Review: Everneath - Brodi Ashton

Everneath by Brodi Ashton

Released: January 24^th, 2012

Borrowed from library

Description from Goodreads:

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.

Review after the break.

I was aware of Everneath long before I had planned on attending the Dark Days Pitch Dark event, but it hasn’t sounded like my kind of book when I looked into it before. Although the cover model looked FIERCE in that red dress (which has nothing to do with the story at all and that annoys me to no end), the premise sounded kind of bland. I’m glad I gave it a second chance because overall, I enjoyed the story. I was able to connect with the main character, Nikki Beckett “Becks,” as she transitions throughout the story during the present and flashbacks that lead up to why she was in the Everneath.

Which brings me to the story. I wanted more about this “Everneath” and how it operated. We got a very brief glimpse at the beginning, and then only slight hints as to what happens down there throughout the story. The Everneath is ultimately the main villain in the story, so it surprised me that it was rarely described until the very end and what a cliffhanger THAT was. But what was told, I gobbled right up. I liked the idea of a sort of soul sucking/life sacrificing aspect, and I hope in the sequel, Everbound, which came out January 22^nd 2013, we’re invited into the fold a little more on how Everneath operates and what’s in store for its future.

What I did find lacking was the love triangle. Nikki leaves earth because of something Jack does and sells her soul to the devil, aka, Cole (not really the devil, but one of her many advocates…yes the devil in this story is a Queen). I’m sure you’re wondering why she sold her soul. I was wondering that too. And I was disappointed. But it says a lot about human nature and how we react when things don’t go our way. It seemed silly to me at the time, but thinking back, people make rash decisions when they aren’t in the right mindset and they can have devastating results. 

Back to the love triangle, if you want to call it that. Nikki leaves earth/Jack where she goes with Cole to the Everneath and they bond for 100 years as he essentially, slowly, removes her soul or essence. At the end of the 100 years, Nikki does something no one else has managed to do and Cole becomes obsessed with using her for an unknown gain, which he says will benefit them mutually. I call bullshit on this, but Cole could be quite convincing in some scenes, and if I were Nikki, I would have caved around the first 25 pages. Nikki returns to earth for 6 months, which is her bereavement for the 100 years spent in the Everneath. She returns to her life as an outcast and tries to enjoy her remaining time with her father. This is when she runs into Jack again, who, like everyone else who hasn’t seen Nikki in 6 months (100 years in the Everneath), gives her space as no one knows where she was. Jack was a flat character for me and I didn’t feel any real spark between them during the flashbacks or during the present. He redeems himself at the end, but just barely, as I was too occupied with wondering when Cole would pop up again. Long story short because I tend to summarize and not review, the love triangle was lacking and I hope the second installment brings us stronger relationships between the main characters.

Even though I typically enjoy reading about damaged or upset characters and their slow struggle finding balance, I felt the middle of this story was useless filler. It might have read as character interaction/build up, but I didn’t feel substantial. I felt like a lot of it could have been cut out and Ashton could have added more about the Everneath and about Nikki’s time there. Maybe it’s because of the cliffhanger and wanting to see what happens next, I bought the second book. I wanted to have something for Ashton to sign for the event, but I really do want to know what happens next in the story. I have a lot of faith that it could be much more developed considering a lot of the introductory stuff is out of the way. 

I judged a book by its cover (blah) and I was pretty spot on... If you've read Everneath, what did you think?

Happy Reading!