Everbound by Brodi Ashton Book Review

4/5 Stars
Details of the Book
Paperback, 358 pages
Published by Blazer + Bray, 
an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers

Where to buy it: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository |

Synopsis: Nikki Beckett could only watch as her boyfriend, Jack, sacrificed himself to save her, taking her place in the Tunnels of the Everneath for eternity — a debt that should’ve been hers. She’s living a borrowed life, and she doesn’t know what to do with the guilt. And every night Jack appears in her dreams, lost and confused and wasting away.

Desperate for answers, Nikki turns to Cole, the immortal bad boy who wants to make her his queen — and the one person least likely to help. But his heart has been touched by everything about Nikki, and he agrees to assist her in the only way he can: by taking her to the Everneath himself.

Nikki and Cole descend into the Everneath, only to discover that their journey will be more difficult than they’d anticipated — and more deadly. But Nikki vows to stop at nothing to save Jack — even if it means making an incredible sacrifice of her own.

In this enthralling sequel to Everneath, Brodi Ashton tests the bonds of destiny and explores the lengths we’ll go to for the ones we love.

A vast improvement from Everneath--the first novel of this trilogy. A complete one-eighty flip, which has made me like the first book even less. The writing style, the storyline, character development, and just everything soars over the first novel. So, I give Brodi Ashton huge kudos, and I can't wait for the next book to come out.

This book covers Nikki trying to find a way to save Jack. With the help of Cole and Max she travels back to the Everneath to find the tunnels and face the Queen. This story is thrilling, hilarious, adventurous, and has a twist you'll never see coming.

Strengths:

All my complaints about the first installment of this trilogy has been fixed in this novel, it's truly amazing.

1) I just love Cole, he's extremely complex, intriguing, and really funny. He has so many dimensions and changes continually throughout the novel, I was completely overwhelmed.

2) There are a few plot twists that left me saying, "Wha?..what just happened?" At the same time all of the separate plot lines pulled together into a very intricate, well developed novel.

3) Character Development: In this novel we see more of Nikki's father, and has now become a well rounded character. This is the same case with almost all the characters in this novel. Their personalities, desires, and just everything changes throughout the book but at the same time, Ashton makes you think you understand the character and then flips the whole situation around with one of her plot twists. It's awesome!

4) I really felt the emotions and relationships were very well defined in this novel. We finally see how Cole fell in love with Nikki and how much she means to him. At the same time, Jack and Nikki's relationship through a series of memories has a whole new dimension that was missing in the first novel, and I really felt their connection.

5) The dialogue was very witty and funny. I had to stop several times to just tell someone about certain scenes so they could laugh too.

6) All of my unanswered questions that I had from Everneath were answered in this novel.

Weaknesses:

1) The beginning, just like the first novel, started very slow. I was almost half way through the book before it started picking up. Once I hit that point (which starts around the time Nikki enters the Everneath) I couldn't put the book down. As I said in previous posts, I think it's really important that it grabs the reader from the very beginning.

Some of my favorite moments (there were a lot so I'm only putting a few): 

"My dad leaned forward, his elbows on his knees and his hands clasped together. It was about to get good. 'You mean to tell me you checked every single direction a bus could've gone from here? Every stop? Every small town? Everywhere? You must have endless resources.'" (66).

" 'What happened?' I asked, squinting my eyes at his face. Cole glanced at Max.  'I wanted to jump in after you. Max disagreed with the appropriateness of that reaction. And then his face ran into my fist.' " (233).

"He lifted his head so that his eyes met mine. 'I always wait for you.' He took a deep breath, my ankle still in his hands. 'I'm always waiting for you.' "(229).