Title: Ever (Ever #1)Author: Jessa Russo
Pages: 295 pages
Format acquired: eBook (ePub)
Publisher: Curiosity Quills Press
Publication date: October 1st' 2012
Source: Received from the author for blog tour (Thanks, Jessa!)
Buy the book: Amazon / Barnes and Noble
BOOK ONE in The EVER Trilogy
Seventeen-year-old Ever’s love life has been on hold for the past two years. She’s secretly in love with her best friend Frankie, and he’s completely oblivious.
Of course, it doesn't help that he’s dead, and waking up to his ghost every day has made moving on nearly impossible.
Frustrated and desperate for something real, Ever finds herself falling for her hot new neighbor Toby. His relaxed confidence is irresistible, and not just Ever knows it. But falling for Toby comes with a price that throws Ever’s life into a whirlwind of chaos and drama. More than hearts are on the line, and more than Ever will suffer.
Some girls lose their hearts to love.
Some girls lose their minds.
Ever Van Ruysdael could lose her soul.
(Image and summary from Goodreads)
Review:
I neither love nor hate this book. I am literally just in between both. There were so many aspects to it that I enjoyed while others really just annoyed the crap out of me. I definitely like the way it's written, Jessa Russo's writing is very neat and precise so kudos to her. I think my problem is that there was a lack of substance to the story. There wasn't any direction the story was heading to, I honestly expected much more from this book.
I like the way the characters were made, how they were fleshed and made them more real but I don't like them personally. I mean, I can't see myself hanging out with these people (maybe just Frankie though.) Let's talk about Ever. So she's the heroine of this book and she's still hung up on her been-dead-for-2-years best friend Frankie, and while I think it's natural for some people to still harbor feelings for their first love even after hey died, 2 years is a pretty long time. The first half of the book, Frankie is pretty much confused and guilt-ridden about her growing feelings for her hot and mysterious neighbor, Toby or should I say, Tobias. And then then after her confusion and whatnot, a bunch of cool and slightly predictable but not things happen. That was the only part where I saw a plot but there was still the Ever whining. And then the last part of the book is back to the confusion but this time it's a mix of Toby and Frankie. But Jessa Russo tried to save the whole thing by dropping a huge bomb shell. Whoaaa.
From the little brief above, it's safe to say that the latter part of the book was more enjoyable and less hormone riddled. Oh, and I am totes Team Frankie. While Toby may have been Mr. Cool Confident Hottie who drives a badass car and wears black all the time, Frankie was still the best friend. I mean yeah, Ever's been in love with him since forever and everyone knows that she should just give up since he's a ghost and all but he's easily one of the sweetest ghosts I have read about. I didn't like Ever's attitude towards Frankie when he was warning her about Toby, just because you need a boyfriend and your unrequited love isn't in corporeal form that doesn't give you the right to be snippy, girl. (Also, random thing but I love it whenever Frankie calls Ever "Dollface". I swoon hard.)
Back to the latter parts of the book. I think those parts were the saving Grace of this book for me. I saw a big revelation coming but I just didn't know what it would be and I have to admit, I was pretty shocked. That shocker made up for a bit of Ever's emotional-ness. And there was still the ending, so I guess that was pretty good. I can take into account what Jessa Russo was trying to do. I mean what person wouldn't enjoy a Paranormal YA Romance? She was definitely trying to give the paranormal romance aspect of the story the limelight while the paranormal plot was slightly missing, till you get to the latter part of the book. That's definitely when it gets good.
I actually read this book in a day, it was mostly because I really wanted to see what happened next and also because I was waiting for things to get really exciting and they did! (I love the cover, btw.) While I thought that there were things that could have been done better, I wouldn't say that this was a complete loss. I did enjoy this book but I feel like I can't give it a higher rating because of most of the things that happened. This is a definite hit-or-miss kind of book, there will be people who will either love or hate it and there will be people will be just in between. I think that you should try this book out first before you make any judgements.
I like the way the characters were made, how they were fleshed and made them more real but I don't like them personally. I mean, I can't see myself hanging out with these people (maybe just Frankie though.) Let's talk about Ever. So she's the heroine of this book and she's still hung up on her been-dead-for-2-years best friend Frankie, and while I think it's natural for some people to still harbor feelings for their first love even after hey died, 2 years is a pretty long time. The first half of the book, Frankie is pretty much confused and guilt-ridden about her growing feelings for her hot and mysterious neighbor, Toby or should I say, Tobias. And then then after her confusion and whatnot, a bunch of cool and slightly predictable but not things happen. That was the only part where I saw a plot but there was still the Ever whining. And then the last part of the book is back to the confusion but this time it's a mix of Toby and Frankie. But Jessa Russo tried to save the whole thing by dropping a huge bomb shell. Whoaaa.
From the little brief above, it's safe to say that the latter part of the book was more enjoyable and less hormone riddled. Oh, and I am totes Team Frankie. While Toby may have been Mr. Cool Confident Hottie who drives a badass car and wears black all the time, Frankie was still the best friend. I mean yeah, Ever's been in love with him since forever and everyone knows that she should just give up since he's a ghost and all but he's easily one of the sweetest ghosts I have read about. I didn't like Ever's attitude towards Frankie when he was warning her about Toby, just because you need a boyfriend and your unrequited love isn't in corporeal form that doesn't give you the right to be snippy, girl. (Also, random thing but I love it whenever Frankie calls Ever "Dollface". I swoon hard.)
Back to the latter parts of the book. I think those parts were the saving Grace of this book for me. I saw a big revelation coming but I just didn't know what it would be and I have to admit, I was pretty shocked. That shocker made up for a bit of Ever's emotional-ness. And there was still the ending, so I guess that was pretty good. I can take into account what Jessa Russo was trying to do. I mean what person wouldn't enjoy a Paranormal YA Romance? She was definitely trying to give the paranormal romance aspect of the story the limelight while the paranormal plot was slightly missing, till you get to the latter part of the book. That's definitely when it gets good.
I actually read this book in a day, it was mostly because I really wanted to see what happened next and also because I was waiting for things to get really exciting and they did! (I love the cover, btw.) While I thought that there were things that could have been done better, I wouldn't say that this was a complete loss. I did enjoy this book but I feel like I can't give it a higher rating because of most of the things that happened. This is a definite hit-or-miss kind of book, there will be people who will either love or hate it and there will be people will be just in between. I think that you should try this book out first before you make any judgements.
Rating:
Jessa Russo lives in California with her husband and daughter. She has an odd love for odd numbers, specifically the number 17. She's afraid of clowns (me too!) the dark and spiders. Those are all pretty legit fears. Oh, and she loves to sing... Everywhere. More about Jessa over at her blog.
Twitter / Blog / Facebook
Click HERE for Jessa Russo's Review-Tour Kick-Off Giveaway!
Thank you for letting us be a part of this tour, Jessa! :) Many blessings to you!
Click HERE for Jessa Russo's Review-Tour Kick-Off Giveaway!
Thank you for letting us be a part of this tour, Jessa! :) Many blessings to you!
No comments:
Post a Comment