Review: Everneath

Everneath (Everneath #1)
by Brodi Ashton

Published January 24th 2012 by HarperCollins / Balzer + Bray

Last spring, Nikki Beckett vanished, sucked into an underworld known as the Everneath, where immortals Feed on the emotions of despairing humans. Now she's returned- to her old life, her family, her friends- before being 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 months reconnecting with her boyfriend, Jack, the one person she loves more than anything. But there's a problem: Cole, the smoldering immortal who first enticed her to the Everneath, has followed Nikki to the mortal world. And he'll do whatever it takes to bring her back- this time as his queen.

As Nikki's time grows short and her relationships begin slipping from her grasp, she's 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...
-goodreads

Rating: 3.75 out of 5
Review:

The Hades and Persephone myth is probably my favorite myth of all time---is that weird?
I was super excited for this book after finding out it was a Hades/Persephone retelling and let's just say that it was waaay better than I anticipated!

The creative and unique twist that Ashton put on the myth retelling blew my mind. I loved the history of the everliving and how Hades and Persephone factor into the Everneath. It was a greek myth retelling, but also a supernatural story of its own category. I loved how they also incorporated the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice (another of my favorite myths.)

I thought the whole concept was great, but at the same time, I felt like the book could've had some more oomph. I didn't particularly connect with the characters, despite the fact that I really did like them. Same for the whole love-triangle-thing. Jack was a sweetheart, but I don't know, his and Nikki's realtionship, while pretty inspirational and beautiful in theory, lacked that spark on paper. I could see the appeal of badboy Cole, but again, no real spark or connection. However, I loved Nikki's journey of redemption and her general goodness as a person. She knows that what she's done has hurt a lot of people, but she trying to make up for that, to try and make amends.

For the most part, I felt like the book was a little slow--not much action happening anywhere, just switching between the present and the past. BUT part that really grabbed me about this book was the ending. That was just..... wow. It was, without a doubt, the most powerful part of the novel and what saved this book from a plain old 3 star rating.

The good thing is that I think this storyline still has lots of untapped potential, so I will be reading the sequel when it comes out.