Tag: alchemist

What’s Ashley Reading?: Evermore

If you have not listened to our library podcast, Novel Ideas: The Library Podcast, you are missing out.  We discuss so many different things and love to chat books.  Recently Alyssa, Hannah and I spent an hour discussing our love of young adult books and the tropes that are found within them.  Most of the time they are easily dismissed because the book is so good.  How do you feel about the typical YA tropes?

Evermore by Sara Holland

First line: Tonight, I will make the Alchemist’s blood—Jules Ember’s blood—into a weapon.

Summary: Jules Ember was raised listening to stories of the Alchemist and the Sorceress. When she learns that she is the Alchemist and Caro, a lady in waiting to the queen, is the Sorceress, she must learn how much of the stories are really true. Jules is blamed for the murder of the queen and is on the run from Caro and the rest of the kingdom. With the help of Liam and Elias she is able to piece together her past and decide how to save her country.

Highlights: This cover is stunning. It is very eye catching and filled with little details from the story. I really enjoyed the first book and the idea of blood being a source of currency. Even though it is mentioned and a known entity the blood currency is rarely discussed in the sequel. But I did like that when we meet Elias we learn that other countries do not have the same issue with blood. It is only Sempera. Very interesting!

Jules is one of those characters that falls into the savior trope.  It is a commonly used idea but it can be a lot of fun. She has a secret that means she is the only one who can change the world. While Jules is searching for answers I really enjoyed the story. She takes looks back into her past lives as the Alchemist to see how her conflict with the Sorceress came about.

Lowlights: The insta-love is what brought this down for me. She loved Roan. He gets killed. She was kind of scared of his brother Liam. However, shortly after spending a little time with him they are in love. Okay. Sometimes the story needs to move along but it happened really quickly.

FYI: This is a sequel. Read book one, Everless, before picking this one up.