Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Book Review: Isle of Night

Release Date: Sept. 6, 2011
Publisher: NAL Trade
Pages: 302 pages
Genre: Paranormal
Rating: 4 stars
Source: Library
Goodreads Summary: Is life offering fewer and fewer options? Then join the dead.

When Annelise meets dark and seductive Ronan, he promises her a new life-if she has the courage to chance the unknown. Now, she's whisked away to a mysterious island and pitted against other female recruits to become a Watcher - girls who are partnered with vampires and assist them in their missions. To survive and become a Watcher, Annelise has to beat out every other girl, but she's determined to do so, because to fail doesn't mean dishonor-it means death.
When I read this summary a few months ago, I thought it sounded a bit crazy but I was intrigued. Turns out I was right. Isle of Night is crazy, as in a crazy good, highly entertaining vampire novel!

Annelise Drew, or Drew, is a super smart girl who yearns to get out of her small town of Christmas, Florida and get away from her drunken and abusive father. She graduates from high school one semester early but when she goes to the University of Florida to enroll, she finds out that her papers are not in order and technically, she has no high school diploma. Broke and homeless, Drew is approached by Ronin, the extremely attractive guy with a sexy accent. He tells Drew that he can take her to an island that offers an education to special girls like her and she accepts, getting into his private jet and flying off into the unknown. Of course, he fails to tell her that she will be training to work for vampires and its either she succeeds during training or she dies.

Isle of Night starts of a bit slow and I was very annoyed with Drew for getting on the plane without knowing exactly what she was getting herself into. After about 60 pages, the pace of the story picks up dramatically and the action is almost non-stop after that. Drew’s character is very snarky, which I liked. Even though the books are very different, Drew’s character reminds me of Katniss from The Hunger Games and Tris from Divergent – girls that are not violent by nature but when backed into a corner, they will push themselves to be the best, to succeed in spite of other people’s expectations and know that sometimes you have to use brains, not brawn to get out of a bad situation.

The secondary characters were very well written. I love Ronin and really want to read more about him in the sequel. Lilac, Drew’ nemesis, is one of the meanest mean girls I have come across in a while and let’s not forget this is a vampire book. The vamps in Isle of Night are a sickly combination of creepy and sensual at the same time.

While the book focuses on Drew and her experience and personal growth, I am really looking forward to the sequel, Vampire’s Kiss. I hope it will tell us more about the vampire mythology, why they need Watchers and maybe a little more romance. Isle of Night seems to be flying a bit under the radar but it is really worth reading. Vampire’s Kiss will be released in March 2012.

Content: Heavy profanity and violence, may be more appropriate for older teens and adults.

3 comments:

Kathy said...

I have heard so many mixed this about this book. Your review makes it sound awesome. I am now quite curious and may end up picking it up to see what I think myself.
Great review!

Katie said...

This book sounds intense! I've never heard of it.

Saw that you were reading that Ted DekKer novel. I hope it's good! I love his adult books :)

Alexis @ Reflections of a Bookaholic said...

That description does sound pretty crazy. Haha! It sounds interesting and 60 pages isn't too long for a book to get going.

LinkWithin

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...