Book Review: Isle of Night

By Sandy Amazeen Sep 6, 2011, 16:35 GMT

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 ...more

Growing up in an abusive home and with only faint memories of her mother, Annelise Drew was counting on her brains for a way out and with early graduation from high school, she thought getting into college a semester early would be it. A minor technicality compounded by her heap of a car breaking down in the campus parking lot left Annelise at the end of her resources. When Ronan, a hunky guy with a soothing touch offers a ride, Annelise thought it would be to a cheap motel downtown where she could find a job waiting tables. Instead, she is whisked off on a private jet with two other beautiful girls to an island in the North Sea.

On the Isle of Night, Annelise is part of the new class of students being groomed to be Watchers for the vampires who occupy the island and beyond. Annelise wants nothing more then to get off the island but to do that, she must prove herself the best of the class, no easy feat for a girl who has always depended upon her smarts to get ahead. With the help of Ronan, a frightening master vampire who has taken an unhealthy interest in her and one friend, Annelise succeeds where few, including her nasty roommate Lilac thought possible. Lilac has built a strong base of followers and cultivated an intense dislike for Annelise that will culminate in a duel between the two. Think Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome where two contenders enter, only one leaves.

Wolff has breathed new life into the old genre with this latest young adult series that is sure to catch on with readers of all ages. Annelise is an intelligent seventeen year old with a nice edge of sarcasm and plenty of weaknesses to overcome. The tension, sexual and otherwise between Ronan, Annelise and Alcantara is excellent though Lilac’s mean girl routine gets old by the end. Look forward to a thrilling if unsurprising climax that does nice job of setting up the next book in this new series to watch.