Guest Review

Please welcome... Chelsie of bookloverreviews.blogspot.com

Title: Ever

Author: Gail Carson Levine

Summary:
Falling in love is never easy, but falling in love with an immortal god while your days on earth are numbered is almost more than a young girl can bear. Newbery Honor author Gail Carson Levine has created a stunning new world of flawed gods, unbreakable vows, and ancient omens in this spellbinding story of Kezi, a girl confronted with a terrible destiny. Attempting to thwart her fate, Kezi and her love, Olus -- the god of wind and loneliness -- embark on a series of dangerous and seemingly impossible quests.

Rating: 3/5

Review:
Normally, I'm a huge fan of Gail Carson Levine's novels. I loved The Two Princesses of Bamarre (it's my favorite of hers) and when I read Fairest I absolutely adored that as well. I also enjoyed and wrote positive amazon reviews for the rest of hers. So, naturally, when I started Ever I expected it to be just as good.
Unfortunately that wasn't the case.
The idea was actually pretty interesting; a girl is going to die, the guy tries to save her. Exciting, huh? Well, in typical Levine fashion, it's a fantasy/fairy tale, so add in the fact that the guy happens to be an immortal God. Which didn't bother me too much... it made it exciting.
It's really hard to tell where it all went wrong for me, but it just didn't work as well as I would have hoped. One of my main problems was that it all seemed like things were thrown in just for convenience... like everything was one big coincidence. The book didn't flow as well as I would have hoped, and it all sounded so completely ridiculous... a fantasy should at least have some believability... and Ever just didn't have it.
There was one redeeming quality, and that was the religious aspect. I am not a huge fan of religion, but somehow I could see how Kezi's religious struggles (believing in only one God and having the confusion of finding out the existence of others) would be easy to relate to in today's society. I personally can relate, because I am one of those people who is confused about religion and what to believe in, so Kezi's confusion really struck a chord. It was subtle, but there. And that was what made me enjoy the novel; if I hadn't been able to relate to that one bit, I don't think I would have been able to finish it.



A special thanks to Chelsie for this wonderful review! Anyone interested in doing a guest review may email me at princessashley9@gmail.com