Night School by CJ Daugherty

Allie Sheridan’s world is falling apart. Her brother’s run away from home. Her parents ignore her. And she’s just been arrested. Again. This time her parents have had enough. They cut her off from her friends and send her away to boarding school, far from her London friends.

But at Cimmeria Academy, Allie is soon caught up in the strange activities of a secret group of elite students. When she’s attacked late one night the incident sets off a chain of increasingly violent events. As the school begins to seem like a very dangerous place, she finds out that nothing at Cimmeria is what it seems to be. And that she is not who she thought she was.

Life is tough for Allie. Her home life sucks, she's been arrested for the third time in a year, and her parents have shipped her off to boarding school. An anonymous, never heard of boarding school with weird rules and scary secrets, but for once, Allie feels at home. She makes some friends, although I can't say much for her judge of character, as a few of them turn out to be wacko. But more on that later.

I loved this, it was dramatic and a little nerve-racking at times, with its school secrets and hostile takeovers and boy troubles. I never knew who to trust, who to believe - but I'm glad I was right about some because really, Sylvain was too slimy and Jo never seemed comfortable, if you know what I mean. Which you will if you've read it. Anyway, Carter was another character that I couldn't quite figure out, but even as he was a bit of a douche at the start, I liked him. Unlike Sylvain, if you couldn't tell. Too smooth, too used to getting his way - urgh! Give me a quick-witted, tough skinned bad boy any day!

The story itself was incredible and while it's not as paranormal as I thought it was going to be, in a way, I'm glad; it was interesting and mysterious enough. As Allie settles into the school, secrets are uncovered, from the noises outside her bedroom window to why she was sent there in the first place. I loved the layers that Allie discovered, as obviously this school has more than meets the eye. And of course with secrets comes danger and there was no shortage of that, with fires and rooftops and blood. All in all, a very thrilling and emotive book, a great start to the series where hopefully some things make more sense!

Published 1st January 2012 by Atom.