Evermore (The Immortals #1)

I really wanted to love this book. I didn't hate it, but I didn't love it. I was left sort of feeling ... meh. It's an interesting idea, but many elements of it feel too predictable and cliche. The immortal hot boy who inexplicably loves the human girl. The human girl seeming to have no other friends, no interests, no life outside of the hot boy. And a ton of the plot revolving around whether hot boy's secrets will stand in the way of the inevitable romance. However, the main characters ARE interesting, the twist of Ever's sister's ghost is nice, and Summerland is beautiful. I didn't care for the ending because it was one of those "the villain is gone so I will now leave the girl unprotected and OH NO the villain is still here!" things, and I felt like I wanted a more solid set-up for the resolution and a better reason for the heroine to face the villain alone. I think this book will definitely have fans since the romance is timeless and epic and has supernatural elements to it, but I wanted more from this.

Ever can see peoples feelings. Damen is like a weird vampire, except not a vampire. He's immortal.
Those are not reasons why I liked this book.
Ever's sister Riley was such a great character. And I loved Ever's friends.
I did not like Ever, but Damen was hot. So 1 star for Damen!

I like the series I do! I read the books very fast and it holds some great characters.

Miles I love! very camp and funny.. The story has a lot of dynamic and can go far, however this is not twilight and I feel a lot of people read these books thinking it would be its not. If your the type of person who likes to know everything right away, this is not the series for you. Noel does not like to give much of anything away and honestly at times can leave the reader frustrated.

Reader reviewed by Julie H.

Ever since a car accident killed Ever's family, she can see auras around people and hear way too many of their thoughts. She moves from Oregon to California to live with her aunt and starts a new highschool. Her first and only friends are a couple of other fringe kids. Ever fits right in as she covers herself in hoodies and her ipod earphones to dull the incessant noise in her head. Of course one day, a handsome and mysterious new student, Damen, arrives at school. He sits next to Ever in class and she notices the noise in her head subsides. Damen is obviously hiding some secrets of his own. I can understand the wide variety of views about this story, it comes off as very Twilight-y at times. But, I liked the story well enough to continue the series. Here's hoping there will be a little less Twilight and a little more Highlander in the next installment.

Reader reviewed by Yan

Bad Girls Don't Die was a chilling read that had an odd twist of humor. There were moments where my arms were covered in goose bumps and all of a sudden, it wasn't what you had not expected. It was actually somewhat funny, the scenes. However, it comes out more of an awkwardIm not crazylaugh. Extraordinary in that sense of way.

I dreamed I was standing on an island in a swamp full of alligators&I saw Kasey swimming towards me, blissfully unaware of the predators&I pulled out a rifle, and I shot any alligator that got close to her. Then Kasey was with me on the island, braiding my hair and singing me Christmas carols. And a battered doll in a ripped petticoat came out of the water and walked over to us, but Kasey couldnt see her. And the doll pointed at Kasey and looked at me and said Your sister is crazy.

What I loved most about this quote was the randomness of it. Seriously, I love random stuff but when you include it with some not so random information, only to you of course, then it makes it only so much more fun. A little giggle to yourself looking crazed to the world through their eyes makes it so much more sweeter.

Aside from that, outside of its original content, this passage may not seem so frightening, but it left me in chills&well until the part about your sister is crazy. The main fear is the dolls, the true demonic force behind it all. Even in real life dolls are creepy to me. Im talking about the classic porcelain ones, the ones that are so lifelike you just cant stare them in the eye. So here I was, just anticipating something horrific about to happen, and bam, there goes a funny little surprise. So an awkward, half hilarious, half scared, laugh is elicited.

Almost all the characters are so well done. The secondary characters are of course in the background, but also giving more depth to the main character. But that doesnt just stop there, some of them even have a bit more life in them. Carter, the male protagonist as well as being a secondary character, gave Alexis more of a girly flare that doesnt show anywhere else. But he also has a dark past that gave him more depth. Alexis was the older sister, the person who cared for her, as well as the one whos more than what she appears.

The action was predictable in some areas, but not so in others. The mystery aspect and the road to uncovering it was wonderfully done and left no real questions behind.

Overall: A great book to pick if youre in the mood for creepy little dolls. Okay so its much more than that. Just read this book if it sounds interesting to you, trust me, itll be better than you expected. I took it for granted and now Im in contentment after reading it.

Reader reviewed by Sab H. (Crystal Reviews)

This was interesting to read. It has been my first real review
challenge, I had to think a few times what should I write. The story is
really pretty and interesting. She creates a magical amazing world and
background so special, but you don't really know that until the end.
The fact is I think the book should be longer. I felt things were kind
of rushing to happen. As a reader, sometimes I didn't have time to get
involved, to actually feel the story.

At first, I couldn't
help to think the guy was a vampire and well, compare it to that other
story. But no, it has nothing to do with it. This world is awesome. The
characters are good though I couldn't actually like
Damen until the final pages. But Ever is a great character, and I love
Miles. And the cover, wow, I love it. It invites you in. What else can
I say, if you are into romance and love against all odds you will
definitely love this book.

Reader reviewed by Jen

Title: Evermore

Author: Alyson Noel

Series: The Immortals (Book 1)

Summary: Ever since Ever's parents, dog and little sister died in a tragic accident, she sees ghosts. Specifically her little sister. Not only can she see the paranormals, she is psychic, she sees auras, she reads minds, and she hates it. Already an outsider at her new school, she meets someone who can silence the noise in her head.Damen. He is smart, gorgeous, and no doubt hiding a whole host of secrets. She doesn't know what he is but he brings forth a world of magic.

Thoughts: Evermore veered very closely to one of those poor-me-because-I-want-to-be-normal books. However it was good. It was well written and suspenseful. The author plays into the readers expectations and subverts them (no spoilers, but this is major). The characters good for the most part. Ever's little sister is great, so are her friends (though they are a bit odd). There was one scene where Ever indulges in some drinking that was just really awkward and broke the flow of the book. However; the book ended on a really satisfactory note. I would like to see the author explain the logistics of the magic in the book further. However, as far as the situation goes the end is good and there isn't anything further that I want to see from the characters. The worrying thing is that this is a series. There aren't loose ends to look at in the next book, because this book could easily stand alone. 

Cover: The cover is lovely. I like the colours, title treatment, and the flower is done up all shiny (think the House of Night type covers). Although there are a couple books who have already used that cover image.

Rating: 3 stars (I liked it, but not fantastic)

Reader reviewed by Stephanie

This book is about a girl who gained psychic powers after being in a car crash where her whole family was killed.  Her name is Ever.  Now she can hear the thoughts of other people.  She tries to block out these thoughts and is perceived as being a freak at her high school.  Then, she meets Damen.  She can't read his thoughts.  Why is he different?  All Ever wants to be is normal again, but after meeting Damen, she realizes that normal for her will not be what she was used to.  I am looking forward to reading the next book in the series.

Reader reviewed by sariebearie08

I really, really wanted to love this book. But I didn't. I liked the
main character, Ever and I loved her connection to her little sister,
Riley. However, I wasn't exactly drawn to the story. First of fall -
the mind reading thing bore a very similar resemblance to the character
of Sookie Stackhouse. Both characters are overwhelmed with other
peoples thoughts and for some inexplicable reason, they cannot hear
there love interests thoughts - which draws them together. Also, I
didn't particularly like Damen. Which is a problem, because he is
suppose to be the love interest. However, my biggest problem with this
book was the editing. I found tons and tons of grammatical errors and
just other basic errors. I don't know if they were rushing to get this
book ton and shoved into the twilight market or what, but I think
someone could have taken more time editing the book. There are lots of
repeated words and one that stands out in my mind was on the first or
second page when Ever was thinking about her family. Buttercup, the
yellow lab (which I paid particular attention to because I have a
yellow lab named Buttercup), switches genders within a paragraph. It
really bothers me when books have lots of errors, because they feel
incomplete, rushed and undeveloped.

"Evermore" is the story of Ever, who gained powers to see the dead and hear other people's thoughts (and see auras) after she survived a car accident which killed her family. Her new powers are more of a burden than a blessing and she has retreated to cope with them and the loss of her family- at least she still sees her sister Riley too. Damen is the hot new guy at school who for some reason seems interested in Ever. However, he clearly has some secrets.

Overall, it was an okay book- not my favorite. It really centered a little too much around the relationship between Ever and Damen for my liking- school and everything else falls to the wayside. Also, all the characters seemed a little too cliched and one-dimensional. For instance, there's Miles, her gay friend who seems to embody most gay stereotypes including a love of musical theater- he even gets to play the female lead in Hairspray, the musical the school is putting on. He also finds all his dates through online apps. This was not my favorite and I found even Ever and Damen to be a little too one-dimensional for me.

Despite those shortcomings, overall, the book was still pretty enjoyable and fast-paced; I did read it all the way through. The mysteries that are raised (particularly around Damen) are really enough to keep you engaged until the end- it's also a quick read. However, I am not sure if I will continue with the series.