Evernight By Claudia Gray

At the eerily Gothic Evernight Academy, the other students are sleek, smart, and almost predatory. Bianca knows she doesn't fit in.

When she meets handsome, brooding Lucas, he warns her to be careful - even when it comes to caring about him. But the connection between them 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.

This book wasn't quite what I was expecting, mainly down to the huge twist in the middle. I started off by thinking that it was going to follow the lines of other various popular vampire novels, so I was pleasantly surprised.

Claudia Gray has a real knack for setting up a great dark, gothic type atmosphere and relating it to the different seasons especially Autumn. The first chapter really pulled me in, beginning with the eerie forest, potenially menacing stranger and creepy nightmare flashbacks, all filled with suspense. Overall, there was forbidden romance, mystery (even after the half-way surprise) and a bit of action towards the end.

However, I not completely convinced on the love between Bianca and Lucas. I felt it happened too quick. And after finding out Lucas's secret near the end it felt even less plausible to me. Although I could see the attraction between the two, but maybe not as strong as it was supposed to be. I also feel that a lot of the vampire stuff was skimmed over, mainly the background of them. Maybe Gray will delve into this more in the sequel though.

Finally, there was one character I really liked which was Balthazar, who I found the most intriguing and hope I get to learn more about him in Stargazer.

Random Passage: The next day, on my way to history class, I glimpsed Lucas in the hallway at the very same moment he spotted me. Sunlight from the stained glass windows painted him the colors of autumn, and it seemed to me that he had never been more handsome