Everless (Everless, #1)

by Sara Holland

THE TOP TEN BESTSELLER

Time is a prison. She is the key. Packed with danger, temptation and desire - a perfect read for fans of The Red Queen.

In the land of Sempera, the rich control everything - even time. Ever since the age of alchemy and sorcery, hours, days and years have been extracted from blood and bound to iron coins. The rich live for centuries; the poor bleed themselves dry.

Jules and her father are behind on their rent and low on hours. To stop him from draining himself to clear their debts, Jules takes a job at Everless, the grand estate of the cruel Gerling family.

There, Jules encounters danger and temptation in the guise of the Gerling heir, Roan, who is soon to be married. But the web of secrets at Everless stretches beyond her desire, and the truths Jules must uncover will change her life for ever ... and possibly the future of time itself.

'Sara Holland is a fierce storyteller. An intoxicating blend of blood, secrets, and haunting mythology, Everless gives new and terrifying meaning to the phrase running out of time.' Stephanie Garber, New York Times and Sunday Times bestselling author of Caraval

• ISBN10: 1408353393
• ISBN13: 9781408353394
• Publish Date: 4 January 2018 (first published 2 January 2018)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 22 March 2021
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Hachette Children's Group
• Imprint: Orchard Books
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 368
• Language: English

Reviews

[Brittany]

This was enjoyable but also pretty simple. Things that happened were predictable and the story itself isn’t that complex. Everything could use more building and detail in general, not just one specific thing.

Overall I did enjoy it enough to read the next book, but it’s not one I will pressure people with to read. There just wasn’t anything spectacular about any part of it that made me hunger for more.

[Ashley]

Wow that was great! The concept was much like the movie In Time, but a fantasy world.

[paperbackjedi]

3.5

[Vicki]

3.5 stars

[Amber (The Literary Phoenix)]

While Everless seems to get a pretty good reception on Goodreads, I've found a lot of the blogs I follow don't think very much of it. It goes to show that readers are very different beasties, and what pleases one will abhor another.

I, for one, really enjoyed Everless. I'm not going to give it any brownie points for being a groundbreaking work of art, but the plot had a charming, twisted Hansel and Gretel quality to it. The story moved along at a brisk pace and I found myself being drawn in deeper and deeper until I was tangled in its pages. Plus, it only took a couple hours to read. I love myself a good, quick fantasy that leaves you wanting for more.

The characters, on the other hand, were less impressive. You could pretty much sniff out the bad ones from a mile away, so a lot of the plot twists weren't terribly surprising. My favorite character in this one was Ina, and I'm patiently waiting for her to show her hand. After all, none of the other characters have been so simple and flawless, so why should she be?

There were scenes where the setting is really strong - like the garden - and other places where I was left wanting for more (Blackmoor). I think that the ending felt a bit rushed, and there was a lot of traveling folded into it with very little time. I would have liked a bit more of a slow burn, but that is my personal preference. Overall I appreciated this as a quick read. You don't get a lot of light fantasy these days, and you definitely don't get a lot without a romantic relationship gumming up the works. There was a little romance here, but not a lot. A flirtation. I appreciated that, too.

I think that Everless will most likely suit readers who have enjoyed The Hazel Wood or even Reign of the Fallen. There's a similar darkness in all three books, and all three can swallow you whole.

Blog: The Literary Phoenix
Bookstagram: @theliteraryphoenix

[alisoninbookland]

😐😍😵😐


I won't lie. The story started off slow and a bit boring. A motherless young woman is poor. She and her father are in danger of losing everything if they can't pay. She does something drastic in order to get the money to pay the debts. I read lots of YA fantasy so this basic premise is something I've read a hundred different times. Thankfully Holland is able to change those boring, old tropes into a fascinating story.

The world building of this world is endless fascinating. Time is currency. Time is blood. The logistics are a bit rough and I'm not totally clear on how everything works. The idea of it was pretty awesome and a new idea for me. .

Once Holland sets the scene and gets the story rolling, it's easy to get caught up in. Like I've said, I've read many, many YA fantasy books in my time but I was endlessly surprised with this story. I never knew what was coming. Everything was a very pleasant surprise for me since it wasn't predictable.

Buy the book for the cover, read it for the story. Thumbs up.

[cornerfolds]

Read more of my reviews at Cornerfolds.com!

Although it seems like Everless got a fair amount of hype, I didn't hear much of it before picking up a copy. Its gorgeous cover caught my eye and I thought the synopsis sounded interesting, so I decided to give it a try. I'm so glad I did because this is one of the more unique fantasy books I've read recently!

Jules was raised at Everless before she and her father had to flee for their lives. After spending years living in a small town, Jules returns to Everless to make enough money to support herself and her dying father. Once she gets there though, she starts to uncover secrets about herself and the Gerlings and things get twisty and amazing! I really enjoyed Jules and thought she was a fantastic heroine. Thank goodness for a MC who isn't irritating! I loved uncovering her past with her and trying to discover who was trustworthy and who was an enemy.

Speaking of which, I loved pretty much every character in this book! It's amazing when I can't figure out who to trust in a story and Everless really delivered! The Gerling brothers are both fascinating characters with complicated backstories (and current stories). I was concerned about a love triangle, but that never happened, thank goodness. Actually, I really liked that the romance was kept to a minimum, although I have a hunch that it might have a bigger part to play in book two (and I can't wait). I also liked the focus given to female friendships and the care that was given to not letting them fall into any of the ridiculous tropes we're all so used to.

Like I said, Everless is a pretty unique fantasy. It took me a few minutes to get my head around time being used as currency, but I thought it was pretty amazing once I got used to it. The world building and mythology surrounding this time-centric culture was really well written and I really can't wait for more magic and timey wimey stuff in the next book! I guess maybe I'm really dumb because I actually didn't guess any of the big twists! In fact, my guesses were pretty far off. Oh well, it makes for a more exciting read.

Let me go ahead and say I loved Everless! There were a couple moments when I felt the story might have dragged just a bit, but after a series of books that dragged A LOT, this was a breath of fresh air. I listened to the audiobook and had a hard time putting it away, which is saying something, since podcasts have been winning for the last few months. I definitely recommend Everless for fantasy fans and I absolutely can't wait for Evermore!

Actual rating: 4.5 stars

[tweetybugshouse]

In a world where time is bound to blood and exchange time from your blood for money you have a unique world.  I was drawn into the story of a girl who used to live at Everless but escapes due to circumstances from her child hood.  Now her farther is out of time and she must head back and face her past.  We got a love interest from way back when and a mystery surrounding her parents. The story was spot on in its intrigue as painting some characters so far one direction that you really believe you know who bad and who good.  I intrigued and ready for book two. 

[girlinthepages]

I am thrilled to say that I think I'm *finally* getting back into reading fantasy (not that I completely stopped but my fantasy reading has definitely tapered off in the past few years) and Everless was another novel I really enjoyed that's helping me slowly rebuild my love for the genre. The book came on my radar a few months ago when I keep seeing it featured on Instagram stories (the UK cover, which is super stunning and I'm using it in my post because I like it better lol) and the whole concept of blood as currency was really intriguing to me. So I went into Everless with some moderate hopes that were tempered by a lot of mediocre reviews I had seen.

I was actually very pleasantly surprised with Everless! Sure, it had some of the typical YA fantasy tropes (semi-orphaned protagonist who's ~not like other girls~ and is always divulging information that she shouldn't) but it also had a strong, unique foundation with the way it played with the concepts of blood, currency and time. In the world of Everless, money is literally made from blood via alchemy, so you can imagine this creates a gross unbalance of power and age with rich nobility living centuries and poor people literally pouring out years of their lives to be made into currency so they can eat and survive (ironic, isn't it). It was a really interesting social commentary, especially some of the more disturbing elements (like how bleeding a child for money was illegal but was often done out of desperation, or how know matter how honest of work you came by, the currency in which you were paid was still made from stealing time away from another human being's life).

The protagonist, Jules, ends up taking a job at the Everless estate where they are paying servants huge sums to tackle the extra work caused by the upcoming royal wedding. The novel follows Jules as she goes from a kitchen maid to a personal attendant of a princess, and becomes involved with all different kinds of royal politics, unearthing schemes and trying to call into focus her own blurry history. I loved that there were some plot twists at the end of the novel that I didn't see coming, especially in regards to who manifested as the antagonist. The author also wasn't afraid to sacrifice characters for the story which made the stakes feel higher and gave the story, and the character's choices and motivations, an edge. The story left off on somewhat of a cliffhanger and I'm definitely invested enough to continue on.

What I did find myself occasionally befuddled by, however, was the interwoven mythology in the book. The characters' world is defined by an origin story of two mythological characters, the sorceress and the alchemist. While I always love a good origin story (hello, former Religious Studies major), I often got confused as it was told in disjointed pieces. I was also somewhat confused by Jules' heritage, as there are some reveals later on in the novel that were somewhat confusing and I'm still not 100% to be sure what happened to be honest. I think a lot of these things will be expanded upon in the next book, but the last quarter of the book started throwing around themes of magic and revenge and reincarnation and fake identities and while undeniably exciting, it was all a little much to keep straight.

I also enjoyed that the novel teased at romance being a theme but it ended up not being a huge part of the story thankfully, and almost used more as a plot device than anything. I liked that the story didn't fall into the cliched love interest in the way that you'd expect it to, and that it was actually used as a weapon (but I won't go too much into it to avoid spoilers!)

Overall: While Jules wasn't the most inspiring main character, the premise of this novel is really unique and a lot of the initial tropes that are introduced are subverted and don't play out the way one might think of a typical YA fantasy novel. Everless is a pleasant surprise and I'll definitely be reading the sequel.This review was originally posted on Girl in the Pages

[Cocktails and Books]

I liked it. I wasn't sure who it was the heroine needed to trust, but the author did a great job of setting up the storyline into book 2.