I received this novel as an advanced copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Any book that talks about the concept of heaven and hell, or has an interpretive twist on the Bible is going to pique my interest. I’m like this about anything that is religious but also about anything mythological. Lately, I’ve been looking for a new book in this area so I was really happy to receive this novel from the publisher and NetGalley!
For as long as Evey can remember, she has had dreams where she is watching an execution. Every night, she dreads going to sleep, terrified of visions of blood and corpses. Soon she begins to question her sanity. By day, Evey tries to maintain the facade of a normal senior in high school – but even her best friend, Caroline, knows that everything is not alright. When a handsome stranger joins her class, Evey feels an instant connection with him. She knows him on a deeper level, and maybe, just maybe, he can give her the answers she is desperately seeking. When he tells her about their connection to each other, Evey realizes that her life is far more complicated and involves an ancient secret. The only way to escape and find happiness is to outrun the greatest darkness of all – before it claims their lives.
This story is definitely interesting. There are lots of cool elements to it and it ties in various time points in history when defining Evey’s life. This novel has presented itself as a horror-romance, and I have to say that it lives up to that. The romance between Evey and Conrad was very sweet and cute, very much the kind of thing a teenager dreams about. With that being said, I think this would suit a teen audience much better than an adult one, because everything is just a lot more simplistic. The conversations don’t have that maturity to them that you would see in adult fiction. I know that Evey and Conrad are the main characters in this story but having some more depth in the other characters would have been nice. There were quite a few inconsistencies during the story where Evey and Conrad would be talking in the presence of other characters, but the author had completely forgotten about the other people present and just continued to move on with the story. If those are fixed before final print, that would make the story flow better. I also think that there needs to be more transitioning; there was a choppiness to it that could have been avoided. The ending was done well, with a nice cliffhanger so I’m looking forward to seeing what happens next to Evey! Overall, an interesting premise with a few technical issues that need to be parsed out to make this into an enjoyable read!
Happy reading ~