Sal�n

Yay!
Some things happened in this book:
We got a lot of Balthazar’s past, which was rife with emotional dilemma’s. we learned about Jane, a little bit. How he became a vampire. What happened with Charity. I was crying. :’(
We met Craig and Britnee, whom we’d heard about in AFTERLIFE, remember? If you ask me, I never actively disliked either of them, but Britnee kind of annoyed, just because all her sentences ended in question marks.
Towards the end, Charity was redeemed! That made me happy.
Oh, yeah, and burning-hot passionate love affair with a vampire. Can’t forget that.
Anyways, this book was incredibly epic.
I loved it.
Now, I have two favorite quotes from this book I want to share with you, merely because hey are hilarious.

Britnee said, “Our next substitute teacher is going to be so boring?”

Okay, that one’s not really hilarious out of context, but in context? Oh my god. I laughed so hard.

Charity looked concerned; she knew she needed to come across as a perfectly normal teenager, but clearly had no idea how to pull it off. She was casting around for something to say. God alone knew what she would come up with. Before Balthazar could start talking and cover the awkward moment, Charity blurted out, “I love Justin Bieber.”

Oh, this quote had me gasping for breath.

And then this book ended with me saying ‘yay’, which is a good thing no matter how you look at it.

( )

Balthazar finds himself having to protect Skye from Redgrave and his tribe of vampires. When Evernight Academy was in flames and all its ghosts had been set free, Bianca had been trapped. Her way to freedom came when Skye briefly allowed her to possess her body. Being possessed opened her mind to become psychic and gain the ability to see into the world of those who had died long ago. As a result, Bianca continually relives the dead’s final moments in all its gruesome glory.

Read more at: http://shouldireaditornot.wordpress.com/ ( )

I read this yesterday when I realized that Justin Cronin's The Twelve, which I'd ordered in hardback instead of e-reader format (I prefer reading hard copies of that sort of book), wouldn't be delivered until the evening.

This is a stand-alone novel following a YA series I will most likely never read, and I actually really enjoyed not knowing what had happened before--it made the novel feel like it existed in a richer world, a world without a lot of unnecessary expository bullshit.

I may not read any sequels to it, but this book was fun and well-written. ( )

Balthazar was my favorite character from the Evernight series, so I was really excited to read a story from his point of view. If you’ve read Evernight, you know that Balthazar is charming, sweet, and gentle. We never really found out much about his past because he doesn’t like to discuss it, and because Evernight was really about Lucas and Bianca.

Claudia Gray brings the same magic to Balthazar as she did the rest of the Evernight series. What I loved most about the novel is that it brought me closer to my favorite character and explained more about Balthazar’s history, emotions, and train-wreck relationship with his sister, Charity. I also loved the romance—I don’t think you could really have a Claudia Gray novel without romance. Skye and Balthazar were really sweet together and their relationship progressed naturally (no insta-romance here!). Had it been any other way, it would have felt forced and unrealistic.

Overall, Balthazar is a wonderful story for fans of both Claudia Gray and the Evernight series. The romance was extremely well-paced and the deeper delve into Balthazar provided answers to questions I’ve been wondering about since I read the Evernight series. Even though this is slated to be a stand- alone novel, I have to wonder if another story may be in the works. The story was open-ended enough that I still have plenty of questions about what will happen to Balthazar and Skye. Hopefully Claudia Gray will surprise us with a sequel announcement—or another stand-alone featuring Charity ( )