Everless was Endearing

I recently read Everless by Sara Holland.  Driving my daughter to school takes quite a lot of time, which I can use to listen to audiobooks.  This one came available at my library recently.

Jules lives in a humble village with her papa.  They barely are able to make ends meet — then again, that’s true of most people in the village.  Once again, the rent is due, and they don’t have the money to pay for it.

Everyone in Sempera uses time as a currency.  If you can’t pay the rent, then you can take it out of the time you have remaining in your life.  Most of the poorer people have shortened lives as a result.  In a place like Everless, where the wealthy people live, some people can live for hundreds of years.

Jules used to live in Everless, as a child.  A tragedy forced them to flee years ago, however.  Now that Jules is 17, she can help Papa pay the rent by using her own time.  Papa forbids it, but if he uses some of his time, he might die.  In an attempt to save Papa’s life, Jules decides to go back to Everless, where well-paid jobs as servants await, preparing for the wedding of Roan Gerling and the queen’s adopted daughter.

Roan and Jules used to be friends as children.  Going back to Everless means that she will see Roan again, although he will be marrying someone else.  It also means that she will see his nasty brother, Liam.  Everless is not a very safe place to be, and Jules believes that part of that reason is Liam.

As the story progresses, we find out why Everless is such a dangerous place, and we find that there are long-buried secrets held there.  We find out that things aren’t exactly as they seem, and the past may come back to haunt everybody.

I enjoyed this book.  The imagery was wonderful.  I started getting my suspicions about some of the plot points partway through the story, although there were still some surprises, even at the very end.  When I was getting towards the end of the story, I would want to sit in my car a little longer, just to find out what was going to happen next.

I’m looking forward to finding out what happens in Evermore, which should be coming out on December 31st.  Which is weird, because most book releases come out on Tuesdays and December 31st is a Monday, but who knows?  More than likely I’ll read it sometime next year.