Allie Sheridan is in trouble…again. Caught vandalizing her school with friends, Allie’s parents aren't sure what to do with her anymore. Ever since her brother, Christopher, ran off Allie has been acting out and they decide the best place for her is Cimmeria, a boarding school she has never heard of. Once Allie arrives at school she realizes it isn't a typical boarding school. There are “The Rules” and they must be strictly followed. Also, there are no computers, phones, or mp3 players. This creates a pretty isolated environment and pushes Allie to cut her ties to her old life. It also pushes her to consider making a change. When she lived in London, her way of acting out was to dress differently and wear heavy makeup. Here she decides she can go back to the way she was before Christopher left.From the start, it is clear that there are secrets at Cimmeria but no one trusts Allie enough to tell her what Night School is and what it means to really be attending Cimmeria. Along the way, Allie makes some friends and of course draws the attention of the two hottest guys at school. Warning – there is a bit of a love triangle here but thankfully it isn't the main focus. It comes up and actually until the end of this book I thought it wouldn't be a big deal but my spidey senses tell me it will be a returning topic for book two. The characters are interesting but I wish we would have gotten more background. With Allie being the new girl and the introduction of Rachel (the school gossip), it would have been the perfect opportunity to dive into the main and secondary characters stories but I felt like it was glossed over. We know that Jo is rich and has some problems, Sylvain is French, and Carter lives at the school all the time because his parents are dead…but that is about it. I wanted to know more about them. I felt like I had a lot of unanswered questions about each of them by the end of the book.Overall the story itself grabbed me from the start. The underlying mystery of what Cimmeria is as well as what is going on there had me turning the pages to find out what would happen next. I was also drawn into the mystery of who Allie actually is and what it means that she was accepted for the summer term. I will most likely be checking out book two when I can as I want to know the rest of the story and understand what really is going on with Nathaniel, Isabelle and the organization.
