Evernight by Claudia Gray

Title: Evernight

Author: Claudia Gray

Genre: YA

Rating: * * *1/2

Publishers Date: Feb 10, 2009

Paperback: 352 pages

Publisher: HarperTeen

ISBN: 0061284440

FTC Disclosure: Won in a Contest from http://moydrook.blogspot.com/

Bianca wants to escape.
She's been uprooted from her small hometown and enrolled at Evernight Academy, an eerie Gothic boarding school where the students are somehow too perfect: smart, sleek, and almost predatory. Bianca knows she doesn't fit in.
Then she meets Lucas. He's not the "Evernight type" either, and he likes it that way. Lucas ignores the rules, stands up to the snobs, and warns Bianca to be careful—even when it comes to caring about him.
"I couldn't stand it if they took it out on you," he tells Bianca, "and eventually they would."
But the connection between Bianca and Lucas can't be denied. Bianca will risk anything to be with Lucas, but dark secrets are fated to tear them apart . . . and to make Bianca question everything she's ever believed.

When I first started this book, I didn’t expect to enjoy it as much as I did. Parents move loser teenager to private academy (read “huge, hulking, Gothic stone monstrosity”), other students are rich, bitchy & predatory, meets good looking moody guy and another even cuter guy who understands her (of course), & then she finds out she’s special, very special; sound familiar? Yeah, I thought so too. I mean every other YA paranormal book I’ve picked up started about the same way. Well, I was pleasantly surprised. Now don’t get me wrong, it’s not yet on the same playing field as Twilight or Vampire Academy but it was a very compelling read. I started it Sunday afternoon at the pool and read till there was no light left outside. Needless to say I stayed up till I finished it that night.

When Bianca talks about Lucas’s smell, spicy and woodsy, I think I’m right, yeap, vamps and werewolves. Well, since I don’t want to ruin it, suffice it to say, this book has many secrets which are only partially reveled (it is a series after all) like the layers of an onion. While I don’t think the average adults are going to rave over this book, I do think that YAs are going to love it. This book again makes me realize why I like to read YA paranormals, the story grabs you quickly and does not waste a lot of time on backstory, it gets right to the meat of it. While I read this book more as a challenge as the previous owner was less than impressed by it, I still stand by my remark that one man’s cow dung is another man’s fertilizer as I expect this series to grow and produce amazing results. I definitely intend to read at least another book or two in this series to see if we get more answers to some questions and to see if I can convince the naysayer to give it another try. 

Evernight

1. Evernight (2008)

2. Stargazer (2008)

3. Hourglass (2010)

4. Afterlife (2011)