Book Review: Everbound by Brodi Ashton

Everbound

by Brodi Ashton
Series: Everneath #2
Published: January 22, 2013
Genres: Mythology, Paranormal Romance, Retelling
Format: ARC (358 pages)
Source: Won

Nikki Beckett’s living a borrowed life, and she doesn’t know what to do with the guilt. 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. 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.

Spoiler free even if you haven’t read the first book in this series. 

The tone that I adored from the first book is back in Everbound.  The opening line, which I loved, just sets the tone so well.

“It is by going down into the abyss that we recover the treasures of life.  Where you stumble, there lies your treasure.” – Joseph Campbell

Nikki is going on an adventure to get something back that she lost in the underworld called the Everneath.  It took me a minute to get reoriented in the world again, but I slipped back in easily after a few pages even without rereading the first book.  I positively flew through this book in one sitting.  The journey through the underworld and the task she wanted to complete felt impossible the whole time and kept me just glued to the pages.  The layers of the underworld that she travels through were different in a chilling and alien way.  This is one of those books where the foreshadowing was spot on.  I thought I was all smart and I knew everything that was going to happen.  Then the bombshell of an ending hits and I’m still in awe.  Brodi even put the clues in there of what was going to happen at the end and I missed them all.  It gives me chills just thinking about it.  I feel like she deserves a round of applause for that ending.

Cole is a sexy, modern, teen version of Hades.  He’s likeable yet sneaky and dark and I can’t ever totally trust him. My only complaint about the whole book was a few things that were taken too literally.  The “kicking” element of the story was just a little to literal and weird for me.

Overall, don’t miss this stunning retelling of Persephone and Hades.

Content Rating: Medium. There’s not really any language or suggestive scenes, but they are essentially trekking through hell….

I received this book for review from the author, Brodi Ashton (from a contest on her blog), in exchange for an honest review. I was not told what to say, I was not paid to write this review and all the opinions expressed are my own.  I read an Advanced Reading Copy for this review.