Everneath

Brodi Ashton
Now she’s returned to her old life for another six months before the Everneath comes to claim her…. this time for ever. Nikki longs to spend this precious time reconnecting with the people she left behind – her family, her friends and, most importantly, her boyfriend Jack, the one person she loves more than anything.
But there’s just one problem: Cole, the smouldering immortal who enticed her to the Everneath, has followed Nikki home, convinced that she is the key to claiming the throne of the Underworld. Cole wants to bring Nikki back to the Everneath, but this time as his queen.
Now Nikki only has six months for goodbyes she can’t find the words for, six months to make the hardest decision of her life, six months to find redemption, if it exists…
This was a beautifully written story based around the myths of Hades/Persephone and Orpheus/Eurydice. I really enjoyed reading this and found it hard to put down. This is a unique story and I loved the whole idea, where Nikki our protagonist has chosen to go with Cole to the Everneath in order to escape the pain she feels from a bust up with her boyfriend Jack, and the death of her mother.
Unbeknownst to her, Cole is an immortal being who needs to ‘feed’ on humans, known as ‘forfeit’s’ in order to gain his strength. As far as her family and friends are aware she has gone missing, probably due to drugs and is gone for 6 months. However Nikki has in fact spent 100 years in the Everneath as a forfeit allowing Cole to feed off of her emotions. At the end of the 100 years she has a choice and hers is to return for six months to say her goodbyes before the Everneath claims her forever. She comes back to her home town disorientated, sapped of all her strength and emotions and finding it hard to remember anything of her time both in the
Everneath, and from before she left.
Nikki is a strong independent character. Throughout the book as she deals with Cole who she is very strongly tied to as a result of their time wrapped around each other in the Everneath, and also as she tentatively rebuilds her relationship with Jack, she takes responsibility for her actions and knows that this whole situation is of her own doing. I also liked Jack whom she misjudged and who shows his love and commitment to her, right to the very end. I even found myself feeling a bit sorry for Cole (I’m clearly a sucker for a bad boy!) as he fights for Nikki believing that ultimately she will return to him and will be the answer to eternal life, ruling the Underworld forever.
The characters were well developed and believable. The author takes us back and forth, through both the build-up to the feed and the events before Nikki disappears and also through the six months after Nikki returns and I enjoyed piecing the story together this way as more information was revealed. This story is all about redemption as Nikki seeks to put things right before her six months is up, but also about what true love is and certainly what it isn’t.
Verdict: A really great read from this debut author.
Reviewed by Lesley