Through the Ever Night Review

Title: Through the Ever Night (Under the Never Sky #2)

Author: Veronica Rossi

Date of Publication: January 8, 2013

Formats Available: Hardcover, Paperback, E-Book

Buy This Book: Amazon

Synopsis: It's been months since Aria last saw Perry, months since Perry was named Blood Lord of the Tides, and Aria was charged with an impossible mission. Now, finally, they are about to be reunited. But their reunion is far from perfect. The Tides don't take kindly to Aria, a former Dweller. And with the worsening Aether storms threatening the tribe's precarious existence, Aria begins to fear that leaving Perry behind might be the only way to save them both.

Threatened by false friends, hidden enemies, and powerful temptations, Aria and Perry wonder, Can their love survive through the ever night?

In this second book in her spellbinding Under the Never Sky trilogy, Veronica Rossi combines fantasy and dystopian elements to create a captivating love story as perilous as it is unforgettable.

My Review:

I wanted to like this novel, I really did. Second books in trilogies are always a tricky thing and Through the Ever Night was hit especially hard by the difficulty in creating a compelling story while setting up for the climax of the third book. The plot was rough and Rossi did much more telling than she did showing. Likewise Aria and Perry felt like completely different characters, making it difficult to care about them throughout the novel.

I was especially disappointed in the plot. I loved the idea behind it, the idea that technology was so powerful to take over everyone's lives so completely that they couldn't even survive in the outside. However this novel took a violent shift toward the Outside and much of the original idea was lost beneath boring filler events. Perry's side of the story was especially rough; his side of the story was almost all talking and complaining while at least Aria was doing something.

Aria and Perry were especially hard to relate to in Through the Ever Night. They felt more distant and bland, like they were hiding the parts of their personalities that made them interesting to read about in the first place. Along with the fact that either of them hardly did anything I was extremely annoyed by both of them by the end of the novel. The most real character to me was Roar, I actually enjoyed the parts of the novel he was in and I felt that he had the strongest personality out of any of them.

I do realize that second books aren't always the best so I'm not going to completely write off this series but Through the Ever Night was an especially rough second book. Even the parts of the novel that I believe were supposed to be exciting fell flat and that made getting into this novel really difficult. The plot is still there enough to finish up with a great finale novel but it was definitely diluted through the boring and filler events of this novel.

Fans of Under the Never Sky may be disappointed by this novel but it is no doubt necessary for the series. I still plan on finishing the series but it was a tough call to make. This novel was definitely not my favorite.

2/5