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.

This book was a surprise to me. This started out with the typical teen, angry at her parents for uprooting her from her friends and school, and enrolling her in Evernight Academy, where she feels anxiety at meeting new people and wants to run away. Her parents are teachers there, which means they are the one constant thing in her life, which she desperately needs.

I am half way through this book when I have it all figured out - who the vampires and humans are, and then whammo ... I'm wrong. Something happens which I didn't see coming and must admit I am surprised and impressed with the way the story was written so far that I didn't pick it. And the surprises don't end there ... further on in the story, I find out that someone isn't what everyone thought and all I can see ahead is trouble. Bianca and Lucas are in for an interesting time in the follow up book STARGAZER.

Lies, secrets, love, family, deception - for me this book had it all for the YA reader ... and would recommend this book to read.

Hanover Falls hasn’t had a werewolf problem in over one hundred years. Seattle, Copenhagen, Osaka–they’ve had plenty of attacks. But when humans begin dying in Claire Benoit’s town, the panic spreads faster than a rumor at a pep rally. At Claire’s sixteenth birthday party, the gruesome killings are all anyone can talk about. But the big news in Claire’s mind is the fact that Matthew Engle–high-school soccer god and son of a world-renowned lycanthropy expert–notices her. And flirts with her. A lot.

Dana Hathaway doesn't know it yet, but she's in big trouble. When her alcoholic mom shows up at her voice recital drunk, again, Dana decides she’s had enough and runs away to find her mysterious father in Avalon: the only place on Earth where the regular, everyday world and the captivating, magical world of Faerie intersect. But from the moment Dana sets foot in Avalon, everything goes wrong, for it turns out she isn't just an ordinary teenage girl—she's a Faeriewalker, a rare individual who can travel between both worlds, and the only person who can bring magic into the human world and technology into Faerie.

Soon, Dana finds herself tangled up in a cutthroat game of Fae politics. Someone's trying to kill her, and everyone seems to want something from her, from her newfound friends and family to Ethan, the hot Fae guy Dana figures she’ll never have a chance with… until she does. Caught between two worlds, Dana isn’t sure where she’ll ever fit in and who can be trusted, not to mention if her world will ever be normal again…

Berkley Trade Paperback

ISBN : 978-0-425-22751-0
Released 4/28/09
Bride Quartet — Book One

The first book in the Bride Quartet—following the lives and loves of four friends who run Vows, a wedding-planning company. Wedding photographer Mackensie “Mac” Elliot is most at home behind the camera, but her focus is shattered moments before an important wedding rehearsal when she bumps into the bride-to-be’s brother…an encounter that has them both seeing stars.

A stable, safe English teacher, Carter Maguire is definitely not Mac’s type. But a casual fling might be just what she needs to take her mind off bridezillas. Of course, casual flings can turn into something more when you least expect it. And Mac will have to turn to her three best friends—and business partners—to see her way to her own happy ending.

This book had a nice feel to it from the very first page. You will find yourself feeling very comfortable with Mac, and enjoying the friendship that she shares with her friends, that are also her business partners.

Your heart will break when you come across the relationship that she has with her mother Linda, a woman that is so selfish and thinks that the world revolves around her ... regardless of her daughters needs. Watching the way Mac deals with her throughout the book is interesting, and a great time of growth for her.

And then there is Carter ... the man who she wouldn't have really taken any notice of in high school, but now, she can't get him out of her mind. Seeing their relationship grow from their first meeting (helping his sister with her wedding) to see the tenderness. consideration and trust between them ... something that Mac has never had in her life before. So many situations are covered in this book that no doubt we have experienced ourselves, or seen first hand, another aspect that makes this story seem close to real life.

Great friendship, a thriving business and a love that is totally unexpected - all makes for a great read. I am definately looking forward to reading BED OF ROSES - the next book in the series.

RATING - 8/10

The perils of power…

Keira Kelly has come into her full powers, and they are frighteningly strong, creating a distance between her and her human friends in her beloved Rio Seco. It is time to obey her great-grandmother Gigi’s orders, and rejoin her family in northwest Canada, where Keira can learn to handle her dangerous new skills. She’ll have friends with her every step of the way—her shapeshifter brother Tucker, his beloved Niko, and, to Keira’s dismay, her cousin on her mother’s side, Daffyd ap Geraint, the Sidhe prince who suddenly appeared in her life and now refuses to leave—but her vampire lover Adam has insisted on staying in Texas. And while there are certainly perks to being Family, such as a private Lear jet for the flight to Canada, and a fabulous penthouse condo overlooking Vancouver, there are threats looming that nobody, not even Gigi, has anticipated. Keira’s Sidhe inheritance from her mother is far more important than anyone ever realized, and the fate of the Clan may depend upon what she does….