Book #82: Everneath

Title: Everneath

Author: Brodi Ashton

Date started reading: June 09, 2012
Date finished reading:  June 12, 2012

Publish date: January 2012
ISBN: 978-0062071132
Number of pages: 384

Official summary: "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." (http://www.brodiashton.blogspot.com)

Official book trailer:

How I obtained the book: Checked out of library

Memorable quotes:

• "Your pain will always be my pain." ~ Cole to Clara
• "You've never been in love?" ~ Nikki
  "Easy to say. Harder to feel." ~ Jack
• "I knew nothing of heaven." ~ Nikki
• "I couldn't let myself make the easy choice. I had to make the right choice." ~ Nikki
• "I don't understand the things you would give up for mortal relationships." ~ Cole
• "You are the happiest sad person I've ever met." ~ Cole to Nikki
• "Dancing makes everything better." ~ Cole
• "It was obvious Cole was passionate about music, because he couldn't contain his euphoria. It was contagious." ~ Nikki
• "I guess nothing says 'I'm sorry' like a tea cozy." ~ Jack
• "Heroes are made by the paths they choose, not the powers they are graced with." ~ Mrs. Stone
• "(Jack's) humiliation is absolutely delicious." ~ Cole
• "There is no end to your evil." ~ Nikki
  "There is no evil. There is no good. There is only life, and the absence of life." ~ Cole
• "Boats never seem to be going very fast until you try to stop them." ~ Nikki
• "Time was doing strange things to me. Sometimes a week felt like a day, and sometimes a minute felt like an eternity. It was like a clock that was running out of power, winding down except when it received an occasional jolt, and a week was suddenly gone." ~ Nikki
• "Sometimes are hearts crack a little." ~ Cole
• "When it comes to you and Jack, there is no happy ending. To expect otherwise is delusional." ~ Cole
• "The ability to dream again was highly overrated." ~ Nikki
• "In the absence of proof, all that matters is perception." ~ Nikki's father
• "Friends don't eat friends' souls." ~ Jack 
• "Our girl is talking crazy, and I don't speak crazy." ~ Cole to Jack
• "People in love tend to make irresponsible decisions. Human relationships -- you know the things for which you would give up your chance at eternal life -- are fleeting." ~ Cole
• "Hate. Such a strong feeling. A next-door neighbor to love." ~ Cole
• "I was tired of hurting people. I was tired of hurting myself." ~ Nikki
• "Heroes don't exist. And if they did, I wouldn't be one of them." ~ Cole
• "I knew then the difference between what I had with Jack and the twisted thing I had with Cole. Jack was real. Cole was a drug, artificial and simulated. ... Jack was real. Tangible." ~ Nikki
• "Sorry, bro. Even with your biceps, we can't fight the force of nature." ~ Cole to Jack
• "Better to rule hell than serve it." ~ Jack

My commentary:

• I loved the overall story of this book, but part of me really hated how non-lineal the time was in the book. It kept jumping back in time when Nikki thinks back on the past. I don't know why it bothers me, but it does. 
• The concept of this book (Nikki getting sucked into what is basically the underworld then returning to her life for six months before getting stolen back to the underworld) is both a new and exciting concept and a retelling of a long-lived myth. It's pretty much the story I expected when I decided to read it, which, considering I had gotten my hopes up too high, is a good thing.
• I absolutely love the book's cover. It's one of those books that just call to me. Before reading it, I thought the cover was depicting the girl surrounded by smoke or clouds, but it quickly made sense that it was the "shadows" of the Everneath that were coming to claim her. After reading the book, the cover is even more awesome to me.
• I think that most readers would consider Cole to be the villain of the book, but I honestly think he's a good match for Nikki in a weird, totally messed up way. It's like "shipping" one of the fictional world's most unlikely couple.

Buy on Amazon.com: Everneath