by Alyson Noël
St. Martin’s Press, $17.99, 320 pages
The elaborate world of Alyson Noël’s Immortals series is back in its fifth and most recent installment. As Ever Bloom, a sixteen year old recently turned immortal, begins training for the fight of her life against an enemy that she created, she struggles with the lies and half truths that seem to surround her relationship with Damen Auguste, her supposed soul mate.
While fans of this series will find nothing to complain about, as the characters remain true to Noël’s first four books and the series continues towards its eventual conclusion in a sixth book finale, a first time reader of this series will be lost. Noël continually refers to unknown characters and subplots that are seemingly irrelevant to this particular book. This fantasy world Noel has created is extremely diverse and complex asking the reader to step so far outside of what we know to be true that unless you begin with the first book you will find yourself with an almost comical, “huh?” look on your face. If you are an avid lover of tween fantasy romance then you will find this book/series entertaining. If you are looking for the next tween phenomenon then this isn’t it.
Reviewed by Rebecca Feuerbacher