STARGAZER

Events tore apart star-crossed lovers Bianca and Lucas at the end of Evernight (2008), when the inevitable conflict between Bianca’s vampire family and Lucas’s vampire-hunting family nearly destroyed the teens and their loved ones. Amidst surveillance and suspicion, they contrive to meet secretly, using Balthazar—an attractive vampire—as a cover. Meanwhile, Bianca’s attempts to discover why humans have been admitted to vampire bastion Evernight Academy (which teen-looking vampires attend to learn how to manage in the modern world) stir up evil wraiths seemingly intent upon destroying—or maybe saving—her. Bianca’s tendency to belabor every point, particularly the depth of her love for Lucas, makes for a dull narrative style, and three-dimensional characters are pretty much nonexistent. Despite the predictable romantic entanglements and the constant telling, the plot races along with a search for a crazed renegade vampire, threatening ghosts, uncovered secrets and a flaming climax with a significant body count. Fans of the first volume will be satisfied; insufficient back story means no one else will know (or care) what is going on. (Fantasy. 12 & up)