Evermore by: Sara Holland

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It picks up where Everless leaves off. Jules is on the run for the murder of Roan and the Queen. With Liam’s unsolicited help, she learns that she is the Alchemist on her 12th life. Jules takes off running and ends up back in Crofton hiding out in Amma’s chicken shed. Amma finds her in there and at first is afraid of her, until Jules gets her to listen and explains everything. Amma tells her she should be safe there for the night since the soldiers have already came through looking for her.

Jules left behind some blood iron when she ran, and Caro has had someone mix it up in a way that will give her some of Jules’ power without killing her, along with sanctioning a tracking spell. When Caro finds Jules, she burns the village down, making everyone run for their lives, killing those who don’t escape in time. Jules runs to the butcher shop looking for Amma and finds her dead. The soldiers capture her and takes her to Shorehaven to see Caro. After a few days worth of travel they make it there, and Caro is there to meet her at the gate. They get into a fight and Jules ends up stabbing Caro and making a run for it to try to find her sister Ina so she can explain what happened. When she finally finds her, Ina doesn’t believe her and calls for help so Jules ends up getting recaptured and held in a cell until a commander and Liam free her. Liam has a plan for them to escape but they have to fit in, which requires them to go to the coronation of the new queen, Ina Gold, and to mingle and dance like everyone else. The plan doesn’t go according to plan and they get found out before they make their escape. After a harrowing escape, they end up at their destination.

The Thief’s Fort is glamoured to look like a rotten place unless you have something of the Alchemist’s. They stay there for a little bit trying, to figure out where to go next on their hunt for the rubied dagger that will kill Caro. Jules tracks Steph, a hedge witch, down to have her do a blood regression spell to unlock more memories. When Jules spoke of what she saw, Steph thinks something is wrong because, “memory can take many forms-but it’s never blank, empty, and altered as you described.” Steph, while looking through Jules journal, wants to try on old trick of putting blood on a page. Blood forms the words, “Seek the river of red”. This just leads them to more clues, but no answers.

They start following clues that they find, growing closer together. It becomes time to force Liam to go back to Everless, so Caro won’t suspect him of helping Jules and kill him to break her heart. Jules, with Elias’ help, gets the next clue that will lead her to her way back to Everless.

I gotta say when you reach about 70% of the book you start turning pages and reading faster than you knew you could so you can see what happens and when Jules gets her memories back OMG.

Publication December 31, 2018 Pages: 346 YA Fantasy, Myths, Legends

Everless by: Sara Holland

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In a world where time and currency is bound by draining your blood, 17 year old Jules Ember wants to sell her time to stop her Papa from selling what little remains of his time. After an evening of hunting and only managing to get one fish, Jules heads to the market to sell it and see the time lender. Amma who works at the market and is her best friend, tells her she is planning on going to Everless to work as a servant in preparation for the Queen’s arrival and wedding of Lord Roan Gerling and Lady Ina Gold. They will get paid a whole years worth of time for a months worth of work. Amma is so excited and tries to talk Jules into going with her, but no one knows she grew up there or that her Papa tells her she needs to stay far away. Having been banned from Everless ten years ago, for witnessing something she should haven’t seen, she has seen the Gerlings cruelty up close.

While waiting in line to see Duade, the time lender, he is collected from the store by two of Everless’ men. Still struggling to get away, he stops as a young man on a horse rounds the corner. Jules, thinking its Roan, believes things will stop and he will be released but when the young man removes his hood she realizes it’s Liam, which petrified her due to what she seen when she was younger. Her Papa always told her if she ever saw Liam again to run. So what does she do when she unfreezes but run back home to her Papa.

When she gets home, a rent collector is there talking with her father trying to collect rent. If you don’t have enough goods for them to take you give rent by blood. Not wanting to lose her Papa, after he goes to bed she sneaks out of the house to meet up with Amma to go to Everless. While waiting in line, the Gerling men went down the line choosing who would go to be a servant. Amma is not chosen due to having a scar on her face, she is told she’s too ugly. Her younger sister is chosen along with Jules, who promises she will look out for her.

Her papa told her to never let the queen see her. So as any teenager will do once you tell them not to do something, she tries everything in her limited power to get closer to the queen. While working as a servant, she runs into Roan, who remembers her from when they were little kids running around together. Roan offers her the chance to serve Lady Gold, which makes her happy as she is one step closer to the queen.

There are many secrets to be uncovered including why her Papa always warned her away from the queen. As time goes on, she starts to unravel some truths to her past and the stories she used to tell as a kid about the Fox and the Snake. Liam is the one who lets her in on her past but with everything that happened between them when they were younger she is hesitant to believe him.

Publication Date: January 2, 2018 Pages: 362 Book 1 of 2 Fantasy, Legends, Myths 2019 Lonestar List Age: 13+

The Wicked King by: Holly Black

As much as I loved The Cruel Prince, I found this one lacking in the interest department for me. I tried for days to get into it and read it but found myself skipping around in it. Although, I do love the banter between Carden and Jude and their love/hate relationship. So this review will short and sweet.

At the end of The Cruel Prince, Jude had done what needed to be done and got Carden named High King and under her control for a year and a day. So ultimately it is her calling the shots but to all the people she is just his mortal seneschal. During this book she spends a lot of the time plotting/fighting to keep a step ahead of everyone else all while trying to figure out her feelings for Carden.

Jude is betrayed by someone close to her. There are many plot twist sprinkled throughout this story. The ending leaves you definitely wanting to read the next one, as Jude, the Queen of Elfhame, was exiled and sent to the mortal world and with Carden creating a new island.

I wish I could’ve gotten into it like The Cruel Prince but no such luck. Hopefully The Queen of Nothing will turn me around. Now for a long wait.

Publication January 8, 2019 Pages: 336 Fantasy