Sometimes school is murder.
Allie Sheridan's world is falling apart. She hates her school. Her brother has run away from home. And she's just been arrested.
Again.
This time her parents have finally had enough. They cut her off from her friends and send her away to a boarding school for problem teenagers.
But Cimmeria Academy is no ordinary school. Its rules are strangely archaic. It allows no computers or phones. Its students are an odd mixture of the gifted, the tough and the privileged. And then there's the secretive Night School, whose activities other students are forbidden even to watch.
When Allie is attacked one night the incident sets off a chain of events leading to the violent death of a girl at the summer ball. As the school begins to seem like a very dangerous place, Allie must learn who she can trust. And what's really going on at Cimmeria Academy.
Night School is C.J.Daugherty's first book. It better not be her last or I'll cry.
I've always loved the premise of boarding schools( Thank you Harry Potter) and when I read the description and saw " Boarding school + Out-Of-Control-Girl = Mystery/thriller/romance" I knew I'd had just boarded a roller coaster ride.
Allie's(a seemingly popular name in the world of YA literature) world is turned upside down when she is forced to attend Cimmeria Academy. Well, that's what you get for getting arrested. Again. Her parents are fed up and like every parents does, take extreme measures to make their troubled kid say out of trouble. What's the only solution? Send her to a boarding school far away that nobody's ever heard off. Perfect.
I liked Allie. Scratch that. I loved Allie. So, she's a bit broken at the start. She has her reasons. I mean, nobody does anything for nothing. Her bother had run away from home, for unknown reason, leaving behind him a trail of broken hearts and soon-to-be-arrested-little-sister.
Allie, at the start does not fit in to Cimmeria. At all. First of all, a new student in the middle of the summer holidays, with bright red hair and who seems to attract the attention of the bitchy crowd, screams 'Stay Away'. And, she's managed to attract the attention of Sylvian ( hot, mysterious, french guy) and Carter ( hot, bad-boy, troubled guy). All she needs is a killer on the loose and it'll be Harry Potter: Red-headed Edition. Allie was strong, not running away from what was bringing her down, even though she badly wanted to. But no worries, she fits in after a while. It's always hard at the start. Thanks to Jo, her new friend, and the support from her I-wish-she-was-my-principal, principal, she fits in soon enough. Also, she so sarcastic and witty, so she managed to grab attention with out even trying. She makes mistake, believe me, one of them being Sylvian, but what's a YA story without a mistake-making heroine.
Carter West and Allie's Romance was slow, building gently from hate to friendship to love but it wasn't easy. I mean, hot french guy is playing piggy in the middle. He grabs Allies attention at the start and so cue get-together, lovey-dovey etc. Sylvian was nice and all but I wasn't.. I don't know, he wasn't Carter West for me. Thank god, everything changes after Sylvian tries to commit an unforgivable mistake and is stopped by Allie's secret Knight in Shining Armour. It's so obvious Allie and Carter like each other but half the time they were at each others throat to actually say something else. In other words, sweet tension. hehe.
Her friends were another story. Jo was a ball of mess. She was probably bi-polar and just so confusing. At the end when a terrifying secret was reveled by Jo herself, I saw her a bit differently because She'd been hiding something so important but she'd done it for the sake of the one she thought she loved. I loved Rachel and am praying I find a friend like her.Trustworthy and always there for Allie when she was needed.
Let's not forget about the mystery. I like that the romance was something to turn to but it wasn't what the whole story was about. There is something going on, something that Sylvian and Carter and other students are involved in. Night School. The title says it all. A secret school held and night that teaches certain special students skills, combat/survival etc. to protect the school as well as something else.
When something sinister starts attacking Allie and her school, targeting her for unknown reasons and killing her friends, she knows somehow she's involved and that alot of secrets are being kept from her. When one one her friends is killed and fingers point to her, she knows it's time for some answers.
This book is a whole lot of genres rolled into one. Thriller/mystery/romance/YA.
It might be slow for some but I liked it that way. Everything seemed realistic, not happening so fast and half the time I felt Allie's frustration. No body seemed to tell her anything but she kept getting involved in everything one way or another. Even when I finished the book I realised that Allie doesn't have any answers at all. I mean, why was she sent to Cimmeria? Why does someone want to kill her? What is the reasons behind night school? Why is her mother hiding secrets? And why, the first time in ages she sees her brother, he's the one trying to burn down the school? She still not safe as the book is finishing and has to have body guards protects her all the way back home for the holiday. She needs answers. The only person to ask, her mother.
This book is good, especially for mystery lover but beware, it's addictive. Brilliantly written, the author'd writing was smooth, make the story flow with ease.
5 STARS!
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