Through the Ever Night by Veronica Rossi

Through the Ever Night by Veronica Rossi


Rating: 4.5 stars

Synopsis: WORLDS KEPT THEM APART. DESTINY BROUGHT THEM TOGETHER. Aria has struggled to build a life for herself outside Reverie. It hasn't been easy adjusting to life in the wilderness, but the struggle has been worth it with Perry by her side. But Perry has other challenges. His people are looking  to him for answers. Answers about what happened to his nephew, and what's happening to their world. And they don't trust the privileged Aria, one of the enemy, in their midst. Soon Perry'll be forced to choose between the tribe that looks to him for leadership and the girl that looks to him for love.

 

Review: I loved this book a lot more than the first. I thought the plot was a lot tighter on a whole than the first one and the issues I had with the timing of information in the previous book were completely gone. This book made me so glad I picked it up in the book shop and forced me to start reading such an amazing series.

 

Aria and Perry's relationship was so much more believable for me in this book. The first book was more about the struggle between the pair as they got to know each other and so the relationship didn't happen till the end and felt almost rushed to me in places. In this book, we pick up in Perry's POV right where Aria left off in book 1 with the two reuniting and from there I just loved it. I thought it was such a sweet relationship and what I loved is neither of them is particularly over protective of the other. Yes they want to look out for each other but, if you think about Tris and Four's relationship - the over protectiveness from both of them leads to trust issues and miscommunication and I really didn't like that in their relationship. Aria and Perry don't do that - they know each other has a job to do (another thing about them, they don't keep secrets which just saves so much time) and they completely respect that.

 

This was a very relationship heavy book. We finally meet the elusive Liv and we get to understand her story a little bit better and understand why she ran from Sable and Roar in book 1. The relationship she has with Roar is so sweet and the friendship she begins with Aria is equally beautiful. Aria actually says in the book that in an ideal world her and Liv would have been good friends and I totally agree with that.

 

What I thought was really interesting though was the fact that, while the book is relationship heavy, the characters don't dwell on it. It's more of a subtle undertone throughout the book. When Aria and Perry are apart, of course they think about each other but they're also completely focused on their tasks. This is something I haven't seen much of in YA fiction but I really loved it. It meant we got to learn more about the characters morals but equally about the world that they lived in. The Tides need a leader and we really get a first hand look at how difficult it is being that leader and trying to keep 400 people happy and earning their loyalty. There wasn't a point in the book where I wanted to skip pages to get to the next chapter which can happen when books focus on the mundane of the world - the struggle to survive - but I was completely hooked. I wanted to learn as much as possible about the characters and their lives and I thought Veronica just wrote the book perfectly. I did also like that Veronica didn't include the good old love triangle. There were hints at it - mainly from Perry when Kirra starts putting doubts in his head but we avoided it and I'm all kinds of thankful for that. I really don't like love triangles.

 

Cinder is such an interesting character. The idea that he can harness the power of the Aether is so intriguing and I love that in this book we learn more about Cinder, his power and his past. In book 1 he just kind of appeared and I really loved that Perry has taken him into the Tides and is trying to help him survive. For a total stranger (who, let's face it, could have almost killed him in the last book) I think it's so sweet. Even giving him a birthday because he doesn't know when his is and I loved him and Willow and Flea the dog (because Willow & Flea are kind of a package deal). I think the Tribe will be really good for Cinder and I can't wait to see what will happen to him in the next book

 

The only thing I found confusing came right at the end of the book. In book 1, Aria tells us that Dwellers can't survive on the outside. She can because her father was an Outsider, but normal Dwellers can't do this - they die. Yet at the end of the book, a number of Dwellers are broken out of Reverie and appear to be fine. A little shell shocked and scared yes but dying? No. So - do Dwellers die on the outside or don't they? This was the only discrepancy that I noticed in the book but with the emphasis put on it in the first book it was quite big. Maybe when I re-read the books, I'll better understand and I'll have missed something but, after the first read this was the only disappointing and somewhat confusing thing I found.

 

Overall, this book was a lot better than the first one. The plot was tighter and the characters so much more rounded and real. I loved getting to see the relationships and world evolve and I can't wait to pick up book 3.

 

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