Everless

Man. I wanted to love this. There were so many places for the story to go. Really fascinating world-building and interesting, if predictable, characters. But nothing could have prepared me for the tremendous failing that is the end of this book. I don't want to give anything away, but seriously, WTF. Does she have the ability to stop time or not? She just stood there and let people be murdered, then seized? Normally, I'd need to finish the series, but this one is a no for me. Two stars may even be generous.

Narration of the story was good, but unfortunately, the story was not.

É inovador e revolucionário? Não. Mas é legal!

What an Incredible book to start my year of reading off with!!! Granted, I haven't been reading very much this year already due to the fact that I've been doing college prep, but that changes tonight!!! Especially after this book, this was Such an incredible read and an Amazing concept!!! And, I'll admit, I had accidentally spoiled a few of the plot twists for myself by reading the synopsis for the second book, but even so there was One I had missed reading and was extremely shocked by it (Honestly, that shit Hurt)!!! I've extremely excited to start the second book!!!

Interesting world-building, but lack of clarity in lore, and oftentimes stumbling and vague prose, as if the author herself wasn't sure how to lead readers through her backstories (and their important conclusions). I started reading #2, but got bored.

3,75*

Boring, is the word that comes to mind. The scene setting was too elaborate that I had to skim over it so many times. The plot was awfully slow. The useless love triangle that was killed by the end was unnecessary. Weak characters, weak motivations. Did I buy this book because of the pretty cover and red-painted edges?

UnicornCrate Jan 2018 Book
“I know better than to be afraid of stories”
I really enjoyed this book. I was kept entertained and was grossly interested in Jules's story. For me the best part of this book was the magic. The idea that people's blood can be turned into time coins that can then be ingested by someone to lengthen their live is fascinating.

This then lead to the cliche aspect of the rich and powerful preying on the poor and weak for their blood to lengthen their lives and we get the “special” poor girl who is not who she seems. I was able to overcome the cliches of this book simply because I loved the premise so much and loved this idea of time coins and bloodletting as payment for your mistakes and/or taxes. There was something so unique and refreshing about it, even if it contained other standard YA tropes.

I definitely am looking forward to the next book since this one left me with so many questions. Sara Holland did a great job of piquing my interest and then cementing it as she expanded this story and blew everything apart with that ending.

This was so good!!! After a bunch of DNF's in the historical romance genre, I borrowed this from the library because I share an account with someone, and they had already checked this out. I thought the cover was pretty, so that worked out.

So, basically, this book is about a young girl, Jules, and how she is trying to find out more about her past. Her father always makes their “time” payments, oh yes, time is bound to blood. Blood is extracted from people as payments, and the rich use it to lengthen their lives. Anyways, Jules's father is not doing well because he has so much of his time taken. So she volunteers for a job that will bring her to parts of her past to try and save her father.

Without giving too much away, yes some things are predictable in this book, but I was surprised by a lot too. I can't wait for the next one!

What is so sad is that I started out having high hopes for this book. Then, I saw reviews on GR and Wordpress which told me I might not like it, so I was almost ready to wait to read it, until a friend told me they really enjoyed it.
If I'm recommended a book by someone IRL, then I'll give it a try.

This book felt like it was missing something. I kept wanting more explanation or more details to grab me, but it felt like I was in a stereotypical YA fantasy. Maybe I've just read too many???
So, I have many MANY questions such as:
>If blood is a currency, do they buy things with it too? Because we never saw her purchase anything with her blood.
>Seriously, how much time does a loaf of bread and a handful of apples cost?
>Why did her memory change? Or did I miss that?
>Why is everywhere she go within a days ride? How can everything be so close?
> insert spoiler questions about such and such thing and how its time works differently –I like my fantasy to be at least somewhat realistic, sue me.
> How is she so blind not to notice what the prince is doing? Dear god, really? Are we not going to address that at all?
>insert another spoiler filled question the punishment of the Queen's maid/lady-in-waiting

I need to stop with the questions because the more I think about the book, the strong the urge is to lower the rating.

This all being said though, it wasn't a terrible book. The writing flowed well, keeping me reading for long stretches of times.
But, the romance aspect is dull because she is fawning over a boy she hasn't seen in 7 years and who is utter shite while fighting her attraction to the scary boy from her past. In fact, the crush she has on the dude ISN'T EVEN NEEDED FOR THE STORY. Totally unneeded.
The MC acts TSTL (too stupid to live) some times... most of the time and my most disliked plot device: Miscommunication/not communicating is used so much!! JUST TELL HER!

At this point, I'm starting to forget what I liked about this book...I liked the writing style, it is easy to read, and the concept is interesting.

Anyhow, I should stop now.
Do I recommend this book? For some reason, I feel like if you like Red Queen you might like this. I recommend Red Queen to my friend that liked this one. I might recommend it in the future, but I'm not actively searching out people to rec this to.

3.75/5 Stars

Actual rating: 4,5 stars

I've had so many books that I picked up and never finished. Especially in the past few weeks. I was more than happy that I reached my 2017 reading goal.

But this book was one that I kept on reading. And I do not regret it at all. This book was góód. I loved that time is money. Literally. It was new and it was nice. But, I need to admit that I lost track of all the characters, There were so many characters introduced in a really short period of time. It was like ‘Hey, I'm - name-, oh hey and I'm -name-. It was really confusing. The love interest was also not really clear. There was just not a lot of romance. I always love a good romance in a book. It's not bad because a romance is never an obligation in a book, but it would have been nice.

I was surprised, the plot was different than what I'd expected. It was even better. Really looking forward for book two!

“Everless” is the first in a duology written by Sara Holland. The novel is based in the Kingdom of Sempera, where time is currency which is extracted from blood then bound to iron, then the coin would be consumed to add time to one's own lifespan. This novel follows Jules Ember, who goes to the Gerlings' estate called Everless to earn time in order to keep her father alive and well after learning that her father is dying.

“Everless” is an interesting and unique novel due to the idea of time being a currency. I overall enjoyed the novel, I gave the novel a 3/5 Stars.

I liked the concept and I was intrigued by the mystery of the main character's past but things started to unravel for me starting with chapter 22. Up until the point I enjoyed it well enough to want to pick the sequel. Jules, was overall an ok character, not that fresh or fascinating but not too bothersome either. I was compelled to find out more about her puzzling origins and how that tied into the vault, the evil queen, and her father's death. However, the resolution just didn't do it for me. I didn't like the answers we got and how the plot wrapped up, so by the end I found myself not caring about any of it.

Ending aside, the novel had a lot going on it in terms of concept, writing, and some of the plot. It had the potential to be good. But the characters needed to be more fleshed out, less stereotypical. Another improvement would have been the absence of the pointless, bland romance (which I ignored, I basically tuned out whenever there was any mention of Rowan and her childhood crush for him...insert frustrated sigh here). It was so obvious the entire Liam shenanigans was a misunderstanding and that it would be revealed he actually liked her (insert eye roll here). I can't even express how over I am these tropes. I also hoped for a different ending. I can't suspend my disbelief that someone as clueless and reckless as Jules would be so powerful. Because let's face it, she did a lot of stupid things, she was at the mercy of her naivete and impulses. Powers are nothing if they don't come with a good head on the shoulders.

All in all, I'm not sorry I read it, I'm just disappointed it wasn't a bit better.

12/30/2017
Hey so when's the sequel coming out? RTC

01/11/2018
(This review can also be found on my blog.)

I was lucky enough to receive a copy of Everless from the author, who was doing a giveaway on Twitter a few months ago. At the time, Everless wasn't yet on my radar, but the concept really intrigued me, so I figured I'd give it a shot. Since then, I've seen countless reviews of it from people I follow — none of which I've read yet because I wanted to form my own opinion first!

The concept — a world in which time is worth more than anything else — was interesting, but I was worried about the execution. I had no reason to be, because Holland does a wonderful job of immersing the reader into this new world. We understand how it works, what the stakes are. It gives such an urgency to the concept of poverty: in Sempera, you are quite literally bled dry to pay off your debts.

The characters were incredibly well-written. I loved Jules so much, and her relationship with her father was both beautiful and heartbreaking. I liked seeing her relationships with the other characters develop. At times she can be a little too naive, but that's probably somewhat realistic, given how she was raised.

For the most part I liked the plot and the writing. I blew through it pretty quickly, but felt that the ending was a little rushed. It could have easily been drawn out a bit more, I think some additional details could have fleshed things out nicely. I will say that it is certainly an impressive debut novel. And it definitely set things up very well for the sequel though, which I wish I didn't have to wait another year for!

Overall, I was a huge fan of Everless. If you're looking for a fantasy read, consider picking this up! You won't be disappointed.