Through the Ever Night by Veronica Rossi

Through the Ever Night by Veronica Rossi

ARC borrowed from Jen from Jenuine Cupcakes!

Release Date:  January 8, 2013

Reviewed by:  Middle Sis Jenn

The Sisters Say:  Hypnotic and Thrilling, With a dash of the sweetest romance ever!

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.

Veronica Rossi—you’re amazing!!!!  Through the Ever Night is a breath of fresh air—dazzling and heartfelt.  It will easily be one of the best of 2013!  From Chapter 1, I was catapulted right back into a world full of duplicitous loyalties, crumbling hopes, and passionate romance—a world where trust can be just as dangerous as the aether.

The story starts right where Under the Never Sky leaves off, and right away, we are rewarded with the brilliant love between Perry and Aria.  I just love how Veronica doesn’t break you by having them become victim to miscommunication or deceit right away like many others 2^nd books in a series do.  When that happens, for me, I have a hard time enjoying the book because I’m too distraught about the star-crossed lovers.  I just want to give Veronica a shout out for being able to deliver an amazing and breath-taking story without falling into that cliché.  Now, that doesn’t mean everything is all hunky-dory and doves in sky and frolicking through a field of poppies.  On the contrary, Perry and Aria do find themselves being thrust apart and challenged, but it’s done in a way that won’t leave you cursing and threatening to stop reading then and there.

What’s also great about this 2^nd book is that we get to know Perry, Aria, and Roar! even better.  You see them more clearly as individuals, instead of people who are so tied to another that they cannot go on living.  I liked seeing their strength, even in the face of distance and tribulation and death, because it made their missions and their relationships all the more meaningful.  I loved getting to know Roar more, too.  I found myself laughing out loud with him at times, and then crying for him a moment later.  He’s this big brute of a man, but there’s a softer side to him that cries out for help—and I wanted so badly to read through the pages and tell him all would be okay.

Aria is so much stronger in this book than in UTNS.  Don’t get me wrong, I think she was kick butt in the first book, but she has really grown into her own skin in this book.  She’s confident and not to be messed with, and you can see her agility in the way she moves, the way she speaks, and the way others speak about her.  She isn’t whiney like many other female main characters are when things go wrong, instead she is hopeful and nostalgic.  So we see her pain and longing in her memories of the past, but she never gives up or breaks down.  She puts on her brave face, she squares her shoulders, and she takes a step forward, knowing that she must fight if she’s to come out the other end alive.

And Perry.  I just love him so much!  He seems so different than other swoony guys, and I don’t know why this is because he shares so many attributes that my other book boyfriends do—he’s handsome and overprotective, sympathetic when he needs to be, kick butt strong with an in your face temper when its warranted, loyal and unwavering, and full of passion an love.  But there’s just something about him, maybe the way all these attributes interact, that makes him different from Aiden, Daemon, Jace, Adam, etc.  I can’t seem to put what it is into words, but just know, that this guy will sweep you off your feet.

Perhaps what I love even more about Veronica is her endings—they don’t kill you!  I am not a fan of cliffhanger endings because then I have to toss and turn for a year wondering what’s going to happen next.  Veronica knows how to end a book where there is still much to be accomplished and discovered in the next installment, but without making you want to scream.  Her endings make me smile and feel like everything is going to be okay, even if the aether is threatening to tear the world apart. 

Resolute.

Chilling.

Romantic.

Through the Ever Night is everything I look for in a dystopian novel, and it breaks my heart that I must wait an entire year (at least) for the next book.  I just don’t know if I can survive without Perry…and Aria…and Roar….Cinder….and all the new (and old) faces we see in this heart-wrenching sequel.