Through the Ever Night by Veronica Rossi

It’s been months since Aria learned of her mother’s death.

Months since Perry became Blood Lord of the Tides, and months since Aria last saw him.

Now Aria and Perry are about to be reunited. It’s a moment they’ve been longing for with countless expectations. And it’s a moment that lives up to all of them. At least, at first. Then it slips away. The Tides don’t take kindly to former Dwellers like Aria. And the tribe is swirling out of Perry’s control. With the Aether storms worsening every day, the only remaining hope for peace and safety is the Still Blue. But does this haven truly exist?

Threatened by false friends and powerful temptations, Aria and Perry wonder, Can their love survive through the ever night? In this second book in her spellbinding Under the Never Sky trilogy, Veronica Rossi combines fantasy and sci-fi elements to create a captivating adventure—and a love story as perilous as it is unforgettable.

I don’t think I can find the words to do justice to how many delicious feels THROUGH THE EVER NIGHT gave me. I was excited for the book, but it far exceeded my expectations.

One of the things I love about Rossi’s writing is that she’s not afraid to make her characters hurt. I’m not talking about being sadistic or throwing in angst for the sake of angst. No, she makes her characters face fear and loss and heartache in a way that makes me feel like I’m right there with them. But with all these things also comes growth, and I can feel how each of the characters have evolved from the beginning of UNDER THE NEVER SKY (ROAR AND LIV for some) and now.

The characters are realistic, and everything—their relationships, mannerisms, reactions, words, etc.—reflects that. Never before have I read a book where I care about more people than just the male (#omnomperry) and sometimes female leads. The characters in this book, even the “bad guys” (because no one seems inherently bad; they are all fighting for their own survival), are all so wonderful. Even when I don’t love them, I can still relate to them.

This book toyed with my emotions in such a fabulous way. I will be eagerly awaiting the release of INTO THE STILL BLUE. I can’t wait to get more Aria and Perry. *dreamy sigh*

Roar and Liv by Veronica Rossi

Before Perry and Aria, there was Roar and Liv.

After a childhood spent wandering the borderlands, Roar finally feels like he has a home with the Tides. His best friend Perry is like a brother to him, and Perry’s sister, Liv, is the love of his life. But Perry and Liv’s unpredictable older brother, Vale, is the Blood Lord of the Tides, and he has never looked kindly on Roar and Liv’s union. Normally, Roar couldn’t care less about Vale’s opinion. But with food running low and conditions worsening every day, Vale’s leadership is more vital—and more brutal—than ever. Desperate to protect his tribe, Vale makes a decision that will shatter the life Roar knew and change the fate of the Tides forever.

Set in the harsh but often beautiful world of Veronica Rossi’s “unforgettable” Under the Never Sky (Examiner.com), this captivating prequel novella stands on its own for new readers and offers series fans a fascinating look into the character of Roar. Poignant and powerful, Roar and Liv is a love story that will “capture your imagination and your heart.” (Justine on Under the Never Sky)

I don’t normally like story extras with secondary characters because as a general rule I just don’t care about them, but I really, really enjoyed ROAR AND LIV. I feel like I have an insight to these characters now, something that gives me a connection to them. I, dare I say, care about them?

It was nice to see Perry through someone else’s perspective as well. I love him just as much, if not more, after reading this. #omnomperry

Although this book is not needed in order for the series to make sense, it really enhanced my reading experience of THROUGH THE EVER NIGHT. It’s a great read and it’s short. I highly recommend you read it!

Go! Do it! Now!

Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi

Out of the blue one day, Mary told me I had to read Under the Never Sky because I would love it. I think Mary knows me pretty well, so without question I signed on to Amazon and had the book sent to my Kindle.

It took me a couple of months to get around to reading it, because lately I’ve been fail at reading, but when I did, zomg! I could not put it down.

As far as book boys go, Perry #omnomperry is a breath of fresh air. Let’s be honest, she had me at Savage. Tattoos? Green eyes? Scars? Scruffy? Say no more. He is mysterious and gifted. Devoted to those he loves. Gah!

Aria makes for a good protagonist as well. I can’t remember finding myself annoyed by her, as I do with a lot of YA female leads.

For me, every scene of this book played in my head like a movie. It flowed perfectly. The characters were diverse and realistic with clear motivations. There were just enough little twists to keep my jaw popping open.

At first I thought the flip-flopping 3rd person POV was strange, only because it happens so rarely in the books I read, but it worked really well for the story. I felt like I was getting an adequate look inside the characters’ minds and how they saw each other. I also think Rossi found a good balance between filling the reader in on what was happening while keeping a bit of mystery. So many times I find myself frustrated because an author either obviously withholds information or overnarrate to the point of boredom, and that didn’t happen with UTNS.

The ending kind of killed me a bit. It wasn’t sad in the traditional sense, more so open ended in the there-are-two-more-books-coming-out-and-hahahaha-don’t-you-wish-you-knew-what-happened-next? sense. Let’s just say I don’t know how I would have made it another month until the sequel came out without the first two chapters printed at the end of the book.

Since she’d been on the outside, she’d survived an Aether storm, she’d had a knife held to her throat, and she’d seen men murdered. This was worse.

Exiled from her home, the enclosed city of Reverie, Aria knows her chances of surviving in the outer wasteland—known as The Death Shop—are slim. If the cannibals don’t get her, the violent, electrified energy storms will. She’s been taught that the very air she breathes can kill her. Then Aria meets an Outsider named Perry. He’s wild—a savage—and her only hope of staying alive.

A hunter for his tribe in a merciless landscape, Perry views Aria as sheltered and fragile—everything he would expect from a Dweller. But he needs Aria’s help too; she alone holds the key to his redemption. Opposites in nearly every way, Aria and Perry must accept each other to survive. Their unlikely alliance forges a bond that will determine the fate of all who live under the never sky.

In her enthralling debut, Veronica Rossi sends readers on an unforgettable adventure set in a world brimming with harshness and beauty.

Eep! I haven’t done a book review in what feels like forever. I read Devine Intervention back in July. At the time I knew exactly what I wanted to write about it, but it’s been so long I forgot most of it. I feel bad too, because I’m friends with authors, and I know how important reviews on sites like GoodReads and Amazon are to them. Let this be a lesson learned.

Devine Intervention by Martha Brockenbrough

My experience with YA books is basically limited to love stories with either vampiric or dystopian themes. Devine Intervention . . . is absolutely nothing like that at all. Brockenbrough had me at the summary, but Devine Intervention was nothing like I expected.

The chapters alternate between Jerome’s and Heidi’s points of view. Jerome never failed to crack me up. Oh, to be in the mind of a good intentioned yet trouble making 17-year-old boy. I found myself giggling more than once. Especially because of that damn arrow. Although I couldn’t really relate to Heidi on a personal level, I felt the awkwardness of being a teenage girl all over again. Yikes.

Devine Intervention was full of twists and turns, and just when I thought it was turning predictable and I had it all figured out, it threw me for a loop I couldn’t believe. The plot was so unlike anything I could have imagined. I could not put the book down until I knew how it ended.

One of the things I loved the most about this story (other than Jerome’s interpretations of the Ten Commandments for the Dead, the hidden adult humor, Vincent Lionheart, etc. I could go on forever.) was watching the characters really grow and develop and blah blah blah—I know it sounds lame, but that’s something I don’t get to see much in YA novels. Sure there’s a lesson to be learned and the main characters usually become more self-aware. But in Devine Intervention, you actually get to see the progression as the characters make the transition from teenager to young adult.

I absolutely love the way Brockenbrough wrote the ending. It fit the story perfectly. With that being said, it did hurt my heart a little bit. Okay, a lot a bit. It was bittersweet, but I think that’s what made it so powerful.

I heard rumors that there’s a sequel in the future. Sign me up!

The first time I’d heard of The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan, I added it to my never-ending To Read list on GoodReads. Shortly after, I read a short story in Kiss Me Deadly: 13 Tales of Paranormal Love, which just happened to be a prequel to The Forest of Hands and Teeth.

The prequel seemed interesting enough. As with most short stories like this, the author gave enough information for the small subplot to make sense—there is a village, outside of the village is the Forest of Hands and Teeth, and in the forest live the Unconsecrated. And as it turned out, the Unconsecrated are—shock, gasp, what!—zombies! But they don’t call them zombies, they call them Unconsecrated. I had never read a zombie book before, but from what I’ve been told zombies are the new vampires. I found myself wanting to know more, so when I needed a new audiobook, this was the one I chose.

In Mary’s world there are simple truths. The Sisterhood always knows best. The Guardians will protect and serve. The Unconsecrated will never relent. And you must always mind the fence that surrounds the village; the fence that protects the village from the Forest of Hands and Teeth. But, slowly, Mary’s truths are failing her. She’s learning things she never wanted to know about the Sisterhood and its secrets, and the Guardians and their power, and about the Unconsecrated and their relentlessness. When the fence is breached and her world is thrown into chaos, she must choose between her village and her future—between the one she loves and the one who loves her. And she must face the truth about the Forest of Hands and Teeth. Could there be life outside a world surrounded in so much death?

The story had really great potential, but for me it fell flat in a multitude of places. For starters, the audiobook narration was difficult to listen to. The narrator’s voice was beautiful, but she spoke with an unusual cadence and placed odd pauses in the middle of sentences. Sometimes words were over annunciated, while other times I struggled to decifer what she had said.

Another thing that bothered me about the book was the prose in general. Nothing about it sucked me in and made me forget I was reading a book.

For me, the biggest disappointment with this book was the characters. I did not connect with, feel for, empathize with, or particularly like any of them. It made it very hard to get into the story because I couldn’t bring myself to care what happened to them. I think this was due in part to the main characters having established relationships prior to the beginning of the book. Although the author explained their history, I didn’t feel the connection between them while reading.

I think the biggest area where this shows is in Mary and Travis’s relationship. I felt absolutely nothing for Travis, which says a lot because the story is written from Mary’s point of view and she was head over heels in love with him. For the life of me I couldn’t understand why. Everything about their relationship felt so one-sided, like Mary was harboring a school girl crush on a boy who was completely indifferent to her. Even when their circumstances isolated the two of them together and we found out that Travis had wanted her all along, I never felt any spark between them.

I liked the book enough to want to know how it ended, so I saw it through. It probably would have taken me longer had I actually been reading it, but the ease of listening to the audiobook, despite the narration, kept me going. I liked the ending. I thought it fit the circumstances well, although there were some questions I had that went unanswered. There are currently two more books in this series, which focus on different characters in different cities, and while I think that is a really fantastic concept, at this point I have no plans to continue the series.