DNF: And Falling, Fly by Skyler White

From the author's website:  "Olivia is a vampire bored with modernity. Tattooist, boyfriend, black-metal singer: everyone you don’t love tastes the same. Since the fall from Eden, she has hungered for love, but fed only on desire. Dominic O’Shaughnessy is a neuroscientist plagued by impossible visions.


When his research and her despair collide in Ireland’s L’Otel Mathillide – a subterranean hell of beauty, demons and dreams – rationalist and angel unite in a clash of desire and damnation that threatens to destroy them both."

 I got this book from the library solely because I loved the title and the tiny bit of the first chapter I read.  Sadly, I returned this book to the library loving only that part of the book.  While the author clearly has a way with words, I often felt the plot wasn't moving along at all and that we were seeing the same complaints from Olivia over and over again only phrased differently (though still beautifully).  Or, I'd stop and half to check back a few chapters to make sure the scene I was reading wasn't one I had read before because the same things seemed to be happening.  After a while, I just got bored of the characters and their incessant desire to be angsty and overwrought.  I'm saddened I couldn't even power through the book but none of my normal tricks to overcome a DNF worked.  (Three tricks I use:  (a) leave the book where it's easily accessible for toothbrush or snacking reading, (b) opening the book to random sections and seeing if any of them capture my attention, and (c) if there are multiple character plotlines, follow only the one I think is most interesting.)

Verdict:  DNF.  I'm sad to say it is so.

Thoughts:  I really wanted to like this one.  I loved the title.  I loved the summary.  I even found the first chapter engrossing.  Sigh.

Evernight by Claudia Gray

From the author's website:  "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."

Spoilers ahead. Be warned.

Another day, another book about supernaturals at a private high school academy. I'm a horrible bitch for writing that line, but I kind of feel it is true. It's a shame, because I bet when the author wrote the book, the theme wasn't so prevalent, and now when she's publishing it, it's just out there. You can't avoid vampires in high school, if you wanted to! And, unfortunately, it's not the best high school vampire book out there. Neither is Twilight.

The problems with the book starts from the very beginning. The author tiptoes around the fact that the main character is at a school full of vampires. It's hinted, but mostly not. You're reading a story of a girl who doesn't fit in at her school. Only, you know the title, I know the title, and we both know that somehow vampires are involved due to that title. Unfortunately, then you have to ask why Bianca and Lucas are so cavalier about the oddness of the student body, which leads to obvious answers. When vampires are finally introduced to the book, it is as if there is a great reveal. Only, the author's writing is not enough to allow us to forget that we are reading a vampire story. Perhaps the premise behind the book would have been more successful if the cover and summary did not scream vampire. I know that the author cannot alter a publisher's plans, so I have no idea if she knew this would happen. The follow up book, Stargazer, uses a title with more leeway in it, and I think that this would have been more fitting for the first book.

As the book progresses, it becomes clear that the most interesting characters are those shunted to the side of the story. Who are Patrice and Balthazar? What is Bianca's parents' story? Why are vampires going to school with humans, their edible despised classmates? Why does Bianca always shot gun react to things when she is so shy and quiet?

I found Bianca's character inconsistent, Lucas dull, and the story overwhelmed by the stupidity of the a romance between the two. In the background lurks a story I'd like to know, but I'm not sure I'll be bothered to read the sequels.

Verdict: 3. Not a horribly written book, but not great either and with lots of inconsistent plotting.

Thoughts: I was so excited to read this due to the Book Smuggler's review. I feel almost horrible that I didn't agree with them.

Also, if, God forbid, I'm ever turned into a vampire, or become some kind of vampire hunter, I plan on not screwing or falling in love with a member of the opposing team. It simply seems unwise. Buffy has taught me a lesson.