Everneath by Brodi Ashton
January 24, 2012 by Harper Collins
Hardcover, 370 Pages
Purchased

Pain comes in many forms, for Nikki Beckett her emotional pain has been held at bay due to her strong relationship with boyfriend Jack. After the death of her mother she clings to that love and manages to find daily peace. But after one night of betrayal, Nikki without even considering the consequences makes a choice that alters her life forever.

Sucked into the underworld, or the Everneath, as the Everlivings call it, Nikki is in the Feed for a hundred years- a process that sucks the life force from a mortal and transfers it to an immortal. When Nikki awakens she's weak and confused but has one memory that helps her pull out of the fog and wanting back up to the surface...that thought would be Jack. However going back to her mortal life means she will pay a price to the Everneath and that price is the Tunnels, the life source the immortals send Forfeits to, to be drained of any life that is left. Six months is all she has left to make amends before the Tunnels come to take her home, clogging her throat with dirt and suffocation, six short months, its not a lot of time to figure out how to dupe the immortal who sucked you dry.

Cole, the Everliving who enticed Nikki to the Feed is shocked that Nikki remains young, pretty and mind intact after the one hundred years and follows her up to the surface. Its rare that anyone can survive the Feed and he wants Nikki for his queen so together they can rule the Everneath, but Nikki only wants to reconnect to her family and to Jack. Due to her choices six months ago, Nikki is now faced with choosing Cole and becoming his queen or choosing the Everneath Tunnels, which will come for her and bury her under the ground sucking her life out until she fades to nothing. As the days go by and Cole fights to gain her trust and Nikki's powerful connection to Jack begins healing her mind the knowledge of whats coming for her makes the future horrifying to process. None of them want to give up though, all three characters have a piece to be played on the game-board called Nikki's life and only one can win.

Everneath was an alluring story of myth, love and betrayals...the biggest of the three being love. Ashton's world was like a toxic drug, with its simple yet complex mix of mythology, romance and mystery, it had me addicted at page one and unable to stop until it was over, leaving me craving for more once I finished. I couldn't help but race to the end as each chapter revealed a little layer of the present and little peal pack of the events leading up to the Feed. I enjoyed every minute I spent with characters, Cole as the immortal, Jack as the tortured boyfriend and Nikki the young girl with huge amounts of mixed, tangled emotions, ones that were understandable due to her state of mind and due to what she was facing. While in the beginning I was irritated that Nikki made the choices she did, I couldn't help but feel sorry for her due to the overwhelming and unfortunate circumstances in her life.

Everneath was highly entertaining and by the end my emotions were almost as bad as Nikki's....a tangled mess of shock, swoon and sadness, that left me with a sigh when I turned the last page. I loved this take on the story of Hades and Persephone and the combination of another surprise mythology couple. Oh yes, somebody call the cheese police, because this book had me in swoon overdrive and made me cry. Outrageous acts of bravery or love always pull at my heart strings and Ashton offers a heaping spoonful in Everneath, I loved it and cant wait for book two.

Rating

Everneath is recommended to teens (15&up) and contains: Greek Mythology, mild romance and violence.

5/5- YA- Mythology