Evertrue by Brodi Ashton

Summary (from Goodreads):

Now that Nikki has rescued Jack, all she wants is to be with him and graduate high school. But Cole tricked Nikki into feeding off him, and she’s begun the process of turning into an Everliving herself... which means she must feed on a Forfeit soon — or die.

Terrified for her survival, Nikki and Jack begin a desperate attempt to reverse the process using any means possible. Even Cole, who they expected to fight them at every turn, has become an unlikely ally — but how long can it last? Nikki needs to feed on Cole to survive, Cole needs Nikki to gain the throne in the Everneath, Jack needs Nikki because she is everything to him — and together, they must travel back to the Underworld to undo Nikki’s fate and make her mortal once more. But Cole isn’t the only one with plans for Nikki: the Queen has not forgotten Nikki’s treachery, and she wants her destroyed for good. Will Nikki be forced to spend eternity in the Underworld, or does she have what it takes to bring down the Everneath once and for all?

In this stunning conclusion to the Everneath trilogy, Brodi Ashton evokes the resiliency of the human spirit and the indomitable power of true love.

Review:

So, this is a little harsh, but I kind of wish Ashton created a stand-alone with the first one. I loved book 1. I was blown away by the world-building, the incredibly unique take on a well known myth, and the depth of the characters. Book 2 was a little bit of a let-down. It seemed to be way more focused on the romance, then on the unique plot. And I think my major disappointment in it, thinking back now, is that Nikki finally got a chance to be the hero and do the rescuing of her soul mate –but she was kind of weak, and not hero enough for me.

Then this book happens, and I wasn’t sure if I was going to read it. But, book 2 had a great ending. An ending that seriously led me to believe that Nikki was actually ready to be more than her normal, rather subservient self. She was finally ready to take on the Everneath and all it entailed. However, yet another plot device comes to play that makes Nikki weak again…

Now, she’s becoming an Everliving, and is dependent on Cole (again) for survival. She literally needs to kiss Cole (the wrong end of the love triangle) every day to survive. And Jack (the right end of the love triangle) has to put up with it because he wants her alive long enough to defeat the Everneath. All these scenes made me physically roll my eyes.

I only now just realized what my biggest problem with the book is; I never ended up caring much for Nikki. There was nothing interesting about her since book 1. I had empathy for her in book 1 because of all the pain, death, and betrayal she went though. But without all the things to feel bad for her for, she’s not that interesting. She doesn’t seem to have any interests or hobbies and she doesn’t seem to care for much of anything but her boyfriend.

The other thing this book didn’t have going for it, were the a-typical plot devices. Cole lost his memories. Jack and Cole had a lot of testosterone flare ups. There were wanted posters of Cole and his band. Nikki and Jack (like in the other books) could always find Cole by easily going online and finding where his band was playing. There’s the convenient scholarly character who has bonus information about things he doesn’t even literally believe in. Also, if you’ve read the book, did anyone else not get the whole King-Sized bed incident???

On the other hand, I didn’t straight-out hate the book. I did finally get to see more details and more history of the Everneath. I found the Shade network to be fascinating. I found the queen to be super interesting. I even liked getting to know one of Cole’s closest friends.

I wish this last installment could have made Nikki stronger (and not as dependent on guys). I also wish that I liked Nikki more and that she had more to her than the boys in her life. I wish there was less love triangle romance and more story. And I wish the story wasn’t quite so familiar. I do give this author mad props for an excellent first book and some seriously amazing world-building. This last book and series just weren’t for me. I give it a 5/10.