All Just Glass by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes

Title: All Just Glass
Author: Amelia Atwater-Rhodes
Publication: Random House Children's Books (2011)
ISBN 0385737521
Format: Hardcover ($15.99 US)
              eBook ($9.99 US)
Series: Yes. Shattered Mirror (book 1)
                       All Just Glass (book 2)

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Sarah Vida has given up everything for love. From a legendary family of vampire-hunting witches, Sarah was raised to never trust a vampire, to never let her guard down, and to avoid all tricky attachments of the heart. But now Sarah IS a vampire—changed by the boy she thought she loved. Her family has forsaken her, and Sarah herself is disgusted by her appetite for blood.

Aida Vida is Sarah's older sister, the good, reliable sibling who always does her family proud. But when Aida's mother insists that Sarah be found and killed, Aida is given the one assignment that she may not be able to carry out.

Taking place over just twenty-four hours, ALL JUST GLASS tells the story of a game-changing battle that will forever change the world of the Den of Shadows. And at its center is the story of two sisters who must choose between love and duty. Dark, fully-imagined, and hard to put down, ALL JUST GLASS will thrill Amelia's fans—old and new.

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I like to know a bit about a book before I read it. So I knew that this was a sequel to Shattered Mirror. The first time I read anything by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes I was in middle school and my mother picked me up from the public library across the street at 5:00 pm. My school got out at 2:30 pm so you can see that I had quite a bit of time to hang out at the library with thousands of books. What else could I do but read? It was a big disappointment? (sarcasm) I loved it. So I read Shattered Mirror and I later imagined what could have happened afterward but I moved on. Years later I start this review blog and I stumble across a review for the sequel to Shattered Mirror. I liked that book. Look at the publication date and realise that it is coming out next month. How fortuitous for me. Yet the few reviews that I read for the book are not exactly the most positive. Some complain about the fact that it does not give you a refresher course and others how it happens in 24-hours. So what do I do? I go back and read the first book.That solved that problem for me. Now I just had the issue of waiting for the book to come out. So I waited. And waited. And noticed that my school starts up on January 18th. And waited some more. The day after it is released I walk the 1.96 (might as well call it 2) miles to Barnes and Noble to read the book. I finish it in a little over two hours later. How did I end up not being annoyed with the 24-hour time lapse? Simple, I never read the time stamp at the beginning of any of the chapters. That said I enjoyed the book much more than the people who came before me.

The plot was about the reactions of Sarah Vida's family and how her new vampire family dealt with the problems.You have Dominique, who hates vampires, her sister Aida, who was taught to hate vampires, and Sarah, who only wants to live but doesn't want to kill anyone. Dominique wants Sarah dead and she has called everyone in to kill Sarah and it is just a bonus if they kill Kristopher or Nikolas. Okay I think that is pretty much it. I will admit that writing the plot down makes it seem a bit small but saying anything else will give away big surprises because this book was all bout surprises.

Characters. My favorite characters were Sarah and Nikolas with Kristopher as a close third. They were the main characters. Sarah was pretty much the whole reason for the book. She defied the rules and did what no Vida had done before her. Sarcasm once again. I will go into more detail on that when I explain my least favorite characters. In the first book I was all about the Sarah and Kristopher love. They were cute together even if Kristopher was a bit naive. In this book Sarah and Nikolas have the little moments that make me hope for a cute couple. It really had me torn. At this point I think that I need another book just to break the tie for me.

Least favorite characters. In the first book every witch is made out to be strict. They follow the rules and they don't interact with vampires. Sarah broke a huge rule when she not only befriended two vampires but gets a crush on one of them. And I am not talking Nissa. Although that would be interesting. But in this book you learn that Sarah did not break the rule of falling for a vampire so much as she was told on. I find myself much more annoyed now that I look back on this than when I actually read the book. Looking back it seems that every vampire hunter had/has some dirty secret involving vampires. And then they call a hunt on Sarah for it happening to her involuntarily. They knew what they were getting into, Sarah thought that she was just befriending two harmless Single Earth vampires. All of those witches were hypocrites, especially Dominique Vida.

Read the book to find out about it all.