ARC Giveaway for Everbound on my blog! U.S. addresses only. Sorry international followers!Giveaway ends January 29th, 2013**Spoilers to follow for those of you who have not yet read Everneath!**Everbound was quite the adventure! I wasn't the hugest fan of the first installment was this one was fun, entertaining, and even a bit exciting. Everbound picks up where the last left off with Nikki desperately trying to come up with a plan to rescue Jack. Once she realizes that she requires Cole's help for this to ever be possible, she also realizes she has to put more trust in him than she ever has before. He's never given her a reason to trust him but she's not left with much choice if she ever wants to see Jack again.Over 100 of the first pages is wasted on Nikki and her planning on how to save Jack. I understand the need for developing but I can't help but feel some of it could have been cut out because once the action really started, it was quite the interesting story. Everbound took bits from several mythological stories: Persephone and Hades (Greek), Orpheus and Eurydice (Greek), Inanna and her descent into the underworld (Sumerian), Daedalus' labyrinth (Greek), and Dante's Inferno (Italian). The entire plot of the story was heavily based on these myths and it was interesting to see how these myths were altered to suit the story.Everbound put major focus on the development of Cole and Nikki's relationship which continued building that love triangle that I knew was inevitably coming. Considering I was a bigger fan of Cole than Jack, this wasn't too big of a gripe for me. It's a sure bet readers will end up liking Cole a lot more as the story progresses, as he shows a noble and honest side to him that wasn't evident previously. This was an extremely close to a 4 star read for me... until the end. The ending really ruined any fun I had over the course of the previous 350+ pages and made me confused and irritable and other related adjectives. I know I will now have to read the final installment in the trilogy and hope that all the time I spent on this series ends up being worth it. As it stands right now though I'm not impressed and I'm crossing my fingers for a big finish at the very least.
