Everless: Book 1 (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: 1408349159
• ISBN13: 9781408349151
• Publish Date: 28 June 2018 (first published 2 January 2018)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Hachette Children's Group
• Imprint: Orchard Books
• Format: Paperback (B-Format (198x129 mm))
• Pages: 368
• Language: English

Reviews

[liz089]

Interesting novel, though the concept with the whole "time as a way of currency" did remind me a bit of that Justin Timerlake movie :P Ehm... In Time ! (thank you Google)
Though apart from the "time as currency" it was completely different haha.
I liked the fantasy spin-off and the world-building in this one much better.

I did like it in general... but it was not that intriguing and I had to motivate myself to pick it up again in the beginning. When I got further, it got more interesting and I felt more into it.

The MC was not too annoying.. She was very straight-forward and she did grow a bit, but all the other characters seemed underdeveloped to me..
Big plus also for all the female relationships in here !!

The plot was well.. very predictable. I already knew what was going to happen before it actually happened and the love interest, was not interesting at all. Which is actually one of the plus points of this story, because it was focussed on the actual plot and not based to much about the romance !! Big plus.

Though I am curious about Liam.. he seems like an interesting character.

I do plan on reading the next one, hope it will grow better, because it does have some interesting points that I am curious how they will develop further... We will see !

[Briana @ Pages Unbound]

Everless has a fabulous premise, introducing readers to a world where time is used as currency, but everyone except the elite seem to be running out of it.  The story builds on this original premise by moving the story's setting from Jules's impoverished town to Everless itself--the sumptuous manner of the local ruling family.  Since I love unique fantasy and books that bring readers into the lush lives of the wealthy, I was on board with this from the start.

Granted, the point is that not everything is what it seems and that the glittering lives of the rich are built (pretty literally here) on the blood of the poor. Plus, our protagonist is a servant, so she's not 100% living the high life herself.  However, I enjoyed the balance of seeing both dies of this world, the lower class and the upper class.  I've been reading a lot of books lately about servant girls who work in the kitchen and live in a dormitory of cots with other girls and want to be handmaiden to their mistresses, etc., so the world-building was not 100% as fresh as I'd like, but it still drew me in.

I was also a fan of Jules. Sure, she does the stereotypical thing of doing exactly what she was warned not to do if she at all valued her life, but she's at least self-aware about it. She realizes it's objectively stupid but decides she's willing to take the risk to find out what she wants to know.  She's not necessarily foolish; she just knows what she wants and is willing to take risks to get it, and I can get behind that.

However, I have two  main issues with the novel. First, the magic system is unclear to me and seems hand-wavy. We know that someone found a way to extract time from blood; how or why is not mentioned.  (Obviously, it's clear why people would want to live longer and would therefore want to take time from other people, but it's not immediately obvious to me how time came to act as currency.)  The ambiguity of the magic was not a deal breaker for me in this novel; however, because of the way the plot went, I believe the author will need to clarify this in book two, or it will become a problem.

Second, the romance is not convincing. I won't go into details in order to avoid spoilers, but the gist is that I don't think the protagonist actually knows that much about the love interest; she also barely interacts with him. This, too, is something that could be fixed in book two, but we'll have to wait to see.

In spite of these flaws, the book is original and entertaining enough that I truly enjoyed reading it. It's strong YA fantasy, and I look forward to reading the sequel, where I think our protagonist will really grow into her own and show her strength.

[Joséphine]

January 5, 2018

Full book review is up on Word Revel.

_________

December 26, 2017

Actual rating: 3.5 stars

Initial thoughts: Everless was built upon a very intriguing premise: a world where life and blood are currency. I loved this idea and how it was integrated into the story. The currency system and the legend that it was built upon were well-developed. For that, I thought Everless was original and worth reading. I'm very curious how these aspects will pan out in the sequel.

When it came to the plot and characters however, it felt like several popular YA fantasy books (that I didn't always enjoy) mashed up into one; not much depth to the characters either, except maybe Jules's father. Although, the writing style was good and the main character's voice was easy to relate to, making me fly through the book in under four hours. Usually I take about five to six hours to finish a book of comparable length.

_________

Note: I received an advanced reading copy from a local distributor in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

[Amber]

3.5*

I went into Everless thinking it was a time travel/fantasy book but I was kinda wrong. It's actually about a girl who can manipulate (i.e. stop and slow down) time. It's not quite the same thing. I need to start reading synopses before I request things.

Everless isn't the most original YA fantasy I've read in terms of the plot. It's all very standard YA that wouldn't really standout from the crowd. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but if you read a tonne of young adult fantasy books then you'll know the formula and you'll know what to expect and when.

That said, I adored the world building in Everless and that is what made it so enjoying and stand out to be. The world building was completely solid and made up for the mediocre (too harsh?) plot. I adored the way Holland wove mythology and history into the present day, and I love how everything tied together. The stories about the Alchemist and the Sorceress were wonderful. This was a big plus.
I, somewhat surprisingly, really enjoyed the ship? It's exactly my kind of thing. I'm not going to say anything about it other than that because I think anything specific would spoil you, but just know that I am kinda picky when it comes to shipping (STOP ROLLING YOUR EYES AT ME) and this ship was good. I'm really looking forward to seeing where it goes in the sequel.

The main character, Jules, was decent, but she was absolutely crap at keeping secrets. Oh my god. I was rolling my eyes at her so many times because people told her over and over again to keep her mouth shut and not to do things and she did the complete opposite and blabbed to absolutely everyone. I hope she grows out of that in the sequel because she can't keep living like that. She's actually going to get herself and everyone else killed.

I'd definitely recommend Everless as it's a solid debut with some really good world building that I think (and hope!) Sara Holland can expand upon. There's a lot of potential for a really good series here! Also, it reminded me of Red Queen, if that helps at all.

[bookishzelda]

Everless has that Fairytale feeling as we enter into a world where stories shape the society. I really enjoyed Jules as a main character and some of the twist and turns of the plot.

I liked Jules. She’s headstrong and wants to support her father. She is a hard worker but she also is fueled by her anger and hate. As we find out there is more mystery surrounding Jules than she even realized. The layers start getting peeled away. She finds that things are not always as they seem. She is not always who she thought she was. I really liked her and the way she changes and grows. Finding out that going on a revenge rampage is not always the way.

Right away I was not fond of Roan. His playboy attitude shines through and his activities are even more obvious. Even if not obvious enough to Jules. You are like, yep I know what’s going on there. It’s unfortunate.

Then there is Roan’s betrothed. Who is not someone you hate, you actually feel sorry for her in a way.

Despite Liam being Jules enemy, there are things you notice about him. Things that don’t exactly fit correctly with Jules perceptions. I found myself liking him more than Roan because he seemed a lot more aware of things that were happening. Plus you could just tell there was more to his story.

The political system is interesting. For some reason in the beginning I don’t think I ever fully grasped why the currency was created but as things are revealed in the book. I think it became clearer to me. So your time is used as currency. What happens is they suck it out of you through your blood and it turns into coins. Then people can melt that down and drink it, to gain years themselves. When you think about money we use, it’s circulated currency. The dollar I have today might be the dollar you hold tomorrow. With time currency, somebody is eventually going to ingest it and the only way to get more is to go to the bank, which just happens to be your own body. Now this seems like a crazy idea and why on Earth would people do this. Of course like all things, this starts with a story of a sorceress and alchemist. That includes betrayal and magic. Now again the story was something that I had to shake my head a few times to understand. I’m not sure why I wasn’t grasping things easily. I did really like how intricate it was and again as the book progresses, so many more pieces start to fit together. You start off with the framework and eventually build the house.

Overall I really enjoyed Everless. I had my suspicions about certain things that turned out to be accurate but there were still some things that I couldn’t figure out how to fit all together until they were revealed. It’s definitely a good story and now that we are past some of the confusing parts. I can’t wait to see what book two will hold.

[shannonmiz]

You can find the full review and all the fancy and/or randomness that accompanies it at It Starts at Midnight

3.5*

The premise for this book is kind of incredible, no? Time as currency, and gleaned from blood. Certainly unique, and absolutely what made me want to read this book. And it wasn't bad. It also didn't wholly blow me away, either.

While the world and premise were fabulous, I think I needed to know a bit more about its origins. I do hold out hope for more information from the sequel, so I can't fault it too much for that. I loved the concept of trading actual time from your life as a source of payment. Now, I don't mean I love it as in "let's do that here too!" but the idea of it in a story. I feel like it relates a lot to our society, where the rich literally get to live longer because they have the means for health care and such. I could go on, but this is a mini-review, not a political debate.

Jules was a fine character. I liked her, I definitely felt for her. She went through a lot in the book, and it seemed like she'd never get a break at times. The world felt as depressing as it was certainly supposed to, which I appreciated. The author did a great job of translating the townspeople's misery onto the page.

What I didn't like about it was mostly just that the plot felt a bit predictable to me. And even then, I wasn't totally convinced of why Jules decided to fight this fight. I did guess some of the bigger plot points in advance, which always makes me sad. Still, it was unique enough to hold my interest.

Will I Read the Sequel? Yeah. I was so intrigued by the world, I am kind of needing to know more about it.

Bottom Line: While I loved the concept, the execution was slightly predictable. Still, it was worth reading for me.

**Copy provided for review