Sarah Reviews… Evermore by Sara Holland

Title: Evermore

Publisher: Orchard Books

Publication Date: 31^st December 2018

Format: Hardback

About the book:

Jules confronts the girl who is both her oldest friend and greatest enemy in the highly anticipated sequel – and conclusion – to the Top Ten Bestseller Everless.

Jules Ember was raised hearing legends of the ancient magic of the wicked Alchemist and the good Sorceress. But she has just learned the truth: She is the Alchemist, and Caro – a woman who single-handedly murdered the Queen and Jules’s first love, Roan, in cold blood – is the Sorceress.

The whole kingdom believes that Jules is responsible for the murders, and a hefty bounty has been placed on her head. And Caro is intent on destroying Jules, who stole her heart twelve lifetimes ago. Now Jules must piece together the stories of her past lives to save the person who has captured her heart in this one.

What I Thought:

Evermore is the second book in the Everless Duology. I’ll avoid spoilers for Evermore but if you haven’t yet read Everless and you want to remain spoiler free this is not the post for you. Consider yourself warned!

Fair warning, if you’re still reading and you haven’t read Everless it’s your own fault… Everless was my first read of 2018 and it certainly didn’t disappoint I absolutely adored Jules and discovering Sempera, a land where time is money, quite literally. The ending totally caught me by surprise and left me desperate for the sequel. Evermore was released at the very end of 2018 and became my first read of 2019, it picks up directly after the end of Everless with Jules on the run accused of the murder of Roan Gerling and the Queen of Sempera. The story follows Jules and Liam as they try and discover more about the history of the sorceress and the alchemist while on the run as Caro continues searching for Jules.

Once again I loved the character of Jules, and found the tales of her history, her past lives really interesting. I think Liam might just have become my favourite character during Evermore, in Everless he came across as rather ruthless, with some of Jules’s childhood memories colouring your opinion of him, but there were slight glimpses that maybe not all was quite what it seemed, we learn a little more about him and his childhood during the course of Evermore and he certainly grew on me, I would happily read a whole book about him!

I felt like the ending snuck up on me slightly, I think that’s probably linked to the amount of history in Evermore, it contains a lot of backstory and we find out a lot about the past lives of the sorceress and the alchemist so it feels as though there wasn’t as much action in this book. I can’t say I’m disappointed though as I found it fascinating. It’s definitely a worthy follow up to Everless and was a fantastic way to start my 2019 reading!

Would I Recommend?

I’m not sure I’ll ever stop recommending the Everless duology to anyone who stops by me for long enough for me to get the words out. Evermore was a wonderful conclusion to the journey, bringing closure to the story of the Alchemist and the Sorceress while leaving the possibility of more maybe… What I wouldn’t give for an anthology of Everless short stories, can we start with Liam’s time at school…

The Everless Duology – Via Goodreads

More Sara Holland on SWB

About The Author

Sara Holland grew up in small-town Minnesota among hundreds of books. She graduated from Wesleyan University and worked in a tea shop, a dentist’s office, and a state capitol building before heading to New York to work in publishing. These days, she can be found exploring the city’s bookstores or finding new ways to put caffeine in her bloodstream.