Bianca wants to escape. She's been uprooted from her small hometown and enrolled at Evernight Academy, an eerie Gothic boarding school where the students are somehow too perfect: smart, sleek, and almost predatory. Bianca knows she doesn't fit in. Then she meets Lucas. He's not the "Evernight type" either, and he likes it that way. Lucas ignores the rules, stands up to the snobs, and warns Bianca to be careful-even when it comes to caring about him. "I couldn't stand it if they took it out on you," he tells Bianca, "and eventually they would." But the connection between Bianca and Lucas 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. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

Gr 8 Up-Bianca has been uprooted from her happy, uneventful life to start anew at an elite boarding school where her parents will now be professors. Even though Bianca doesn't feel that she is the Evernight type-rich, beautiful, or gifted-she knows that her parents feel this is best for her. She and Lucas Ross share a special connection from the moment they meet and he, like Bianca and a few others, is an outsider. He is a rebel who is on a mission to discover the secret behind Evernight Academy. As the weeks progress, their relationship heats up. What they don't realize, however, is that they each harbor a great secret that could divide them forever. Can their love survive the truth? Gray's writing hooks readers from the first page and reels them in with surprising plot twists and turns, and the open ending will keep them guessing and waiting on the edge of their seats for the next book in the series. A must-have for fans of vampire stories by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes, Stephenie Meyer, and the like.-Donna Rosenblum, Floral Park Memorial High School, NY Copyright 2008 Reed Business Information. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

Well-dressed, private-school vampires are a growing trend in teen horror lit. Bloodsucking Gossip Girls have shown up in Melissa de la Cruz's Blue Bloods series, Richelle Mead's Vampire Academy books, and now in this debut, set in a spooky, exclusive boarding school. Sixteen-year-old Bianca is dreading her first day at Evernight Academy, where her parents have taken teaching positions. Then she meets handsome outsider Lucas, for whom she falls with quick intensity. Everyone at Evernight has secrets, even Bianca, and as her romance deepens, she risks revealing the otherworld identity of Evernight's glamorous population, even as she wonders if Lucas, too, is hiding something. Some logistical questions about the student body, composed of both vampires and humans, are left unanswered, and a few story threads, particularly about Evernight's headmistress, are left dangling; the ending leaves room for a sequel that may tie everything together. Still, Stephenie Meyer fans will find similar rewards in the flashes of humor; the terrifying battle between ancient, supernatural societies; and the steamy romance in which love bites aren't just a euphemism.--Engberg, Gillian Copyright 2008 Booklist From: Syndetics Solutions, Inc. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.