I finished my re-read of The Ever King by LJ Andrews last night. It was just what I needed to cure the book hangover still left from Until I Die. I loved this book when I read it two years ago and first discovered LJ Andrews and her incredible world of Viking fairy tale retellings. I picked up on a few details I had missed or forgotten. It was a great refresh so I can go on to read The Ever Queen and the Mist Thief which hadn't been published yet when I read The Ever King the first time. The Ever King is separate but interconnected to the Broken Kingdoms series. The FMC Livia is the daughter of Valen and Elise who are the couple the first three books follow in the Broken Kingdoms. The events in The Ever Seas occur about 20 years after the first book in the Broken Kingdoms. There are enough little re-capping moments that you wouldn't need to read TBK first. I didn't (initially) but it does help to know the back story for all the parents of the characters in The Ever Seas books.
The MMC, Erik, in this book wants to prove himself as king. He was seen as weak by his father and believed what Thorvald told him. Thorvald was killed while in the Earth Fae realm by Valen when Erik was about four or five. Erik was taken back to the Ever and was further corrupted by his uncle, Thorvald's brother, Herald. The rulers of the Ever were all a bunch of jerks, essentially. Herald's son Tait also suffered his abusive nature. Before Valen killed Thorvald, Valen took the Mantle of the Ever, which held power. 10 years after Thorvald was killed Herald led another attack on the Earth Fae realm at the behest of Devorin, who had corrupted him. These events are all described in the last couple of books in The Broken Kingdom series, but only alluded to in The Ever King. At this time Erik and Tait are captured and Herald is killed. This is when Erik and Livia first meet. Livia feels drawn to Erik and goes to his cell to read folk tales to him. She also gives him a talisman to remember her by. Valen and the other leaders decide to let Erik and Tait both go back to the Ever because they are merely young teenagers at this time. The portal that connects the two realms was barricaded so neither side could interact with each other. So when the book opens another decade has passed since those events. Livia accidently breaks the barrier separating the two realms which in turns calls Erik back to the Earth Fae realm. He comes back thinking he is being drawn to Thorvald's mantle. He plans to take it back from Valen and kill him in the process. When he gets to the fort where he had been drawn, he finds that Valen is not there but Livia is. He has not forgotten her and he winds up abducting her to get back at Valen. He takes her through the Chasm (the barrier) and they travel through the Ever to the palace. They make a couple stops along the way and it's revealed to Livia that the Ever is dying and no one can figure out where this blight called The Darkening is coming from. Livia being half fae has power somewhat similar to her fathers. (The magic system is really explained well in the Broken Kingdoms so knowing that back story helps to understand the magic described in The Ever Seas. It is pretty well described here, but you have more info if you know the lineage basically.) Erik and Livia discover that Livia can heal the land taken by the Darkening, which shouldn't be possible because she is an Earth Fae. Obviously as Livia is aboard ship with Erik she starts warming up to him. She starts seeing little pieces of his black heart and the pull between them gets very strong for reasons neither of them understand.
Like LJs other books she does an excellent job of creating characters and especially side characters that are amazingly well written and have a ton of depth. The world building falls in seamlessly with the plot and its not overbearing. There is banter for days and the story is always gripping and well paced. The plot twist in this book absolutely caught me off guard the first time I read this book. This time, since I knew who he/she was, I paid note especially to see if the clues were there. There was only one tiny interaction that could point to them, possibly, so it is a great twist in my opinion. I immediately started the next book The Ever Queen last evening. It was so great to be able to just grab the next book instead of having that KU screen pop up telling me that the next book wasn't available yet. It also occurred to me, while re-reading the Ever King, that there are quite a few similarities between The Ever King and In the Veins of the Drowning. Not plot necessarily, mostly vibes, which is why I loved In the Veins of the Drowning so much. That's it on this one. Happy reading.
-Q
Comments
Post a Comment