Review: Everneath by Brodi Ashton

Publisher: Balzer + Bray

Publication Date: January 24th, 2012

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...

(Courtesy of Goodreads)

I had really high hopes for this book when I first heard of it, then I saw the cover, and I was in love!  An new take on the Underworld, Hades, Persephone?  Yes, please!  Once the reviews started rolling in, I went from high hopes to high expectations.  Everyone seemed to love this book; it was rave review after rave review.  I wanted to love this book too!  I guess maybe my expectations were too high because I expected A LOT more than I got.   I was expecting "epic" and got "good book"...

These Are the Things I LIKED About Everneath:

• The story was definitely unique.  I thought there was a limit to retelling mythology, but Brodi Ashton has proven that you can make it your own.  I have't read anything else like this.
• The main characters evoked the emotions that they were supposed to evoke.  Cole made my skin crawl, he was so smarmy.  Jack was your imperfect dream guy that you have to love.  Nikki was pathetic, but you could tell she had a spark left in her; I wanted her to win in the end.
• The ending made reading the book worth it.  It doesn't leave you hanging in a way that pisses you off, but it does leave you wanting to read the next book.  The final 25% was 5-star material, and what redeemed this book.
• The cover is fabulous, which could be a bad thing, actually... I mean, what book could live up to that cover?

These Are the Things I DID NOT LIKE About Everneath:

• The pacing was very erratic.  There were times when I have to make myself read this book, and then there were times (mostly toward the end) when I couldn't put it down.  I didn't like the way it went back and forth between present and past.  I don't always feel that way when books do this, but it didn't work for me here.
• There were too many questions that if answered just didn't make sense to me, and then there we the questions that never got answers.  I won't list them all here, but I found myself scratching my head a lot or just saying, "What?!?!".  I know it's the first in a series, and that some of the questions will be answered later, but I was confused a lot.
• While I mostly liked the main characters, I thought the supporting characters were poorly done.  They had no depth, and I often wondered why they were even there.

Overall, I thought this good was pretty good.  It's not one of those debuts that made me say, "Wow!  I can't believe this is her first book!", because I think it is kind of obvious that this was a first book.  That said, I think Brodi Ashton has a beautiful style to her writing, and I think this story holds a lot of promise.  I will definitely read the next book, but I won't have such through-the-roof expectations...

My Rating: ★ ★ ★ ½

Grade Level Recommendation:  These was only a brief suggestion of sex, no graphic violence, and offensive language.  As far as content, I would say this is pretty clean.  Ages 11+ (Grade 6 and up).