010). A seventh, The Lucky One, starring Zac Efron, was released in 2012.

According to his website, he has also sold the screenplay adaptations of True Believer and At First Sight, though it is uncertain whether either film will be made. His latest screenplay turned novel, The Last Song, has been turned into a film produced by Offspring Entertainment for Touchstone Pictures featuring Miley Cyrus.

Sparks began his 16th novel, Safe Haven, on February 17, 2010, and it was published on September 14, 2010. Film producers asked Sparks on August 4 for rights to release a movie adaptation of this new novel and the deal was closed the next day.

On June 17, 2011 Nicholas Sparks stated on his official website that Warner Bros. had bought the movie rights to his new book The Best of Me, which is coming out October 11, 2011. The production date for the movie has not been verified, although Sparks believes that filming of the movie will start in 2012.

On August 2, 2011, Sparks stated via his Twitter page that Safe Haven should begin production some time in October 2011.

 Novels 

-The Notebook, 1996, adapted.

-Message in a Bottle, 1998, adapted the eponymous film.

-Walk to Remember, 1999, adapted the eponymous film.

-The Rescue, 2000.

-Bend in the Road, 2001.

-Nights in Rodanthe, 2002, adapted.

-The Guardian, 2003.

-The Wedding, 2003.

- The Weeks with My Brother, 2004 by Micah Sparks (non-fiction).

-True Believer, 2005.

-At First Sight, 2005.

-Dear John, 2006, adapted to film.

-The Choice, 2007.

-The Last Song, 2009, adapted for the screen.

All his novels have reached the top spot on bestseller lists (bestsellers) in the U.S., which puts Sparks as one of the world's most popular authors, and several of his novels have been adapted to film.

 The Review 

"To some extent this book is something more special than the others I have read from Sparks. It has had its good parts and bad parts. In a tale rich vocabulary I can say I've gained a lot ( ^.^ ). The story is beautiful, tender, like life itself. Sparks presents two well-defined characters contrarastan with each other; Allie: passionate, joyous, overwhelming as a wind that sweeps wherever it goes, but that just is very aware of their obligations and the expectations we all hope her and Noah: eternal romantic willing to do anything for the woman he loves, quiet and peaceful as a lake at sunset, all he asks of the life is enjoy little moments like an afternoon at the porche for listening to the birdsong. The beginning of the story promises that nothing good can happen and as expected, the end leaves us this bittersweet aftertaste in the mouth. Not that I did not like, on the contrary, I loved, but with books of this man always happens the same, just hoping that everything will end well even though you know in advance that it is not. The pace is steady and not too fast nor too slow. In summary, it has all the elements to become the best-seller. It already is. Without hesitation I recommend it, especially if you're a lover of the impossible love stories, because with this you'll be captivated by the characters and end of the book will want to know a little more than the story of Allie and Noah."

Evernight by Claudia Gray

"A boarding school where nothing is as it seems.

Two teenagers attracted by a magnetic force.

A dark and dangerous secret.

And one certain: Surrender to love is playing with fire"

 Summary 

At Evernight Academy, the other students are sleek, smart and and verging on predatory. Bianca does not fit in and wants to escape. She meets handsome Lucas who warns her to be careful including being careful about caring for him. But the sparks between them cannot be ignored. Bianca wants to be with Lucas and she will risk anything to do so but dark secrets may tear them apart.

Bianca Olivier is a new student to Evernight Academy, a Gothic boarding school with "perfect" but predatory students. She knows she does not belong but she cannot escape because her parents are now teachers at the school. Bianca believes the best of her parents and trusts them about everything even when her brain tells her not to.

As school progresses, Bianca befriends Lucas, Raquel, a loner like her, and Vic, Lucas's roommate. She develops enemies, like Courtney and Erich, who are what Bianca calls "The Evernight Type". At a party, she befriends a handsome, popular, but friendly guy, Balthazar More.

She discovers that theSchool isn't an ordinary insitute. It is an institute which accepts nothing more  VAMPIRES, like her parents. Bianca now has only one question. Why do HUMANS enter this school?

 Reception 

School library journal wrote “Gray’s writing hooks readers from the first page and reels them in with surprising plot twists and turns, and the open ending will keep them guessing and waiting on the edge of their seats for the next book in the series. A must-have for fans of vampire stories by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes, Stephenie Meyer, and the like.” regarding the initial installment of the series. L.J. Smith wrote "Once I picked Evernight up, I couldn’t put it down! I can’t wait for Claudia Gray’s next book!". Romantic times bookclub wrote that Evernight was a "Teenage love, ancient hatred and a Romeo and Juliet-style feud fuel the fires in this compelling first-person drama." and Booklist wrote that Evernight was something that "Stephenie Meyer fans will find similar rewards in the flashes of humor; the terrifying battle between ancient, supernatural societies; and the steamy romance in which love bites aren’t just a euphemism". Kirkus Reviews wrote critically of the book commenting that "Their absorbing love grows rapidly despite his shady behavior. But both are hiding important truths: She’s a vampire and he’s a vampire hunter. The problem is Bianca’s first-person narration. Why does she hide her vampirism from the reader for half the book? The mysterious foreshadowing and hints about “Evernight type” students seem disingenuous at best once readers realize Bianca knew everything all along. Thin characterization, a need to state the obvious and constant iteration of Lucas’s name quickly grow old. Some fun details (a modern technology class where vampires learn to use iPods), the inexorable clash between the vampires and their Black Cross hunters and the open question of what will happen next make this enjoyable enough, particularly for fans of that other vampire series who need something to read while they wait for Breaking Dawn" Stargazer received a rating of 3.91 on Goodreads.com.

Claudia Gray

Claudia Gray is a pseudonym for Amy Vincent, a young adult paranormal romance author, best known for the Evernight series.

 She is published by HarperCollins. Her book Stargazer hit No. 4 in the chapter book category of the New York Times list of bestselling children books in April 2009. Gray is a published author of young adult books. Published credits of Gray include Evernight, Stargazer, Hourglass, and Afterlife. She has worked as a lawyer, a journalist, a disc jockey, and, she says in her official bio, an extremely poor waitress. Her lifelong interests in old houses, classic movies, vintage style, and history all played a part in creating the world of Evernight.

Books written by her

Evernight (May 2008)
Stargazer (March 2009)
Hourglass (March 2010)
Afterlife (March 2011)
Balthazar (forthcoming March 2012)
Fateful (September 2011)

Review

"I’m not quite sure what to say about EVERNIGHT. I have to admit I’d been avoiding this book because of the cover but finally decided to read it when another blogger recommended it. When I started EVERNIGHT I knew I was going to love it, the first pages pulled me in right away and I knew I would be hooked. What I wasn’t expecting was the story to lull for awhile; making me put the book down more than once.

While I could relate to Bianca’s character, her swooning over Lucas left me feeling a little woozy. She fell so hard so quickly that I didn’t have enough time to fall in love with Lucas myself which left me feeling a bit off balance when I hardly even knew the guy. The one character I did fall in love with was Balthazar; he was a gentlemen, he was confident, smart, and he genuinely cared about Bianca. (I was quietly rooting for him throughout the entire book).

What I think a lot of people have felt deceived about was the twist in the second half of the book, which I already knew about due to some spoiler-filled reviews. But the twist, even knowing it, didn’t bother me in the least, although I think some things should have panned out differently, Gray knowingly put the pieces together so that it wouldn’t be such a shock when the reader finally got to that twist.

By the end, the story had picked up and I couldn’t put the book down. I was turning page after page trying to figure out what was going to happen next. The tension is definitely in the second half of the book. So if you haven’t picked up EVERNIGHT yet you definitely should."