Ever Bloom used to be your average sixteen-year-old girl. She was head cheerleader. She was vain about her long blonde hair. She had parents, a little sister named Riley, and a puppy named Buttercup. She even had a boyfriend.
She doesn’t have any of those things now. And she isn’t your average sixteen-year-old girl. Not anymore.
Ever had what they call a near death experience. Except there was nothing near about it. Ever was dead along with the rest of her family. They all crossed a threshold, and Ever meant to as well. But she was too late.
Now instead of a normal life, Ever has psychic abilities. She can see people’s auras, read their thoughts, and learn their life stories with a casual touch. It’s too much.
Ever can’t get rid of her new abilities, but she can ignore them by withdrawing into herself, blasting her music, and hanging out with the school misfits instead of the popular crowd. Which is fine since everyone thinks she’s a freak anyway.
Gorgeous, exotic, and apparently rich the new student Damen Auguste is a shot of adrenaline to the entire school. Which Ever knows without even looking at him. He is also the only person who can quiet the noise in her head; the only person whose aura is invisible to her.
The more Ever learns about Damen, the more questions she has about who he is and what exactly he is. Nothing about the new guy makes sense. Especially not the fact that Ever might be falling for him in Evermore (2009) by Alyson Noël.
The first book in Noël’s The Immortals series, Evermore has all the markings of a being a popular paranormal romance. The plot follows one that will be familiar to Twilight fans right from the outsider girl and the gorgeous, mysterious new guy to the narrative that is strangely depopulated of peripheral characters and the passive aggressive jealous best friend.
Noël’s writing is interesting. At times the prose is very sharp with sweeping sentences detailing the types of minutiae Ever is subjected to about her classmates and teachers. At others the story drags with awkwardly worded sentences, weird vernacular choices and dated pop culture references (were teens still watching “Friends” in 2009?).
If you can get past the erratic writing, the story is intriguing. Even though the plot itself will feel familiar, the premise is unique as far as modern teen fantasies go. The book also spends a lot of time explaining the nuances of Ever’s abilities although most of the references are poorly integrated and read more like research notes than actual parts of the story. Ever is likable enough as a character but in her efforts to create unique side characters Noël managed to make Ever’s best friends pretty annoying.
At the same time, Ever and Damen sizzle. While readers might get the gist of things before Ever does, Evermore is mysterious and romantic and sure to excite readers looking for a new paranormal romance fix.
Miss Print 