Through the Ever Night - Review

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

By: Veronica Rossi

Published: January 8, 2013 by HarperCollins

352 pages

Source: Personal Kindle Library

(Goodreads / Amazon)

Summary:

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:
Two similarities stood out to me about my feelings about books 1 and 2.  The first is that I found it to be slow in the beginning and finished big.  The second is that just as in book 1, Through the Ever Night is told from the POV's of Perry and Aria, alternating chapters between the two.  I highly enjoyed hearing from both of their perspectives as it gives great insight to their own insecurities and challenges.  In book 2 we see a lot of growth in Perry as he is now Blood Lord of the Tides and has to prove himself beyond just words as his father and brother did, but through his actions.  He makes tremendous personal growth as he discovers he is not like his father, nor his brother Vale, but he is equally good at leading his people and perhaps a better suited leader than they were.

Aria has some tough decisions to make as she seeks to protect those she loves.  Because of this Perry and Aria are apart for the majority of this book - which let's admit, we love Perry and Aria so without them together there is a weight of sadness that rests over a lot of the book.  Through this part of their journey they are both able to learn where their strengths lie by doing what needs to be done for the ones they care about, and having to accomplish these things without each other.

This series is a great dystopian story.  It's about a world that is crumbling due to the Aether storms but it's mostly about the people who rally together to ensure their safety, the people who give up hope because their fear cripples them, and the people who will stop at nothing to survive even if that means they are the only survivors.  Everyone, both dwellers and savages are faced with the decision of how they are going to survive through the storms.

There were times I felt a hopelessness of how this is going to turn out and then times of feeling a sense of safety, however minimal and unreliable it may be.  There are characters you'll absolutely love (Perry, Aria, Roar, Cinder) and characters you will loathe (Kirra, Sable, Hess...) and characters you begin to have more respect for than in book 1 (Liv, Soren).

Favorite Quotes:
Aria: "...nothing was better than real."

Aria: "Be ready, because when I see you, I'll never let you go again."

Liv: "I will kill you if you hurt him," she said, her voice calm, unemotional.  It was a threat.  It was information.  A consequence."

Live: "You want to know what I've done for the past year?  I worked every day at forgetting Roar.  I shut out every smile, every kiss, every stupid, perfect thing he ever said to make me laugh.  I buried all of it.  It took me a year to stop thinking about him.  A year to stop missing him enough to come here and face Sable."

"Love is a rebellious bird that nobody can tame..."

"Leaders need to see clearly in darkness...You already do that."

"The truth was that no matter how hard he tried not to, he did miss her.  Always."

"She needed a place with falcon carvings on the sill.  She needed a place to belong."

"...love was like the waves in the sea, gentle and good sometimes, rough and terrible at others, but that it was endless and stronger than the sky and the earth and everything in between."

"...the people she loved were what gave her life shape, and comfort, and meaning.  Perry and Roar were home."

Final Rating - 4 stars

And in the words of Veronica Rossi in her Acknowledgments at the end: "Now, are you ready?  It's time to head Into the Still Blue..."  Expected publication - 2014.  Seriously, a year to wait to see what happens?!?  Ugh - sincerely, a disgruntled fan.