My good friend Danielle loves to read, and she's incredibly opinionated (I love you, Danielle! :) ), so it's only right that I put her in charge of reviews on RBTL. So, here's one she gave me a while ago. Enjoy.
Everbound
By Brodi Ashton
358 pages
Beneath our
world lies another. It is the Underworld – but not as we know it. Instead, this
is where the immortal live, and where they take their victims – their Forfeits
– to feed on them for a hundred years.
Welcome to
the Everneath.
It is an unforgiving world of madness and brutality – a living world that requires human sacrifice to fuel its existence. These sacrifices generally come in the form of used Forfeits, people who have no loved ones to say goodbye to, who willingly give themselves up to the Tunnels - the Everneath’s energy source. The Tunnels steal a body’s energy until there is none left. Those Forfeits who survive the Feed and return to the surface world only have a few months to make amends and say farewells before the Tunnels come for them.
This is a
world that Nikki Beckett is all too familiar with after being fed on by Cole,
an Everliving who now refuses to leave her alone. He believes she is meant to
rule as the new Queen of the Everneath, with him as her King.
But Nikki
wants nothing to do with Cole, and nothing to do with the Everneath. All she
does want is Jack – the one who helped her survive the Feed by dreaming of her,
and the only boy she’s ever loved.
The whole
process is happening again. Only difference is that now Nikki is the one
keeping Jack alive by dreaming of him.
Because when the Tunnels came, Jack took her place in the Everneath.
And she’s
not sure if she can live with the guilt and the crushing helplessness.
Determined
to get Jack back, Nikki forces Cole’s hand in helping her navigate the
Everneath. Together, they go on an impossible mission to save Jack before it’s
too late. But Cole has betrayed Nikki before, and she is in more danger than
she realizes.
I have to
say, this sequel to Everneath is
almost better than its predecessor. The emotions are just as intense in both of
them, but it’s the ending of Everbound that
really sold me on it. There are twists in this story that I never saw coming.
And the cliffhanger Ashton leaves you with is so much worse than the first book. You will have a serious book hangover
after this.
Not only
that, but I really appreciated the development of Nikki’s character. Before she
seemed kind of flimsy, like a brisk wind might blow her over. In this book, we
see her become determined, brave, angry. She is a heroine doing what she must
to get back the boy she loves – forget the consequences. Nikki literally goes
through Hell and back to rescue Jack. She is a modern day Orpheus – only, a bit
more successful.
And I would
have to say that’s because she knows her stuff. Nikki proves her mettle by
knowing more about the ways of the Everneath than even the Everliving do. I have to respect a girl who does her research. And
there was a lot of research – not only the mythology of Ancient Greece and
Egypt, but the writings of Dante as well. Elements of all these things can be
seen in the series.
Honestly, I
can’t wait to read the next book in the series. The end of Everbound was awash in darkness, deceit, and promises of sweet
revenge.
And there’s
nothing I love more than good old-fashioned revenge.
4/5 stars
