Review: Evermore by Sara Holland

Evermore by Sara Holland
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I received an arc from Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.  This comes out December 31, 2018.  I enjoyed it and feel like it is a good wrap up to the duology.

This follows Jules directly after the first book (Everless) leaves off. She is on the run from the Sorceress after discovering that she is the Alchemist reborn and their ages old conflict after the Alchemist steals the Sorceress' heart. We do eventually find out the entire back story on the Alchemist and the Sorceress over the course of the book. Jules must put together the pieces of her past lives in order to save herself and everyone she loves before the Sorceress destroys them all. Jules and Liam return to places that the Alchemist once lived in an attempt to restore Jules' memories, and as she relives her memories she uncovers the truth of what she did to Caro and what she must do to save those she loves as well as her kingdom.

This was a bit slow for me, while the plot wrapped up nicely, I felt like it just moved a little slow for my tastes. Anytime you have a story that is told between the current time and an alternate time, in this case flashbacks to help Jules remember her past lives, it tends to slow down the plot, make things repetitive, and impact the flow of the storyline. I found that to be the case here. While those flashbacks were crucial to the development of the story, it just isn't my favorite type of storytelling. I think that's a personal preference thing, not a knock on the author's writing abilities.

I also didn't care for the romance, they went from enemies to in love very quickly. It just didn't develop naturally in my opinion. I always expected Jules and Liam to end up together from the very beginning, it just went from I hate you to I love you very quickly and without much development to turn the tides.

I would have liked more character development and more explanation on the "magic" system. I didn't really get a good grasp on why Jules' country is the only place blood-iron works and if there was other magic elsewhere in their country and outside their realm. I guess it wasn't really relevant to the story, but it would have been nice to get a better understanding.

Overall, I did enjoy the story. It wraps up the series well. I think I had different expectations based on the first book and how that focused more on the blood-irons and how people use their blood for currency and time. This focused more on past lives of the main characters not on the magic. I really loved the premise of the blood-irons and I think I wanted more on that and the mythology and magic.

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