First and foremost I would like to thank NetGalley for the E-ARC and wish to impress that all opinions remain my own.

A queer YA dryad romance, Evergreen is a fine example of a new twist on a classic concept.

Quill is half-human, working in his family's garden. The garden was beautifully explained and I think that the oldest trees being their ancestors helping their magic garden thrive was a wonderful concept.

The romance was sweet, I really liked how different Liam is from Quill. I enjoyed how he slowly got to experience the human world with him. Liam was very sweet and caring towards Quill, and I really loved how Quill's sexuality was taken in stride.

All in all, I really enjoyed this. If you enjoy YA, dryads or romance I think you will also really enjoy this.

This was an enjoyable read! I only realized halfway through the novel that it had initially been pitched as a queer loosely-retold Secret Garden, but frankly, barring there being a literal secret garden in the text, it really doesn’t hold too closely to the original (not that it’s a bad thing! Just a note for those who were drawn by the comparison).

I thought the twists of the story were interesting, as we try to figure out who has broken into Quill’s family garden and is causing damage to the family’s magical plant store. The world created in the garden sounds amazing, and I wanted more scenes just letting us see this incredibly expansive square mile of magical greenery. Alas…

A few things took me out of the book: 1) what felt like juvenile writing. I saw a few other reviews comparing the construction of the text to fanfiction, and while I wouldn’t say it was extreme, I understood what they meant. 2) The characters fell flat for me. I rooted for Quill and Liam, but there was nothing about either of them that stood out, nor the surrounding support characters. Quill was interesting as the first male dryad in his familial line, but the author chose more to focus on the budding romance than Quill’s own introspection at times, choosing only to highlight his inexperience with the human world as the sole source of character quirks. 3) The ongoing conflict between Quill and his mother about “keeping him safe” versus letting him go out into the world got tired very quickly. Clearly she wanted to protect him, but her prior trauma clearly colored her lens, and it felt like a typical example of “I will keep him sheltered, then use that sheltered upbringing as an argument point to cyclically KEEP him sheltered”. Quill continually forgave his mother and justified her actions, but with her not telling him much or educating him about the world “out there”, she just seemed to add to the problem, and I was struggling to find sympathy for either of them.

Overall, this is a good debut. There were certainly some issues, and I think more intensive editing would have benefited the novel, but the book entertained me for an afternoon, and I don;t ask for much more than that. For that, this gets 3⭐️

*Thank you again to NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.*

Evergreen is a delightful debut by Devin Greenlee, and it will warm your heart with the coming-of-age story.

A very cute YA love story with a magic twist. At first, I was a little frustrated with the stereotypical YA MC—ignoring good advice! sneaking out! keeping secrets for no reason! but honestly as the book went on it really picked up momentum. Most of my questions about the magical world building were at least addressed by the end of the book (though I am still side-eyeing the idea that these creatures all have liasons with humans but our MC is the only half-human male ever born? idk seems sus). I enjoyed the magical hijinks & the surprisingly high stakes which appeared in the last 20% or so of the story. I do feel like we could have gotten a little more dark & ominous vibes earlier on to foreshadow a bit but overall I enjoyed it. A very sweet story.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a free eARC in exchange for an honest review!

While the magic system and characters were intriguing, the pacing felt a little sluggish during the middle, though picked up at the end. At times, the dialogue and the writing style felt amateurish, and I probably would've enjoyed this more as a younger teenager. However, it is a good debut and the author has a lot of potential for future books.

I think this may have been a case of this isn't a bad book.. it just wasn't for me. The premise sounded intriguing and checked multiple boxes for me as far as interests go, so I was pretty excited going in. However, quite literally from the first chapter, I could tell that this wasn't going to live up to my expectations. I know this book is ya, but it felt like the writing, plot, and characters read as immature and underdeveloped. Quill and Liam were cute, but I feel like 80% of the story was focused on their relationship with very little focus on the plot. The dryad and "secret garden" aspect in this book was what I was initially most excited about, but I feel like we got to see very little of this. Don't get me wrong, this was a quick read and I enjoyed it, I just feel like it didn't live up to its full potential. I do think if I had read this as a teenager though I probably would have loved it.

Thank you NetGalley and Entangled Publishing for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review.

3.75 stars
I really enjoyed the magic in this book, so much so that I wish there was more of it. I loved the take on male dryad and how being the first puts so much pressure onto Quill. I really enjoyed the twists and turns in this book, even though some of the smaller ones were predictable. The overall plot didn't lag in spots and was reasonably paced. I think there could have been higher consequences for the characters, especially with the ending kind of eliminating those consequences.

Overall this book was a good YA fantasy that could have dived deeper into the worldbuilding and created heavier consequences for the characters,

It was quite the fantasy and cutie reading, a book that goes for the YA category. Sincerely it was not the kind of thing I would read most of the time but made me giggle A LOT.

"Evergreen" has a pretty interesting premise but the characters didn´t make a connection with the reader and doesn´t elaborate in important things like the dryads -even when Quill is one-.

Even so, the story was good and the magical floral shop was something i liked a lot, well, that and the sibling relationship between Quill and Laurel.

All in all, the "coming of age" troupe was well done, as well as the funny and lovely dryad family, even if I would like that they spent more time in the garden.

Thanks to Netgalley and David Greenlee for the chance to read this ARC and give a review!

A loosely based beautiful retelling of the Secret Garden, a story that has always held a special place in my heart. It was very YA in my opinion but the story was unique and quite interesting.

Evergreen by Devin Greenlee is an enchanting YA urban fantasy.
With it’s captivating characters and beautiful writing I was hooked once I started.
An interesting story about love, mystery and self-discovery.
I felt drawn into the world very quickly into the story. The world building, the story and the writing style are nice and well developed.
A magical coming-of-age debut with romance.

Thank You NetGalley and Entangled: Teen for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

Well. I wasn’t expecting this to be so adorable. It feels like watching a Disney Pixar kind of movie. I don't think it suits the Secret Garden retelling even though there was a secret garden, a magical one too! It's more than that. I love the plot and all the characters in it. They all feel alive with not only a good side but all of them have flaws. It was an entertaining read from the beginning to the end. The romance is also super sweet! Not to mention that beautiful cover too!?

Thank you so much, NetGalley and Entangled: Teen, for providing me with this e-ARC!

A lovely story, original and compelling. I loved the cover then loved the well plotted story and the likeable characters.
The romance is sweet and I rooted for the characters.
The world building is original and I thoroughly enjoyed it
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Evergreen is so sweet! A lovely queer coming of age story tied with fantasy and a secret garden. This story dragged me in from the first chapter and the twists and turns kept coming!

The romance was sweet and cute. The imagery was beautifully woven throughout the book and I loved the contrast from city to garden.

I loved that this book included a great fantasy world, a sweet hearted romance, and a bit of mystery!

Thank you Net Galley and Tangled for an ARC! All opinions are my own.

This writing style just did not work for me, and I’m so sad! A reimagining of The Secret Garden?! Dryads?! I was beyond exciting. The writing however felt juvenile. Small things kept adding up and I couldn’t get through any more.

I just didn't really get this one. There were so so many good ideas here but very few of them actually came to fruition. It felt like the much younger side of ya and unfortunately that's not how it was marketed so I was, unpleasantly, surprised. It got choppy in the majority of places but especially towards the end. I feel like if you go into this expecting a younger ya you'll have a more enjoyable time.

This was a highly anticipated read for me based on the premise alone and unfortunately did not deliver. Right from the beginning I had an issue with the main character, the worldbuilding, and the writing. I feel like there are things I can overlook in order to enjoy a story but it’s really got to be one or the other and not so many hang ups.

A few reviewers have said that the writing feels YA which is also the genre this is in but that feels unfair to me to YA. Even a younger intended audience deserves quality writing. This feels like a rough first draft and like someone trying to connect to a YA audience while coming off even more immature than the actual age group in reality. Even just from the very beginning the main character is attempting to antagonize the eventual love interest and says something along the lines of “can you even spell your name? I’ll give you a hint it start with L” when I tell you I had to put my kindle down from the cringe. I can’t imagine a teenager of any age or background thinking that’s a sick burn either on the speaking or receiving end. These tactics continue.

The actual writing is overly literal. It is a lot of telling and not showing. It insults the readers intelligence (yes even a teenage level reader if such a thing exists) when the inner dialogue and emotions are overly explained. It also does the main character no favors to be seen as so petty and immature. I had a hard time connecting and/or rooting for him.

There are plot holes in this and one of the biggest ones is how Quill has been stuck in his house for his whole life but this is contemporary/urban fantasy and he has had access to the internet and media the whole time. So he wonders things like “are all humans like this?” well you’ve spent a ton of time with unmonitored access to the internet I wouldn’t think you’d be that clueless. I think this would have done better as historical fantasy or with less of a clueless main character. Gen Z deserves better rep when it comes to utilizing technology.

I was also confused from the very start on certain aspects of the setting and magic subplots and as I kept reading I realized that was not intentional. That was essentially all the worldbuilding I was going to get. I still have so many questions about the garden and what’s out of magic and what’s not. I had a hard time conceptualizing this world based on the limited descriptions. This needed another round of editing.

Like I said, I wanted to like this. I seek out MM own voices romance and Romantasy especially in that category can feel hard to come by. So I thank Entangled Teen for this eARC but this was unfortunately not for me.

This queer Secret Garden retelling takes this framework of isolation and gives it a fantasy twist. At the heart of Evergreen is wanting to protect someone so dearly that we think the only we can is if we keep them where we can see them. We don't let them stray too far into a world of dangers, unknown elements, and risks. But that never works, despite our best attempts. Evergreen is an awakening. It's not only a queer awakening, but also of figuring out Quill's likes, dislikes, and voice.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. 

​● YA
● Fantasy romance 
● Secret garden retelling
​
This was cute! Quill and Liam are adorable as they get to know each other. I thoroughly enjoyed the magic aspects and truly didn't see the twist coming. 
Quill is the only male dryad to ever be born. With his bright green hair, he is definitely a little different. His mother keeps him inside at all times and all Quill wants is to be normal and go to school.  Then Liam moved next door, a human. The two quickly become close and Quill trusts him with his family secret. But will Liam keep the secret? 
I loved that there was a little mystery going on along with the boys' growing friendship. 
It does read like a debut novel, but for its target audience I think it's terrific.

Thank you Entangled Publishing and Netgalley for this eARC, these opinions are my own. I highly enjoyed this one. I was engaged and found myself intrigued throughout! Plenty of twists and I loved the relationship between Quill and Liam! A sweet story that readers should absolutely check out! Can’t wait to read it again.

This queer coming-of-age fantasy romance was truly charming. At its heart, this was a story about a sheltered teenage boy discovering the world and himself, while also figuring out how to save his family and to fall in love at the same time. I really enjoyed the developing relationship between Quill and Liam; it felt authentic to the teenage experience even factoring in the magical elements of the story. Lots of cute banter and a beautiful world, although I would have loved even more backstory and time spent in the family garden.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for the chance to read and review!