"Everneath" (Everneath #1) by Brodi Ashton

Everneath by Brodi Ashton
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

(Mild Spoilers)

Everneath was one of those beautifully addictive books that you just cannot put down! I had a lot of homework I was supposed to be finishing when I started reading this... I definitely do not recommend reading this book if you have general life commitments. Even stopping to get a glass of water seemed difficult!

Brief synopsis: Nikki Beckett returns to her home in Park City, Utah, after spending a century (six months in Earth time) in the Everneath - an underworld-like place where immortals feed on the emotions of humans. She has only six months on Earth to spend with her family, friends and ex-boyfriend before the Everneath sucks her back under. Oh, and she is most definitely still pining after her ex...

This book was a beautiful modern day retelling of different myths. Hades/Persephone and Orpheus/Eurydice are the two major ones. I personally love anything with a mythology layer, say that was what convinced me to read this novel. I think Ashton perfectly weaved aspects of the mythology with unique elements. As much as we love those mythology stories, if the modern day retelling has nothing unique about it, it feels pointless. This definitely had a good combination of both.

Ashton's writing style was immediately appealing. It had that wonderfully "easy" quality to it - I never had to reread portions because I had lost attention midway through a sentence. The supporting characters were intriguing enough to keep me interested even when I got a little blase about the main story line (Mary and Will were probably my two favourites)!

I am still not sure whether this book was necessarily a love triangle. I thought it would be, but there was almost never any true interest in Cole from Nikki's perspective. This was refreshing, considering the love triangle is such an obvious staple in the YA genre. Having said this, I do have a feeling that the next novel will heavily center on Nikki and Cole's relationship (whether romantic or not).

So, what stopped me from giving this 5 stars? The love story between Nikki and Jack just did not work for me. I cannot even pinpoint exactly what about them I did not fall in love with! It seemed that from the first page we knew that Nikki and Jack were desperately in love and being kept apart by some sense of betrayal on both sides. For me, the only time a love triangle really works is when we genuinely cannot tell who the protagonist is going to choose. In this novel, it was blatantly obvious the whole time that Jack would win out against Cole.

Overall, I found this book to be a beautiful combination of traditional and fresh mythology ideas. It was insanely addictive, and well-written! Not recommended for those of you who don't love romance to be center stage in a novel.

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