I'm always on the search for good Hades and Persephone retellings. This summary gave me hope. It talks about a girl who survived the underworld and comes back to the surface. Even without the obvious Persephone themes, those are some of my buzzwords. The marketing and design of the cover also scream Hades and Persephone. Unfortunately... that was all a ruse.

This is not a Hades and Persephone retelling. This is more of an Orpheus and Eurydice retelling, with a random "love triangle" thrown in. Except I wouldn't even consider it a love triangle, because, to me, that implies that both love interests have an equal chance. They don't. It's very obvious from the beginning who Nikki has chosen. Which is fine, except it makes the whole love triangle thing even more pointless than it usually is.

Everneath
By Brodi Ashton
January 12, 2012

Everneath is a retelling of Hades and Persephone.
Nikki has been missing, taken into Everneath, the underworld
but she comes back Nikki only has six months before she returns to Everneath this time for good.

I am a sucker for retellings. I really liked the characters.


Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Collins for the e-ARC.

Similar to the tale of Persephone, this story follows Nikki who has been sucked into the underworld known as Everneath. Nikki is sent back to earth for six months to say her goodbyes. She'd really like to spend that time with her boyfriend but an immortal named Cole is desperate to bring her back to Everneath as his queen.

I loved this book and the whole series! It was so different and new when it came out. It was a world that I didn't want to leave and I loved the main character. I'm ready to read it again!

Everneath is all that it sounds to be, a dark supernatural story, with a twist on the story of Hades and Persephone. I am a huge fan of mythological stories especially the ones that originate from ancient Greece. Everneath did not disappoint in this aspect, it was an excellent take on the story. The only thing other two things that I actually enjoyed about this book is Brodi Ashton's writing, she has an amazing talent for story telling or retelling of sorts in this case, and Cole, the Everliving that took Nikki to the Everneath.

Sadly I can't say that I liked Everneath all that much. Right from the beginning I was very confused, it starts right off with Nikki getting out of the Everneath with no back story before that to know what's going on. Throughout the whole book it seemed like a piece of the story was missing. There are a ton of flashbacks which is telling Nikki's life in the Everneath, the book would have been much better if it started off with all these events and then led into the actual story, would have left no room for confusion. Even though Cole is supposed to be the bad guy in the love triangle I really loved him, Nikki and Jack's relationship just seemed to fluffy and fake. I did not connect with any of the characters nor did I like any of them except for Cole, I didn't really care what was happening to them while reading, which is a bad sign. There is a cliff hanger ending and I am curious to see what happens, so I most likely will read it but I wont be in any rush to get my hands on the sequel.

Everneath does have some redeeming factors, that made it a some what enjoyable book to read. But for the most part it is not an excellent book. From the things I've been hearing you either love this book or dislike/hate. Read this book if you want to read a persephone retelling, that's the only reason in my opinion that I would tell someone to read this book. But don't make your final decision based on my review, read other who share the same opinion as me and those who loved it, who knows maybe will be one of the ones who enjoy is.

3.5/5 Stars

I love this whole series so much. Brodi Ashton has a way with creating this amazing world and fantastic characters that I've rooted for since the beginning. I can't get enough of her writing style and her books.