Lifeblood (Everlife, #2)

by Gena Showalter

Having chosen her realm in the Everlife, Ten faces the consequences of her decision and endeavors to save her Secondlife while the war between Troika and Myriad rages, a situation that is further complicated by Ten's inability to forget Killian.

• ISBN10: 0373212194
• ISBN13: 9780373212194
• Publish Date: 28 February 2017
• Publish Status: Active
• Imprint: Harlequin Teen
• Edition: Original ed.
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 448
• Language: English

Reviews

[lizarodz]

Please check out my review of Firstlife for information about the first book in the series. Lifeblood is the second book in the Everlife series and it was awesome! While I felt like the first book was slower and that the world building took a lot of time, I hit the ground running with Lifeblood.

Ten has arrived to her Secondlife and has to learn the ropes. The world building changes so we learn about Troika, all the rules, their way of living, Ten’s training. She makes new friends and also quite a few enemies. Ten grows a lot in Lifeblood. She’s still loyal, passionate, loving, but grows to be more sure of herself, to whine less, to trust more, to have better judgement. I like the person she become a lot more and also how she made peace with her previous life.

Although Killian and Ten are now in opposite realms that are at war with each other they are more in love with each other every day. They learn to trust each other, to rely in each other. Killian becomes kind of a spy for all things Ten and he’s so protective of her that is SO sweet. I just can’t help but cheer for them.

The romance plays a bigger part in this installment. I adore Killian (be still my heart), and specially Killian and Ten together. They make each other stronger, better, eager to fight and conquer. LOVE IT@

Showalter’s writing is so good. I have no idea how she came up with such an intricate, amazing world, but is is so awesome and easy to follow. The plot is full of action, battles, intrigue, spies, new friends, new world and discoveries. I can’t wait to see what’s next!

Overall, Lifeblood did not suffer from the YA trilogy syndrome. I felt it was a lot better than the first book, in plot, character growth and swoon worthy romance. Now, the wait starts for Everlife, the last book in the series, to be published next year.

[Linda]

This review was originally posted on (un)Conventional Bookviews
Lifeblood didn't fully live up to my expectations, as Ten didn't seem the same, strong, independent girl she was in Firstlife.



In the first book, Ten, while not being exactly decisive, did manage to be quite independent once she escaped the institution she was locked up in. I had quite high hopes for Lifeblood, seeing Ten deal with her afterlife, living in a realm different from the boy she had spent a lot of time with - one who was protecting her and fighting alongside her until the end. What got to me was that for a lot of the time, Ten was mooning over Killian rather than getting to know Troika and the Troikans she was supposed to spend eternity with. She was not working very hard at unlocking her key to the grid, nor at understanding just how her realm worked. She was quite judgemental, and I found her to be a lot less interesting than she was in Firstlife.

There was some action, with fights between the realms, and fights over humans who were unsigned. I just didn't feel like I was involved in any of it in Lifeblood. The realms were less interesting, and I found the characters to be a lot flatter than those I met in the first book. It could be that this one suffers from second book syndrome, and I will definitely pick up the next book in the series, but my expectations will be lowered accordingly before I get to it.

Lifeblood was in many ways just more of the same as in Firstblood, though. The realms fighting over humans, and also fighting each other. Light and dark, good and evil *sighs* just that here, Ten was not human anymore, she was a spirit. And she was a lot less discerning of the people around her, not understanding that because they were all spirits, they weren't really different from what they had been as humans. She remembered her life from before, but it didn't seem to me as if she had really learned anything from it. And she didn't appear to realise that all other Troikans also held on to who they had been as humans.

Written in first person point of view from Ten's perspective, I think it made it worse because I really didn't enjoy her very much in Lifeblood. It was not fun to be in her head, and even with the dialogues and the action, the story didn't really work well for me.



My worth isn't measured by other people's feelings for me. I am who I am, and my worth is my worth.

Those dreams... They can mean one of two things: something or nothing.

Love that comes with strings isn't love. It's just another form of selfishness, liking what the other person can do for you or make you feel.