Review: Everneath by Brodi Ashton

Everneath
by Brodi Ashton
Series: Everneath, #1
Publisher: HarperCollins / Balzer + Bray
Release Date: January 24, 2012
Age Group: Young Adult
Pages: 370
Format: Finished Copy
Source: Purchased
Challenge: 2012 Debut Author Challenge
Amazon / Barnes and Noble / Goodreads

Last spring, Nikki Beckett vanished, sucked into an underworld known as the Everneath. Now she's returned--to her old life, her family, her boyfriend--before she's 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 precious months forgetting the Everneath and trying to reconnect with her boyfriend, Jack, the person most devastated by her disappearance--and the one person she loves more than anything. But there's just one problem: Cole, the smoldering immortal who enticed her to the Everneath in the first place, has followed Nikki home. Cole wants to take over the throne in the underworld and is convinced Nikki is the key to making it happen. And he'll do whatever it takes to bring her back, this time as his queen.

As Nikki's time on the Surface draws to a close and her relationships begin slipping from her grasp, she is 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 queen.

(Goodreads)

I do not have much knowledge when it comes to Greek Mythology but I was swept away with Everneath. From the beginning, I swooned an unbelievable amount, and by the end, I spilled just the right amount of tears. Both reactions happen to be my must haves for a good book--and this is a good book. This is a really good book.

Nikki Beckett--our evolving MC--has faced a life altering event before the book begins. For the previous six months she has lived in the Everneath, or the Underworld, as a forfeit to an Everliving--Cole. Now the Feed has ended and Nikki has six months to conclude her life before returning to the Everneath indefinitely.

Nikki as a character is easy to understand. She is counting down the months left of her life on the Surface, while dealing with the loss of her Mom (physically) and her Dad (emotionally). It all seems like a lot if you look at her loses separately, and so Nikki’s actions and emotions are easy to grasp and to understand--as her loss would be difficult for any one character. That would partly be why I found the need for a counterpart for Nikki, which just so happens to come in the romantic form.

The romance in Everneath was and has continued to be my favorite aspect to the story. From the start, I wasn’t sure which guy I should be rooting for--Cole (the aforementioned Everliving) or Jack (Nikki’s ex-boyfriend).

Cole could be extremely confusing; he is endearing and infuriating. I was constantly questioning his sincerity. Did he truly mean what he said and/or did? Or, was it is just another ploy to get Nikki to return to the Everneath with him? But, regardless of which way you view Cole he is a dynamic and vital character in Everneath.

Jack, Nikki’s ex-boyfriend from before her six months in the Everneath, stole my heart from early on. He still cares for Nikki deeply even after everything her six month disappearance has put him through, and is continually devoted to her. I fell head over heels for Jack mid way through and my feelings only increased as the story did. Yes, I even came to the point of missing him when he was not in a scene. He was my man.

Due to the addictive nature that I found the romance and the plot to be, I rushed through the pages, craving more--hoping for the best while preparing for the worst. Nevertheless, my heart still encountered many ups and downs, and a small dose of ache.

Mixed perfectly into the plot is the mystery, of which there is a fair amount concerning both the Everneath and Nikki’s pre-Everneath past. We glimpse our answers partly through flashbacks, which though secondary still provided most of my favorite scenes.

Eventually, all is known--for now at least--and Everneath comes to a climatic and bittersweet ending. Romantic, mysterious, engaging and heartbreaking--Everneath is a winner in my eyes.