A Review for Night School by CJ Daugherty

Posted by Donna
Expected Published Date: January 5th, 2012
Finished Date: December 20th, 2011
Publishers: Atom
Source: ARC for Review
Format: Paperback
Pages: 454
<
The Blurb from Goodreads: 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.

The Review: As soon as I seen the Night School book cover on Goodreads I knew I wanted to read it, I mean just look at it, it’s gorgeous. Not only that but it has a very intriguing blub and so I knew I had to get it. Now let me tell you, after reading it Night School is a mysterious, thrilling and dangerous ride, one that will leave readers guessing to the very end and I loved it!

Allie Sheridan’s life was perfect, well that was until her older brother Christopher disappeared one day leaving only a note to saying not to look for him. Not knowing where her brother was had a huge affect on Allie and so she turned from good girl to bad girl and ends up getting herself in trouble with the police several times. However, after the third time Allie’s parents decide to send her to Cimmeria Academy, a legacy school where the best and richest students go to try and sort her out.

During her time at Cimmeria Academy, Allie quickly makes friends and starts to enjoy it there but when strange things start happening she can’t help notice that things aren’t what they seem. Everyone seems to be hiding secrets that involve the Night School students; a group of selected students whose activates aren’t even talked about. But when one of her classmates is murdered at the summer ball and rumours start flying that Allie was involved, she soon becomes determined to find out what’s going on a Cimmeria Academy…..but who can she trust and what secret’s will she reveal?

Night School is the first book in a new and exciting series by author CJ Daughtery and I know this will be a hit amongst the readers. From the very start you’re thrown in a mysterious and dangerous world and it is easy to love it. I admit I did feel the first 100 pages moved pretty slowly but I now realise that this was done so we got to know Allie and got the feel for Cimmeria Academy before the story really kicks off. We get to know a lot of characters, some nice and some not and they all play a key part in the story, especially the Night School students. I have to say trying to figure out what their group was involved with was a complete mystery. I even turned to thinking that maybe this was a paranormal book because I just couldn’t figure it out, but eventually everything was revealed and I thought it was an excellent twist.

One of my favourite things in this book was the characters, they are so loveable. Allie is a fantastic character, she’s smart, she’s funny and she doesn’t let anyone walk all over her.  When Katie tries to pick on her she quickly speaks up and doesn’t take any crap. Then there’s Jo, Lucas and Rachel who are all very loyal friends to Allie and my favourite amongst the three has to be Lucas. Even though he’s involved with the Night School he’s still Allie’s friend even when everyone else turns against her. But then we have Carter. He was one tough guy! He’s so moody and broody to start with that you can’t help love him and it was pretty obvious that he liked Allie. He and Allie have a few touching scenes together and you truly see their romance develop. It’s actually really sweet and I loved how he was will to do whatever to help Allie. It’s safe to say I can’t wait to see what comes next with them. One character I really didn’t like was Sylvain, he was creepy and sleazy and if I was Allie, I wouldn’t have forgiven him but she did.

Overall, CJ Daugherty has done a great job with Night School and if you’re looking for something new, exciting and fresh, then this is the book for you. I can’t wait for the next instalment and I’m praying it comes soon.

Thank you to Atom for giving me the opportunity to review this book.