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."