I had extremely high hopes for Evertrue, and I must admit that I'm a little disappointed.

After the mind reeling ending of Everbound, Nikki has become an Everliving and decides that the only way that she save herself is to destroy the Everneath. Unfortunately, the transition from a human to an Everliving is complicated and without Cole's help, Nikki will die.

The elements that I like in Everneath and Everbound disintegrate in Evertrue i.e. the characters, the romance and the plot.

In Everneath and Everbound, I really believed in Nikki's and Jack's romance. However, in Evertrue, Nikki and Jack literally go everywhere together and are too dependent on each other. Their relationship is extremely unhealthy! Nikki and Jack can't live and function if they aren't near each other.

I also don't know who Jack is when Nikki's not around. In Evertrue, Jack's an angry guy who needs anger management therapy. Everytime Nikki needs to feed from Cole, Jack turns into an angry and possessive caveman and threatens to beat Cole up. DUDE, IF YOUR GIRLFRIEND DOESN'T FEED FROM COLE, SHE'S GOING TO DIE!!!

The biggest disappointment in Evertrue is the way Cole's character is handled. Cole's my second favourite character in the Everneath series, after Will Caputo. Cole's such a complex character. One never knows whether he's genuine or whether he has an ulterior motive. He plays so many tricks on Nikki to get what he wants and anticipates her every move. He's a genius and he has an awesome personality. The events that Cole go through in Everneath completely ruins his character, but it's the only obvious way his character could be redeemed. Cole has amnesia and is manipulated by Nikki and Jack to help them. Also, it's obvious that Cole was never going to get the girl, but I didn't want him to die (although I guessed it would happen). I expected more for him.

Although I have gripes about Evertrue, I enjoyed reading it. It's a gripping and quick read and I felt for the characters and wanted them to succeed and be happy.

An underwhelming finale of an amazing series!

"Never focus on the end. Only focus on your first step." (Jack Caputo)

Kelly

Written on Apr 19, 2014

2.5 Stars
http://www.divabooknerd.com/2014/04/evertrue-by-brodi-ashton.html
Sadly, Evertrue was disappointing. I was a fan of the series during the previous two books, but it felt as though the series accumulated to nothing. Nikki is slowly fading away and now needs Cole more than ever. But where the situation requires a certain amount of urgency to possibly save her life, Nikki and boyfriend Jack spend an awful amount of time repeating the same dialogue over and over, her refusing to take a forfeit into the Everneath to feed and Jack attempting to save her life, as long as it doesn't involve Cole saving the day through his kiss of life. Where Jack was a secondary character in the previous books, in Evertrue he takes front stage. But Jack's become increasingly aggressive, since being rescued from the Tunnels, his physical appearance is almost that of a grown man. He's taller, muscular and constantly seems to beat his chest in an attempt to assert himself.

Cole was the only character that seemed to stay true to himself, until he's taken. The love triangle at one stage, becomes a love fest. Nikki is being shared between Cole keeping her alive, and Jack who threatens Cole with violence at any opportunity, even though he's Nikki's lifeline. Although the seriousness of the situation isn't lost on the reader, thankfully the storyline still has it's light moments with the infusion of witty one liners and Cole in his element.

Everbound ending in a cliffhanger had promised that Evertrue should have been explosive, and in places it certainly delivered, but they were too few and far between. The storyline morphed from suspenseful and gritty into somewhat of a nauseating romance with holes in the storyline filled with mush. Fans of the series will read this regardless, it's a given that you'll need to know how the series is wrapped up. But going by the early reviews, it seems most readers share my disappointment. It was a mere few chapters of actual plot, stretched into three hundred plus pages of filler.

Angie

Written on Mar 6, 2014

Another disappointing series ender. Evertrue makes me so sad, and not just because of the ending. Although I did not see that coming at all! It makes me sad because it was all too easy. There was no epic battle or major conflicts or dangerous situations. The characters set out to do what they're going to do, and just get it done. I know not every book needs to be action packed and intense, but nothing happened!

The first two thirds of Evertrue felt like a scavenger hunt. Nikki and Jack spend a lot time just gathering information and then tracking down objects and people. Yes, these things were necessary to the plot, but could something else have been happening in the mean time? Or at least not so many pages of just that. It was all made worse by one of my least favorite plot devices. I won't say what it is, but if it hadn't happened, they would have tracked down everything they needed right away. But this also would have required Cole to comply, since the situation caused him to act on "instinct" rather than self-interest, which just happened to be helpful to Nikki.

The final part of Evertrue was just too easy. Nikki is dead set on destroying the Everneath and regaining her humanity, and it all pretty much falls into her lap. Each task that needs to be perform is accomplished within two pages. There was no sense of urgency or danger. It all just happens and then it's over. It's obvious that she'll be successful, but I didn't expect her to have to not doing anything.

The outcome of Evertrue is a bit heartbreaking. Like I said, I didn't see it coming, but I also didn't see anyway around it. While it's the very last thing I wanted, I feel like it was the right thing for the author to do. There really was no way to stop it without messing up all of the rules. If the rest of the book hadn't been so dull, this would have been one of the great series enders instead of the worst.

Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.

celinenyx

Written on Jan 31, 2014

Both funny and sad, and a solid conclusion to the Everneath trilogy. This review contains spoilers if you haven't read the previous two books.

Nikki succeeded in saving Jack, but now she is turning into an Everliving herself. She has to feed on Cole to survive, and as always he is keeping secrets for her. Will she be able to turn mortal again?

What to say about Evertrue? I think it was a great young-adult book on basically every point. It was well-written, engaging, well-plotted with the action spread out properly, a dash of mythology and a cup of romance. It was all-round good, but it never surprised me or blew me away. The story ended just like I thought it would - for me there was only one solution to all the problems, and not surprisingly that was the road Ms Ashton took.

In Evertrue the character dynamics are slightly different from the other books. Because a strange twist of fate, Cole loses his memory for part of the book. This makes him a completely different person. The cocky, confident Cole is gone, and a sweeter more innocent Cole takes his place. I know a lot of people loved arrogant Cole, and I think they won't enjoy seeing him this way. I personally kind of hate Cole and wish he would just take his band and piss off, so this new Cole was an improvement over the other one. His amnesia brings on several humorous situations, but also ethical problems that Nikki has to work through. Jack has basically become the Hulk after being in the Tunnels, which I thought was pretty cool (I like the Hulk). Nikki goes through periods of both severe physical weakness and strength. The characters are all kind of fluctuating in Evertrue, but Ms Ashton handled that well.

Evertrue has all the elements of a good young-adult book, and it manages to make its grand finale sufficiently grand. I would recommend this series as a whole to people who enjoy YA paranormal romance with a mythology twist and that don't shy away from (an actually pretty well-done) love-triangle.