Evernight - Claudia Gray

Summary: When the story begins in Evernight, Bianca has just left the small town where she's spent her whole life. She's a new student at Evernight Academy, a creepily Gothic boarding school where her classmates are somehow too perfect: smart, sleek and almost predatory. Bianca knows she doesn't fit in.
Then she meets Lucas, another loner, who seems fiercely determined not to be the "Evernight type." There's a connection between Bianca and Lucas that can't be denied. She would risk anything to be with him—but dark secrets are fated to tear them apart... and to make Bianca question everything she's ever believed to be true. (image and summary from claudiagray.com)

My review: Claudia Gray’s new paranormal romance series started off strong with an intriguing prologue that will suck in anyone who is a fan of the neo-vampire genre. While almost every story about vampires seems to feel “done” by now, I didn’t feel that way about Evernight at all. Gray’s perspective on the (lately fangless) vampire genre was innovative. She made enough unique, creative changes to traditional vampire lore that I didn’t feel I was reading a carbon copy of someone else’s work. Hall-e-lu-jah!

Evernight held attraction, conflict, and suspense in all the right places with a few seriously wicked twists thrown in for good measure that I didn’t see coming AT ALL. They left me grinning like a freak. Of all the paranormal young adult romance I have read recently (Wings, Need, Evermore, City of Bones), this one is by far my favorite. In fact, it sort of makes me want to go back and re-rate the others.

My rating: 4.5 Stars. That is 5 Stars (for a younger reader) and 4 for me. Let me be clear—this can NOT compare to some of the epic adult literature out there, but I think that YA Readers will probably go nuts for it. There is a little bit of swearing and some nearly-sexual situations, which make me feel it is only appropriate for the older young adult set. My only hope is that with the next book, Stargazer, Gray doesn’t screw it up by letting things get too physical.

To sum it up: Romeo and Juliet – with vampires.