Title: Everneath (Everneath #1)
by Brodi AshtonPublishing Info: January 24, 2012 by HarperCollins
Source: Library
Genres: Fantasy, Mythology, Young Adult
Find it on the web: Buy from Amazon // GoodreadsDate Completed: October 28, 2012
Related Posts: Everbound (Everneath #2), My Lady Jane
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.
Everneath is a captivating story of love, loss, and immortality from debut author Brodi Ashton.
I downloaded the audiobook for EVERNEATH because I thought the concept sounded pretty interesting. I’ve been interested in mythology since I was young and I actually haven’t really read many books based in mythology yet so I was actually hoping of kind of a lot with this book. Sadly, I was kind of let down.
I felt like the story was really predictable and I think that was one of the main problems I had with the story line. Every time a situation was set up, for the most part I could see where it was going far before we got there. It did evolve into its own storyline but it was kind of a mix between its own story and a retelling… if that makes sense.
I really enjoyed the mythology side of if, but when it all came down to it, I just really didn’t care how it ended. I wasn’t pulled into the story and I didn’t feel like the author made me feel any connection with the characters. If it wasn’t an audiobook, I’m not sure I would have finished. I found myself just not caring what happened to them.
I think another reason I didn’t particularly care for it was that I didn’t end up liking any of the characters. Nikki seemed pretty dramatic and and yet flat all at the same time. I didn’t feel like she was becoming a real person for me and I never saw her as more than a character in a story. Jack Caputo wasn’t terribly intetersting to me either and I didn’t quite catch on to his appeal. He had a reputation of sleeping with quite a few girls before he started dating Nikki and that really turned me off to him. It never really seemed like he shed that reputation somehow. All of a sudden, it didn’t matter now that he was dating Nikki. I don’t know – I just didn’t see it. I guess Cole was the one dynamic character for me, but even still, he was just okay in my book.
AUDIOBOOK IMPRESSIONS
Narrator: Amy Rubinate // This was one of my least favorite narrators so far. Her voice was weirdly breathy and it kind of made everything seem extremely dramatic when it shouldn’t have been. I did like her voice differentiation though – I got a good feel of who the different characters were with different voices, so that was good. I just didn’t care for her narration overall, and as always, I think it affected my opinion of the book too.
Nikki: I just didn’t like her. Sometimes she was helpless, sometimes she was stong. Sometimes she was emotional and others she was void of any emotion. I just felt like her character was kind of all over the place and she didn’t really grow in any way or learn a lesson. I don’t know. I just never connected with her.
Jack: I never really cared for Jack either. I felt like his backstory didn’t match the person he was once he and Nikki started dating. What made him change? Were they more rumors than true stories? And don’t even get me started on how tired I am of the whole captain of the football team and/or cheerleader dynamic. Maybe my high school was just so small that that kind of stuff didn’t matter, but I never relate to those “popularity” aspects of a story!
Library Read
This was an okay read for me but unfortunately I think the narrator KIND OF ruined it for me. Even still though, I can tell this one wasn’t 100% a me book. I did enjoy it though and want to continue the series! Will probably borrow these books, though.
BOOKS LIKE EVERNEATH
8 thoughts on “Everneath (Everneath #1) – Brodi Ashton”
Bummer! I love mythology stuff and I was hoping this one would be much better – oh well, maybe a library pick then for when I don’t want to think too hard or be surprised. 🙂
It might have been better reading it instead of listening to the audio! But I think I would still have been a bit disappointed. I’d say still give it a shot, but you’re right – maybe the library 🙂
I was TOTALLY let down by this one! Like big time. I think you hit the nail on the head by saying you just didn’t care. I know I certainly didn’t! I do want to read the next book, just to see if maybe it picks up.
I was really interested in this one! Too bad to hear it wasn’t very good!
Ahh, I’m sorry to hear you didn’t like this book so much. I can see exactly what you’re saying, but oddly I liked this book despite it’s problems. I didn’t like the slow pacing, but I’m hoping things will get better. And I really like Cole, but then Jack just messes things up because at times I liked him to. It’s annoying.
Lovely review! 🙂
For me, I liked the relationship BUT the mythology had me confused.
I actually felt the same way about this book. I liked Cole the best (obvs, he was the bad boy) but other than that I was really MEH about the whole thing..The ending with Jack was just really contrived and too goody-goody for me. I actually really liked the beginning of the story where they are both in the underworld but then I was like EHHH. I also read The Goddess Test series and didn’t love them either..I wonder if we can find a good Hades/Persephone story. Do you know of any?
Agreed!! The beginning was the most interesting part and then it got so blah. I actually wanted to write a Siren/Persephone story original for NaNo but the idea was getting way hokey so I stopped lol. And right when I had that idea was when I first started reading this book so then I felt like I was copying too much from Everneath. Maybe I’ll pick that back up someday! I really want to continue the Siren thing somehow.