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.
I picked up this book, expecting it to be a one-hit wonder similar to Meg Cabot's Abandon series, where a girl has infatuated the keeper to the Land of the Dead, but I was pleasantly surprised! This was a really unique story with an original plot and a shocking ending, leaving me very excited for the sequel.
Things That I Liked:
1. The cover -it is gorgeous, and I can't get over just how pretty it is.
2. The main character, Nikki, is strong, courageous, and self-sacrificing, prepared to spend the last of her short time back at home helping her family and bringing relief to others rather than satisfying herself.
3. The mystery: yes there is the mystery of Cole and the other Everlings and how they live, but I think the readers were only given a small taste of the bigger mystery in this story, which is that of the Everneath's queen and the ruling class, and their existence.
4. The timeline: the majority of the story was in a conventional timeline, but whenever the story reached a point where Nikki remembered something significant from her past, the text would go back to that moment, with each chapter/break subtitled with the time and location, to minimize confusion to the readers.
Things That I Didn't Like:
1. I was unclear about the location of "Park City" where the story takes place. Normally this wouldn't make much of a difference for me, but there were a few mentions about being a town known for American Indian tourism/memorabilia which made me wonder about where this was taking place, as well as the local river rapids and mountains that seemed easy to drive to. But overall, not a big deal, in fact, a very small one.
2. Cole's motivation: I didn't like that he wouldn't explain anything about how he and Nikki would "make a run for the Everneath throne." Obviously the queen is very powerful and knows a lot of information about her Everlings, so how would these two be able to not only keep Nikki's existence a secret, but then fight her for her ruling status?
Overall Impression:
This was a really interesting story, and I really liked the voice in which it was written. The prose was well-written, and there were few holes left by the end of the book. The ending was shocking, and left for a satisfying cliffhanger to have you scrambling for the sequel.
Blonde Rating: 4/5
Amazon Rating: 4.2/5
Goodreads Rating: 3.8/5
Stay tuned for my review of Everbound, the sequel to Everneath; there will NOT be a review for Neverfall, the digital novella companion to Everneath.
Thanks for reading,
The Blonde
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