Uptown Oracle Reads… Everless

In the kingdom of Sempera, time is currency. The rich tax the poor to the hilt, extending their own lives by centuries. A decade ago, she and her father were servants at Everless, the Gerlings’ palatial estate, until a fateful accident forced them to flee in the dead of night. When Jules discovers that her father is dying, she knows that she must return to Everless to earn more time for him before she loses him forever. But going back to Everless brings more danger—and temptation—than Jules could have ever imagined. Soon she’s caught in a tangle of violent secrets. Her decisions have the power to change her fate—and the fate of time itself.

Time is a currency is such a weird and wonderful concept for Holland to play around with. I was instantly drawn in from the first page because I wanted to learn more about this magic system. How does it work? How did they bind time with blood and then currency? Why would you bind these together? and the more I read the more intrigued I was. There’s old legends in Sempera which tell of the origins of this magic and I can’t wait to learn more in the future installments.

At the start though, I struggled with full comprehension as some descriptions were confusing. The pace was slow as the world building consisted of a lot of telling with little to no showing at this point. Even the legend of the alchemist was not clear at one point as my friend pointed out she wasn’t sure whether it was referring to having multiple alchemists or whether it was a typo.

The characters were extremely interesting and I wanted to get to know more of them. It wasn’t clear cut who the good and bad guys are, and by the end of the book we know that some people are not inherently good or bad. We have these characters who do bad things but are good, and ‘bad’ characters who are doing some good. As we’re on this journey with Jules, we see these things through her eyes, her prejudices and her judgments which makes me want to get to know the other characters more as we didn’t fully know them, but only what they showed to Jules.

The one thing that irked me when reading was that in this world time is quite literally money. But Jules spends way too much time swooning and thinking about a guy who doesn’t actually seem all that great. She hates the aristocracy and their wastefulness but of course this one guy that she’s madly in love with (See: obsessed) couldn’t possibly be a worse person because of these same traits. It just wasn’t something I could get on with and made me dislike Jules quite often.

After the initial slow pick up this turns into a fast paced book full of mysteries to be solved and plot twists to smack you in the face. I enjoyed the build up to the end and how events unfolded to give you hints at what was to happen but the surprises are still there. Overall I think the excitement for this book was well earned as it is a very interesting read and it’s got the excitement and mystery factor in.

Positives

+ Intriguing magic system

+ Characters were interesting

+ Fast paced and full of mystery

Negatives

– Confusing descriptions at the start

– Protagonist spent a lot of time swooning over a guy

I received Everless* by Sara Holland from the publisher. This is an unbiased and honest review.