Search - Evernight (Evernight, Bk 1)

The first reaction I had when I finished this book was, wow, I'm glad it's over. Don't get me wrong: there are some good parts to this book. I really liked the concept of a boarding school for vampires. The idea that Gray presents readers of a world where immortal vampires are constantly struggling to fit in, and need to be taught technology, was intriguing, although not as well developed as it could've been.

I really liked the tension between vampires and the human vampire hunters, even though the motivations for the vampire hunters' actions were not well explained. And finally, I was a fan of the huge twist halfway through the book that everyone likes to talk about. Books with unreliable narrators are difficult to pull off, and Bianca's revelation to us was shocking, yet satisfying at the same time.

However, EVERNIGHT fell flat in all other aspects. Bianca was difficult to like: she constantly feels the need to tell readers things about herself and the world around her, things that we didn't need to know or could have inferred in the hands of a more skilled writer. Similarly, none of the other characters were interesting, least of all Luke. I rolled my eyes at the stilted dialogue and forced attraction between the two, felt my eyelids start to slide shut at the unbearably slow pace of the novel.

I read EVERNIGHT for the express purpose of finding out what that plot twist was, but it wasn't worth it. Lovers of vampire lit might be interested in the world that Gray has tried to spin, but newcomers to the genre would be better off with other vampire series, such as Richelle Mead's Vampire Academy.

I only started reading this book, because the library had a list of 31 people waiting on Twilight and my daughter wanted a book to read and this wasn't it. I started reading it instead. I really liked it. I couldn't put the book down. I loved the twists. I didn't know at the time it was a series, so the book left me hanging, which I did not like. I had to wait a year for the next one- Stargazer. I have like the whole series, but Bianca ticks me off at times with her Balthazar relationship and keeping him hanging. But good news Bathazar has a book of his own just realeased.

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.

Love, love, love this book! I was a little skeptical at the beginning but once I got started reading I couldn't stop. I stayed up until 4am just to finish! The setting and descriptions were so real; I felt like I was right there alongside Bianca. The character of Lucas was just the right combination of bad boy, mystery, and sweet caring. I highly recommend this book and I look forward to reading the rest of the series.

I went back and forth on how interested I was in this book as I read it. Some parts were intriging, other parts were too much teenage drama. I didn't really believe the relationship connection between the two main characters and that is always a problem in teenage romances. I did not anticipate the big reveal though. That caught me off guard and it took me a minute to process it. I am not sure if I will read the others in the series.

Was good,but,when I neared the end .found it predictable. Have Stargazer in my TBR pile