Everneath by Brodi Ashton

January 24th 2012, HarperCollins
370 pages, ARC
Received from Publisher
First in Everneath Series
Young Adult

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..

Opinion:

This may be the best book I have ever read. Yes, that sounds a bit dramatic, but I completely mean it.

We all know I'm a mythology junkie, but this one blew me away not because of the mythology (which is fierce), but the heart that is within this book. You can tell Brodi Ashton put her heart into this book.

At the core of this book I believe it’s about two things: depression and abusive relationships. There is one other element that outshines these. Hope.

Addictive co-dependent relationships can be the most destructive of all relationships. Cole is dependent on Nikki for life and Nikki use Cole as a drug to dull the pain. Although this has previously backfired on her she continues go back for another hit. As all addicts do.

I relate to Nikki in ways I haven’t ever related to a character. The emptiness that the Feed left her with, I know only too well. The absence of emotion is worse that any sadness or grief and after awhile of this emptiness you would do anything just to feel again.

To me Jack represents hope. The only thing that can get someone through the darkest of times. The love that binds her to this world is one that is completely believable There is no forced insta-love to be found here.

The selflessness of Nikki is what makes her plight all the harder to read. It was like I physically ached wanting to come to her rescue. Every character in this book even the most minor of characters are so well crafted that they feel real.

To say I’m clamoring for the second book in this series wouldn’t even come close to the truth of how much I must know what happens next.

Brodi Ashton created a masterpiece. One I will go back to many times.

Rating:

Rie

I'm a wife, student, and a dog-lover who reads when I should be folding laundry (bane of my existance), I write (rarely as academic papers consume my life), and love getting wrapped up in fiction.

Categories: 5 stars, Ashton, Everneath, First, Must Read, Series, Wicked Reads, Young Adult