Hourglass by Claudia Gray

Evernight #3, review contains spoilers for previous books.

"After escaping from Evernight Academy, the vampire boarding school where they met, Bianca and Lucas seek refuge with Black Cross, an elite group of vampire hunters. Bianca must hide her supernatural heritage or risk certain death at their hands. But when Black Cross captures her friend - the vampire Balthazar - all her secrets threaten to come out.

Soon, Bianca and Lucas have orchestrated Balthazar's escape and are on the run, pursued not only by Black Cross, but by the powerful leaders of Evernight. Yet no matter how far they run, Bianca can't escape her destiny.

Bianca has always believed their love could survive anything - but can it survive what's to come?"

Book 2 of the Evernight series, Stargazer, ended rather dramatically. Evernight attacked, set on fire, and Bianca and Lucas escaped only with Black Cross. Now Black Cross are giving her refuge, still under the belief that she's human, kidnapped and raised by vampires as a baby. If they find out the truth, that she is actually a vampire herself, they'll kill her. And most likely Lucas as well. But they don't have anywhere else to go. Escaping from Black Cross could well be harder than escaping Evernight, and they need money they don't have as well. So they stay, Bianca trains, learns to fight, while starving for blood only able to get a little every few days instead of daily like she needs. Bianca and Lucas get little time together either, not alone, and Bianca can't confide in her roommate, Raquel, either because she's sided completely with Black Cross. It leaves Bianca feeling very alone in the heart of enemy territory.

Then Balthazar, Bianca's closest friend from Evernight, a vampire, is captured. Bianca can't watch them torture him so she convinces Lucas they have to save him, somehow. Lucas, who has never liked Balthazar for his attraction to Bianca, agrees for her sake more than anything. But he puts his heart in to it and together they come up with a plan. But in such close quarters, can they really save him and continue to keep Bianca's secret? And Lucas', because if they discover Bianca's fed from him, he'll be in just as much trouble. Living on the run, Mrs Bethany, the powerful head of Evernight Academy, after them, surrounded by Black Cross members who'd kill them in an instant if the truth came out, things are far from certain for Bianca and Lucas.

I really, really loved this book. It was fascinating seeing Bianca and Lucas attempt to cope within Black Cross. Neither wanted to be there and the tension between Lucas and some of the members was almost explosive. It wasn't always fast paced, but it never felt slow either. I think there is more action in this book than the previous two, and I loved seeing how they both dealt with the things thrown their way.

It's a great continuation of the series, building on previous events, more secrets are revealed and dealt with, and both Lucas and Bianca continue to grow and learn from the things they face. I've loved how this series has developed. Ms. Gray does a great job of hiding things until the last moment, with just subtle hints before hand which don't make anything easy to guess, but makes perfect sense when you understand what's going on.

I've loved Bianca and Lucas from the start, and Balthazar grew on me a lot as well through Stargazer and this. But Vic has become one of my all time favourite side characters with this book. I loved him already, but even more so now. He's smart, takes things in stride, and yet has a serious, deeper side which just makes him more impressive and lovable.

The build up for the ending is intense. I confess that I think Bianca and Lucas should have figured out what was going on with her a bit sooner than she did. But on the other hand, it does still make sense that they didn't. The ending though, about killed me. I'm so glad I hadn't got in to this series sooner and read this as soon as it released, because the wait for the final book, Afterlife, may just kill me and I've got less to wait than some. Such an awesome series, great writing, great story, great characters, and a must read. It's still far from your typical YA vampire series and it's up there with Strange Angels [Lili St. Crow] and Vampire Academy [Richelle Mead] on my favourites list.

Rating:  9/10

Stargazer by Claudia Gray

This is the second book in the Evernight series and this review is written on the assumption you've read book one, Evernight, because there are BIG spoilers from it! So skip this if you've not read Evernight yet, and read my review for that instead here. No spoilers for Stargazer ahead.

"Evernight Academy: an exclusive boarding school for the most beautiful, dangerous students of all - vampires. Bianca, born to two vampires, has always been told her destiny is to become one of them.


But Bianca fell in love with Lucas - a vampire hunter sworn to destroy her kind. They were torn apart when his true identity was revealed, forcing him to flee the school.


Although they may be separated, Bianca and Lucas will not give each other up. She will risk anything for the chance to see him again, even if it means coming face-to-face with the vampire hunters of Black Cross - or deceiving the powerful vampires of Evernight. Bianca's secrets will force her to live a life of lies.


Yet Bianca isn't the only one keeping secrets. When Evernight is attacked by an evil force that seems to target her, she discovers the truth she thought she knew is only the beginning..."

Having loved Evernight, I was very, very much looking forward to this second book in the series. It picks up a few months after the end of Evernight, with Lucas still with Black Cross and Bianca at Evernight with her parents, her second year about to begin.

Bianca, ever more dependant on blood for survival, is looking forward to the new school year simply for the distraction it'll bring her. She's spent months pining for Lucas, unable to reach him, unable to explain to her parents, because of course they'd love to see him dead. They still believe he played her and that she doesn't want him now she knows the truth, that he's Black Cross, a vampire hunter. Day one of the new year brings a welcome intrusion, a letter from Lucas, delivered via his former roommate, Vic. Apparently Lucas is missing Bianca just as badly and he wants to see her, and though it means somehow sneaking off campus, alone, she's determined to make it happen.

But that's not all she's dealing with. Something dark is haunting Evernight. Literally. Wraiths, or ghosts, are appearing, attacking the school. Bianca is determined to understand why, and to find out why there are human students at Evernight. Mrs. Bethany seems to be planning something, and Bianca is scared of what that could mean. But the truth she discovers makes her wonder how much of what she really knows, is actually true. And if maybe staying at Evernight is even an option for her anymore.

I confess that while I was really looking forward to this book, it didn't start out great for me. In fact, I found the first half very stop start. Something intense would happen, then it'd go back to Bianca at Evernight, thinking a lot but little happening, and a fair few of the same thoughts rotating in her head, then it's start up again. I understand why it happened like that, showing Bianca's everyday life along with the more interesting bits, but it did mean it felt a little ragged to start with. It wasn't actually bad, it was things that needed to be there, and I was still liking it, but it wasn't great.

Around the halfway point things really started to pick up. The pacing levelled out and everything started rolling together. It got pretty intense towards the end as well as bigger secrets kept being revealed and Bianca realised and dealt with the outcome of certain events. I got really sucked in to the second half and felt every up and down with Bianca. And the creep factor of the wraiths didn't hurt either.

I love the relationship with Lucas. I'm not always a fan of instant love where the two feel like they're destined for each other and such. But I can't help loving these two. I think it's the fact that they are so different, have so many issues to work through and that they're not around each other constantly and when they are, they still have to think about everything else going on as well. It's not just about their relationship, although that is the main aspect of the books.

It's also not hard to relate to Bianca's parental issues. Yes her issues are very different to those 'normal' teens face, but even so, I think it's easy to understand the frustration, the betrayal she feels, and how she wants to lean on them but be an adult as well. Her friendship issues are the same way. How she wants to get close, hates having to lie and knowing she has to. And how she screws up, makes the wrong choices sometimes, and how that affects her also makes it easier to relate to her and like her.

This is a great continuation of the set up started in Evernight, a deeper look in to the vampire mythology, how Black Cross works, and explores the issues Bianca, as a born vampire, is facing in a little more depth. It's a great set up for the next two books as well, and the ending made me very, very glad I already had book 3, Hourglass, to dive in to. Bianca grows a lot through this book, she's a bit less innocent by the end, and she's not the only one. It was great getting to see some more of some other characters as well, Vic, Raquel and Balthazar in particular. I really like them all (and I adore Vic, though that's a little more Hourglass related) and feel they add a lot to the books. So while it didn't start out great, I still really loved this book and felt the better parts and the second half more than made up for the earlier issues. 9/10

Evernight by Claudia Gray

"Bianca wants to escape.

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 make Bianca question everything she's ever believed."

This is the first book in the Evernight series and again it's one I've had for a while. I am not a fan of the fairly typical vampire books where girl meets strange/unearthly beautiful boy who she can't resist, turns out he's a centuries old vampire, they can't stay apart etc. And despite good recs for this one, I wasn't convinced I wasn't about to wade in to another of those. Turns out, I was really wrong. The twist to this book, this series, was awesome and it took me a ridiculous amount of time to figure it out. I had ideas of what the secrets were, they changed and altered as I was reading it, but right up to the reveal I hadn't figured out half of it. It's carefully hidden until it's needed and I was really impressed with the impact it left for me. It made earlier moments make a whole lot more sense, even though at the time they hadn't seemed strange at all, or only very slightly odd, but easily brushed off.

Bianca actually won me over within just a couple of pages. She's attempting to run away before her first day at Evernight begins, and running through the woods she spots a guy. She recognizes the danger instantly and runs. Without screaming. She's smart enough to know no one was around to hear her so she just ran, saving the energy/breath required for screaming and putting it to far better use running.

I was hooked from the start and found it pretty hard to put down. Bianca is smart, if a little naive (but hey, she's 16, it's allowed), and easy to like and relate to. Lucas was more of a mystery, but I had a lot of fun trying to figure him out. I liked him from the start, he's got the 'you should stay away from me for your own good' attitude that is seen in plenty of those pretty boy vampires that are seen in YA novels (and adult ones for that matter), but rather than being dark and brooding, he's fun. He's doesn't battle himself like a lot of those typical characters, or not in that sense anyway. He's a trouble maker, he likes to disagree, but he does genuinely care about Bianca as well. Very, very hard not to love him. He won me over very quickly with his first appearance in the book as well.

There are many, many secrets being hidden by most of the characters in this book, and trying to figure them out wasn't easy. Well, okay some were, and once certain things were revealed, others were guessable as well. But then the tension of not knowing was replaced by the feeling 'oh hell...s/he's gonna find out that s/he is ...' and that suspense was equally enthralling. But wherever the tension was coming from, it was there all the way through.

And while romance does play a big part of this book, Bianca doesn't spend all of her time thinking only of Lucas. There are some other things going on as well for her, and that's another reason I really liked this book. If the girl is only obsessed with the guy and nothing else is going on, I tend to lose interest, very quickly, but the secrets and those other aspects meant I only wanted to keep reading. While we don't get to know many of the characters very well (those darn secrets again) it's easy to see there is a lot more to most of them than we see. And the ones we do get to know better, are well rounded and you care about them.

The ending isn't a cliff hanger, but it certainly left me wanting much more, and right then. I've already ordered books 2 and 3 (Stargazer and Hourglass) and I'm even looking forward to book 4, Afterlife (out March 2011). That's how much I loved this book. Yes it's a YA vampire love story, but it's got great characters and a really awesome twist to it. I loved it, and I'm very excited to see where this series goes. 9/10