Review: Ever by Jessa Russo

  Ever
  Author: Jessa Russo
  Publisher: Curiosity Quills Press
  Publication date: October 1st 2012
  Source: NetGalley
  My rating: 2 stars

 

Seventeen-year-old Ever’s love life has been on hold for the past two years. She’s secretly in love with her best friend Frankie, and he’s completely oblivious.

Of course, it doesn't help that he’s dead, and waking up to his ghost every day has made moving on nearly impossible.

Frustrated and desperate for something real, Ever finds herself falling for her hot new neighbor Toby. His relaxed confidence is irresistible, and not just Ever knows it. But falling for Toby comes with a price that throws Ever’s life into a whirlwind of chaos and drama. More than hearts are on the line, and more than Ever will suffer.

Some girls lose their hearts to love.

Some girls lose their minds.

Ever Van Ruysdael could lose her soul.

I really, really wanted to like this story, but it just was not in the cards for me.

Ever is hung up on her best friend, Frankie, and he doesn’t know it.  Unfortunately, he’s been dead for the last two years but is still present in her life as a ghost.  Really makes moving on difficult.  Ever hasn’t had much of a life, she’s been home-schooled ever since the accident that took her best friend, Frankie, and only connects to the outside world through her spunky friend Jess.  Ever’s never dated or even kissed any boys, and she’s seventeen.  Frankie is a constant presence in her life, always around at her house, and the reason she doesn’t like to go anywhere.  He can’t leave.  Her friend Jess tries to get Ever to move on with her life, encouraging her to be interested in boys that actually have a future.  Jess and Ever’s parents are aware of Frankie and even interact with him. 

This situation is about to change when a new boy, Toby, moves into the house once occupied by Frankie.   Ever feels an immediate and intense attraction to him, and apparently he feels the same for Ever, he marches right up to her door after catching her looking, and asks her out (cue eye roll, one of many).  Ever knows she can never have a future with Frankie, they can’t even touch, but she still feels guilty over her feelings for Toby.

I had such a hard time getting into this story and it wasn’t until about 30% that I felt things started getting interesting.  To me, the first 30% was spent on describing the clothing and looks of every character, in EVERY scene; that or mooning over Toby and or Frankie, and lots of blushing.  I really had no idea what direction the plot was moving until I was about half way through the book.  This next part is completely my fault.  I really should have paid more attention to the description of this story before I picked it up.  It would’ve been glaringly obvious that there was going to be a love triangle, a situation I have very little patience for.  But this is not only love triangle, it’s a quadrangle!  Two guys, two girls: there’s Ever and Frankie and Ever and Toby, then there’s Toby and Ariadne.  And Ever can’t seem to choose, flitting back and forth between these two.  I was totally annoyed how quickly things move from one boy to the other!  Plus, you know when you can sort of tell which boy the character is going to end up with, the one you should be rooting for because more time is invested in that boy?  You’re made to like that one just a little more than the other.  Well, in my opinion I was made to root for one, and the other won out in the end. 

There is a mysterious reason that Toby is in town and there is the issue of Frankie being a ghost.  Why can Ever and her family see him?  There were a lot of questions I had about all of this, and not a whole lot of answers.  I was left at the end scratching my head and asking: Why?  I can’t go into my questions because it would spoil the plot, so I’ll just leave it at that.

So this story ticked the boxes on three things I normally can’t stand in a story: insta-love, love triangle, and cliffhangers!  Yes, on top of everything else we have a cliffhanger.  Another pet peeve, while a small one, I just can’t help myself and mention it:  Character names.  I can’t stand it when an author chooses a difficult or almost unpronounceable name, like Ariadne in this case, because every time I come across it, it stops me!  I have to mentally pronounce it each time, and wonder if I’m saying it correctly.  I know, I know, nit-picky!  At any rate,  while in some parts I was mildly entertained by this story, I doubt I’ll be picking up the next in the series. 

Thank you to Curiosity Quills Press and Netgalley for allowing me to read this story.