{Book Review} Evertrue (Everneath #3)

Author: Brodi Ashton

Genre: YA Greek and Egyptian mythology
Published: January 21st 2014
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Pages: 336
Source: Purchased Hardcover
Available at: Amazon | Barnes and Noble

Goodreads Summary:

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.

My Rating of this Book – 2 out of 5 stars

My Review:

Okay, to be honest, I’ve always had a bit of an issue with this series, particularly with the lack of research and back story. But when it came to Everneath and Everbound, I tried hard to not weight my prejudices into my rating. After all, they both had great plots to distract from the inaccuracies.

That wasn’t the case with Evertrue.

I felt Nikki regressed a lot in this novel. She was more self-centered and blind as ever. Throughout most of the beginning of the book, it was all about her. Meanwhile, I was concerned about Jack and his sudden changes. It was obvious he was having issues controlling his emotions and his new found strength, but she never took the time to investigate how this occurred or why. In fact, the lack of interest was really disappointing.

In addition, I found the way Nikki took advantage of Cole was really piss poor. This is a small spoiler alert, but Cole suffered from amnesia in this novel, and Nikki really turned that fact into her wind full, which honestly, I felt was downright low. Cole became my favorite character in Everbound, despite what he had done at the end, and yes, I always hoped he’d find redemption. But he shouldn’t have been brain washed into it! I wanted to see him grow from the man he was, not lose his memory and have Nikki plant falsehoods in his mind. Seriously, that was just unethical on Nikki’s behalf.

And finally, I hated the ending, and just because of what happens to Cole. I don’t know why authors think the kind of ending this series has is the solution to the problem. It really isn’t, and in my opinion, it just makes the main character look bad. Sadder still, there was a clear second option that the author could have used, but obviously didn’t. And I’m betting it was because of Cole and the whole “love triangle issue”.

There was only one part of the book I liked. It was when Cole took Nikki to the Everneath to practice her power. And if the whole book had been done is a similar fashion, I probably would’ve enjoyed it. But this novel really made the series feel pointless.

**Just a final FYI: In real ancient Egyptian mythology, the akh were souls of people who lived pure by the standards of Ma ‘at, passed the hall of judgment, and were admitted into Osiris’s kingdom—the ancient version of heaven. Not people who feed on the energy of Forfeits so they may live forever.**