From the Bookshelf of ¤ Between The Pages ¤…

Everless (Everless, #1)

Sara Holland

Start date: April 1, 2018

Finish date: April 30, 2018

Discussion: Books-Of-The-Month APRIL

Why we're reading this: 2nd book for the month of April
[close] 2nd book for the month of April

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Books-Of-The-Month APRIL

Everless ¤1st Part¤
By deleted member · 3 posts · 9 views

last updated Apr 23, 2018 03:48AM

Everless ¤Before Reading¤
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last updated Apr 09, 2018 09:43PM

What Members Thought

Apr 24, 2018 Vanessa (bookfairy95) rated it really liked it

Shelves: z2018-books

The atmosphere feels really dark, which I love in books and the concept of the blood-iron is weirdly fascinating to me. I mean this is just so... I don't know which other word to use, but it's dark. The fact that you have to bleed and that people basically drink blood from others to have more time... woah. Obviously, like in the real world, those who have power and money will lavish that money. At some points I was really disgusted for what these royals used the lifetime of people who had nothin The atmosphere feels really dark, which I love in books and the concept of the blood-iron is weirdly fascinating to me. I mean this is just so... I don't know which other word to use, but it's dark. The fact that you have to bleed and that people basically drink blood from others to have more time... woah. Obviously, like in the real world, those who have power and money will lavish that money. At some points I was really disgusted for what these royals used the lifetime of people who had nothing.

I really do appreciate the fact that the main character is not new to the life and scenery of Everless. Since, she grew up and spent her childhood at Everless she already knows the two brothers and has a connection to them. So she is not some randomly chosen maid that all of a sudden is so special to get the attention from the lords. (Which is mostly the case in such kind of settings in YA.)

Most of the characters seemed really deceptive to me and I didn’t really think that anyone could be trusted, except the brother Jules thinks is her enemy. The storyline is really slow burning, with minimum action, which does make sense taking into account that this is the first book to a series (maybe?) and we need to get introduced to the world and the characters first. However, the world building is not as heavy as I would have expected or wished for. I mean, don't get me wrong, the idea was great, but I would have liked a bit more than the legend of the Alchemist and the Sorceress to explain why the world is as she is. it just seemed so... easy? The story is more character focused. We get to see all the different characters and their relationships with each other. While Jules becomes “friends” with the princess and the queen’s handmaiden, I really thought throughout the book that no-one can be trusted; however, I also got surprised when characters that I didn’t trust in the beginning seemed to have genuine intentions as the story unraveled.

The main character Jules is quite naïve and trusts basically everybody, but is also stubborn and wants to do the right thing, but at the same time she doesn’t want to take any advice or help from the people around her that seem to know much more about what is going on. Instead, she is trying to do everything by herself, which was a bit annoying at times. Plus, she is making some very stupid decisions….
She is slowly discovering her past and her heritage and discovers something that I, personally, wouldn’t have expected and that changes all the threads connecting the different characters.

Even though the main character’s crush was mentioned already in the beginning, this book was not heavily romance focused (which is quite unusual for a YA setting). And even though I love romance in fantasy books, I didn’t mind the small amount in this one. The focus really is on the main character discovering her past and the links and secrets that can be found throughout the story, which I liked. The parts that did contain romance didn’t feel right to me though. I think this might have been the author’s intention though. I think that the things that were shown in this first book symbolise letting go of something old in order to make place for something knew in that aspect. This is also the reason I’m quite fond of the ending of this as I think it should hint at future growth for our main character in the next book and I really hope to see that.

...more

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Jan 13, 2018 Angelica Cindy rated it it was amazing

I finished this book in just 3 days because it was sooo interesting and very good. Time being a currency really brought out an amazing and unique story I have not seen before. A book about time, love and betrayal really brought the story to life. I really enjoyed it and would really recommend it if you want to get swept into a world where time is everything...

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