Review: Everneath by Brodi Ashton

Reading Level: Young Adult
Hardcover, 370 pgs.
Published January 24th, 2012 by Balzer + Bray
Source: Publisher

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...

This ended up being a pretty decent read even though I went into it a little afraid.  I've since seen lots of positive reviews, but at the time I hadn't heard a whole lot about it.  And while I did enjoy the book it still had some things that I didn't love.


When I started the book I initially felt like I must have missed the first one {even though I knew this was the first...} because it jumps in right away.  What the author did was weave what I would normally say was two books into one and I loved it that way.  We get what could have been the first book in the series in little snippets as Nikki looks back. So we find out the whole story, we just don't know it all at first.  And while it could have ended up being really confusing or even made the story feel choppy it didn't.  I felt the transition back was smooth and I never felt at all confused.  Total win on the way it was done!


I thought the story was creative and unique.  Yes, mythology is popular right now and not a new idea anymore, but this story was completely different from anything else.  I thought it was a very awesome idea and the author pulled it off very well.  


Nikki was an okay character but for some reason I never really loved her.  I didn't dislike her or anything, but she never really wow'ed me.  I'm not sure why that was, she didn't 'pop' for me.  Nothing really stood out about her.  She was selfless, she only thought about others, she's finding her way and she's progressing as a character, and there's not really anything bad to say about her, I just didn't love her.


Cole does a good job of being a bad guy that we can't help but love.  I felt the frustration and anger and hatred at him when he was doing bad things and screwing Nikki over, but then he'd do things that seemed sweet and showed he was human {well, not really human} and I couldn't help but feel for him a bit.  So I was properly confused in my feelings for him.  


The other characters did a good job in their roles.  I liked Jack and he was a sweet guy and all that but for some reason I'm not really finding a lot to say about him.  Mostly because I don't want to reveal too much... 


Overall it was creative style, a unique story and was a fairly quick read.  I never felt bored with it, but I never felt a strong compulsion to pick it up and continue reading it either.  The characters seemed just a bit lacking though it's hard to pinpoint what it was exactly.  I still recommend you give it a try though, lots of people are loving it!


3.5/5


Disclosure: I received an ARC of the book for review purposes.  All opinions expressed are my own and I was not paid or influenced in any way.  
The final version may vary slightly from the ARC I read.