Author: BRODIE ASHTON
Genre: YA FANTASY
Published: January 2012, BALZER + BRAY (HARPER COLLINS)
Series: Everneath #1 (upcoming series)
Source: Around The World Tours, no other compensation given for an honest review
Last spring, Nikki Beckett vanished, sucked into an underworld known as the Everneath, where immortals Feed on the emotions of despairing humans. Now she's returned- to her old life, her family, her friends- before being banished back to the underworld... this time forever.
She has six months before the Everneath comes to claim her, six months for good-byes she can't find the words for, six months to find redemption, if it exists.
Nikki longs to spend these months reconnecting with her boyfriend, Jack, the one person she loves more than anything. But there's a problem: Cole, the smoldering immortal who first enticed her to the Everneath, has followed Nikki to the mortal world. And he'll do whatever it takes to bring her back- this time as his queen.
As Nikki's time grows short and her relationships begin slipping from her grasp, she's forced to make the hardest decision of her life: find a way to cheat fate and remain on the Surface with Jack or return to the Everneath and become Cole's...
My Review:
I was really impressed initially by the cover art for EVERNEATH. As I can be swayed by a pretty cover, and I tend to only superficially read the blurb or synopsis to a book before hand, there are plenty of times that I will be chapters into a book before I even fully "get" what the plot is. This was one of the things that happened here. Other people had raved to me about EVERNEATH and I started reading without any preconceptions.
The first thing that really hit me was that I liked Ashton's writing and her writing style. I don't always subscribe to the idea that there has to action in the very first pages, but I do subscribe to the idea that the first few pages have to hook me. They did. The first few pages hooked me. The first few chapters hooked me. Despite the heftiness of the ARC that I read, it didn't take me that long to reach the last page. I was always wanting more.
EVERNEATH involves one of the most ultimate kinds of triangles. Nikki has to choose between returning to the Everneath and Cole, the boy who took her life for six months or staying in her former life with Jack, for the little bit of time that she can possess this former life. But, Ashton goes beyond the bad boy versus good guy. She goes beyond the reign-in-hell or eternally-exist-in-agony choice that Nikki is faced with. Nikki's psyche and choices are laid bare for the reader. The chapters often alternate to her life before she initially chose Cole and the Everneath, where we can see the other girl that she was.
While the plot and the characters were nice, as I said above, what really captivated me while I was reading was the actual language and writing. Often the inner dialog of Nikki, and the dialog that she engaged in with other characters was spot-on in displaying her discombobulation at being back on the surface. The relatively lyrical quality and thoughtfulness of the exposition is perfectly matched and I am looking forward to picking up future novels by Ashton.
4/5 for plot
4/5 for characters
4.5/5 for language
My Rating: 12.5/15 (3.5 stars) Highly Recommend
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