When I went through my books earlier this year, I came across this series.  I started the series several years ago, but I never finished it.  So, I decided I would start purchasing the books and read all the way through the series as part of my summer goals.  I got every book but the last one by the beginning of June and dug in (I borrowed the last one from the library).

Spoilers ahead.

The first book introduces Ever, a girl who loses her family in a tragic car accident and gets shipped off to live with her aunt.  When she wakes in the hospital after that accident, she finds out that she has psychic powers, including the ability to see her dead sister.  At her new school, she meets Damen who reveals that not only are they soulmates, but he made her immortal at the scene of that car accident.

Lots of conflicts and other characters ensue.  I won’t go heavily into the stories of the other books.  Basically, Book one was good, Book two was okay.  Book three I wanted to throw across the room because Ever made the same stupid mistake that she makes in book two.  Book four was just annoying.  Book five was better.  And Book six literally wraps up every single loose end from every other one of the books.

I liked the first book because of the ideas of alchemy and past lives.  I thought that the other books would dig deeper into these past lives, and I love a good historical fiction.  But I feel like the past lives were just a means to an end.  There were a couple of quips about the differences (like medieval times didn’t use toilets…so different!), but it was just so shallow.

The themes finally came out in the last book, which helped me to appreciate the journey, but not as much as I would have liked.  The idea that we live in abundance and not scarcity was a good one and that we should make our choices out of living in abundance That our soul is immortal and that we shouldn’t hold onto our physical self so tightly, knowing that there is more eternal meaning to our life, I can agree with that, too.  But the rest of it got really new age-y, maybe even too much for me.

There was a whole love triangle (there were more than one, actually, but I’m talking about the main one) that I did not agree with.  The “loser” of the triangle I thought should have been the soulmate, and I think the author didn’t do a good job to convince me otherwise, even though there were chapters and chapters of explanation.  It just wasn’t a very good explanation.  Of course, this could probably be true for a lot of YA love triangles.  I just happened to be on the dissenting side this time.  And I feel like out of all the loose ends, this guy’s end wasn’t tied up very well, either.

I feel like I also need to address the fact that sex is a major theme in the book.  The two main characters are unable to consummate their love for much of the story (with some really weird exceptions), and while I think the author was trying to create tension, I don’t think it was very well done.

I feel like the book could have been better in a trilogy, not six books.  The author seemed to draw things out just for the sake of making more money by selling more books than what was necessary.  It just made the plot more tedious to me.  As far as any graphic violence or sexual content, it’s not really there, but it’s very heavy on the new age aspects.  The if I just believe hard enough I can manifest anything for myself, which I don’t think goes well with my own Christian beliefs of struggle and dependence on God and not self.

I give it two out of five stars for the series itself.  You could almost read the first and last books and enjoy the series just as well.  It’s prompted me to get rid of any book series where I just bought the first book and enjoyed it.  I may go back some day and read those other book series, but for now, I’m going to focus on my growing present book-et list.