Everless

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?

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!

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.

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.