When Jules discovers that her father is dying, she knows that she must return to Everless to earn more time for him before she loses him forever.īut going back to Everless brings more danger-and temptation-than Jules could have ever imagined. A decade ago, she and her father were servants at Everless, the Gerlings’ palatial estate, until a fateful accident forced them to flee in the dead of night. No one resents the Gerlings more than Jules Ember. The rich aristocracy, like the Gerlings, tax the poor to the hilt, extending their own lives by centuries.

In the kingdom of Sempera, time is currency-extracted from blood, bound to iron, and consumed to add time to one’s own lifespan. The premise in itself is what will keep readers drawn in. She also struggled a bit with some of her mythology in terms of its clarity, however the deeper you dive into the book, the clearer it becomes. However, it didn’t affect my rating for the simple fact that fantasy books both YA and Adult require a fair amount of info-dumping in order to gain a proper world-building foundation. She does run into a few road bumps that new authors bump into, mainly her major info-dumping at the beginning of the book. While I have rated this book 5 stars, I will say that Sara’s debut isn’t completely unblemished.

It’s hard to go into any YA book these days, particularly in the fantasy realm, that isn’t rife with overly saturated tropes and unoriginal plot ideas. There has been a lot of hype around its debut, and I’m happy to tell you that it’s completely warranted. Everless is a book that’s been on my radar for quite some time.

Sara holland books