By: Sara Holland
# 1 in the Everless series | 366 pages | Pub. 2018
Everless at a Glance
- Overall Rating: ★★★
- Heroine: She’s no Nancy Drew
- Dude: Ken cheated on Barbie right?
- Brutality: The whole heart-eating thing was never confirmed…
- Ew Factor: HPV Tea
Pairs Well With
Bloody Mary
- 1/4 c tomato juice
- 1.5 oz vodka
- 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
- 3 dashes hot pepper sauce
- Pinch of salt and dash of pepper
- 1 cup ice cubes
Beware. Spoilers are coming…
Jess’s Reactions
Confused, stunned, frozen. That is pretty much how I feel after reading this. The beginning was super slow and felt like it was missing something. I pushed through and was rewarded in the end.
Let’s just talk about the whole blood as currency thing for a minute. Someone blood lets, it turns into a coin and then someone else puts it in their tea to drink the years… I love the idea because it’s different, but it’s actually super gross. I mean, money is insanely dirty anyway and you are drinking blood that has passed through how many hands and fallen on the floor. Add to that the fact that you have NO IDEA whose blood you are drinking. Is there no such thing as disease in this world? “Oh my tea gave me HPV today. No biggie.” I know I took it to far, but you are welcome.
Now we can discuss Jules. She is a moron. This girl would walk around with her shoes tied together all day and have no idea why she was falling down until someone told her. Her way to “investigate” is just to randomly follow people around. No one in particular, just all of the people. She doesn’t have a personality for me to cultivate any loyalty. I think she jokes one time. I am kind of rooting for Caro right now because Jules is lackluster in this book.
“Another thought hits me with brute force: maybe I am a mystery – a secret – that needs unraveling, too.”
Saying she isn’t the sharpest knife is an understatement. Jules is a Fisher Price plastic knife they give to toddlers. If she didn’t have Liam cleaning up her messes and literally fetching books for her, she would have died at 10.
Here is Roan and Jules’ relationship: They clearly got married at 8 years old in one of those backyard, the dog plays the minister type weddings. Problem is that they took it to mean that they needed to stay in “love” with each other for 9 more years, pining for the adult version. No one is in love at 8, nor can they grow those feelings into real love if they NEVER SEE EACH OTHER. Plus, Roan is a scumbag who is cheating on Ina with everyone. Let’s not pretend that Bea and Jules are the only ones. The whole line about Jules being obsessively in love with Roan was just exhausting. It made me want to reach through and choke her.
Since I love a good death to create excitement and emotion, I did appreciate the ending. And, Holland got me with Caro. I didn’t see that coming and it was a pretty great twist for me. I am sad that she left Liam behind because I was ready for a sequel full of Liam and Jules drama. He is the only one that seems to pull any sort of emotion from her at all.
Teagan’s Reactions
I liked this book but it book made me extremely uncomfortable from the get-go. What kind of world uses blood as a currency? You have to sell years of your life to “time collectors” who basically suck your blood and turn into blood-iron currency. People literally bleed themselves dry to survive. I would not make it a day in this world cuz I fainted just reading about it. And punishments come in the form of stealing your blood, too?! Then the rich people ingest these blood coins to gain extra years? This is basically institutional vampirism and while I liked Twilight, I’m just a big NOPE on this society.
I liked Jules I guess but was so annoyed by her obsession with a boy she hadn’t seen in a decade. And that she’s completely oblivious to the fact that he’s Everless’ resident Hugh Hefner playboy. At one point she can’t figure out why he smells like different perfumes. Excuse me while I slam my head into the wall repeatedly over her stupidity. And that he’s hitting on her while he’s engaged to a princess? How are these not red flags?!?!
But what really has me in a rage is yet another book where 75% of the problems could’ve been solved had the characters actually communicated. Instead of being honest with his daughter about her past, powers and the fact that she’s this magical reincarnated Alchemist, Jules’ dad makes the “logical” choice to keep her in the dark about everything and just speak in vague riddles that would make even Dumbledore proud and that no one could ever solve. I feel bad that he died but honestly I am so over parents pulling this crap. And Liam you too need to learn how to communicate instead of just being an evil little rat and expecting Jules to decipher your actions and protect herself. If we find out this little fucker “loves” Jules I am going to throw the sequel out my window.
Finally, why do the parents always have to die in YA books? Basically having kids in YA fantasy novels is a death sentence apparently.
Let us know what you thought of Everless in the comments!
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My God, exactly my thoughts.. you guys just put it on words better than I did.. haha… Seriously, the money thing is gross… but the idea resembles Timberlake and Seyfried’s movie IN TIME where they get the money from blood too. But they don’t put it on tea.. eeeww’
And Jules and Roan.. Goodness gracious, as a fellow girl, I felt embarrassed of Jules stupidity with Romance and everything else.
BUT I’ll still read the sequel, I think… I wanna see what will happen next with Liam and Jules.. And hopefully some development on Jules’ character…
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Glad you liked it! I also want to know what happens with Liam and Jules so I guess we have to read the sequel along with you!
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Yes!!!!. 🙂 🙂
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Umm… I don’t really agree. I mean I love Liam and knew from the beginning that he wasn’t cruel. And I can’t wait for the drama between him and Jules, but I did not like the ending at all. I mean it was a pretty good plot twist when Caro was actually the sorceress, but I don’t think Roan should’ve died. The ending was too easy and Liam barely even cared that his brother just died. Also, Roan may be a playboy but he’s also sweet and he really loved Jules. His death was a huge disappointment for me. And in my opinion it made the book worse. Jules should’ve turned back time or something; she is the heroine after all. Her character should’ve been stronger and she should’ve saved Roan.
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Thanks for reading our review! And, yes, Jules’ could use some serious character growth! I wish Liam had cared more about his brother’s death as well.
Are you excited for the next book?
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[…] Everless & Spinning Silver – Both of these books are all about the money. But what if Myriam could get rid of all of those nasty blood coins and just get everyone gold? I think we would be much happier if the world in Everless was dealing with actual money. Plus it would be an easier read than Spinning Silver. […]
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I came for the HPV tea and was not disappointed. 😂 This sounds like the weirdest creepiest society ever??? Ummmm hard pass on the whole ingesting blood thing, thanks. I’m also totally Teagan on the communicating thing. When characters don’t communicate in books it makes me want to light the pages on fire.
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Hahahaha glad you appreciate us Loretta!!
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[…] Everless – This was a book that stood no chance of living up to the hype for us. Honestly, it kind of grossed us out too much to be great. […]
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