Review: Through the Ever Night by Veronica Rossi

Review: Through the Ever Night by Veronica Rossi
Goodreads 
Release date: January 8th, 2013
Publisher: HarperCollins
Series: #2 in the Under the Never Sky trilogy
Source: Purchased
Rating: One of the best sequels I've ever read. Second Book Syndrome, Shmecond Book Syndrome.



It's been months since Aria learned of her mother's death.

Months since Perry became Blood Lord of the Tides, and months since Aria last saw him.

Now Aria and Perry are about to be reunited. It's a moment they've been longing for with countless expectations. And it's a moment that lives up to all of them. At least, at first.

Then it slips away. The Tides don't take kindly to former Dwellers like Aria. And the tribe is swirling out of Perry's control. With the Aether storms worsening every day, the only remaining hope for peace and safety is the Still Blue. But does this haven truly exist?

Threatened by false friends 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 sci-fi elements to create a captivating adventure-and a love story as perilous as it is unforgettable.

 My review for Under the Never Sky

The post about the time I binge read this whole series in three days

Warning: this review contains spoilers for Under the Never Sky

Book two in the Under the Never Sky series marked the moment I truly understood why this series is so rabidly beloved. Don't get me wrong, I loved book one. But book two? Book two wended its way inside me. Book two hurt me in ways only my favorite books can. TTEN marked the moment these characters because real people to me, and I shed actual real people tears over the things that happened to them (you know what you did, Rossi). Through The Ever Night will now occupy a very special place on my shelf, somewhere within easy access so I can stroke it and cry over it whenever the urge strikes me.

 

For me, the first book dragged in places, and the end fizzled out a bit. But in TTEN, I loved the plot, and the end is action-packed and intense, as it should be. Aria and Perry are separated for a good chunk of this, and while this might seem like bad news to the shippers, this actually leads to a better, tenser plot. Perry's struggling ruling the Tides, who don't accept Aria or his leadership as the Aether storms get worse. (We also get really good world building sections explaining what the Aether and the Unity are. HUZZAH! What's more, we get to see more of what life for Aria was like, or would have been like, in the pods, which was a primary complaint of mine in UtNS.)

A grieving Aria, after some struggly things happen (awful struggly things that make me gasp and moan), goes off on an adventure with my boyfriend Roar to visit/rescue Liv, Perry's sister and the woman standing between me and my future with Roar. If you recall, she was married off to another Blood Lord, Sable, who is his own fascinating character and whom I sadly cannot say a word about. We finally get to meet Liv for the first time in the series, unless you've read Roar + Liv which you absolutely should. My review of it will be going up soon, and it's brilliant, you guys. You'll definitely want to read it because TTEN. It'll give you all the Roar feels like I needed any more.



And besides, it's through this adventure that my favorite relationship of all evolves into... well, my favorite relationship of all. Roar and Aria. Oh, I've never shipped a friendship like this one. Roar and Aria.  Excuse me while I go cry somewhere over how much I adore them. They go through some tremendous crap in this book, but my god, is their (TOTALLY PLATONIC NO REALLY PLATONIC) friendship absolutely beautiful. And somehow their (TOTALLY PLATONIC I PROMISE I REALLY PROMISE) love strengthens Aria's relationship with Perry, which is also deepened and developed in this installment.

And then of course Rossi personally victimizes you and reaches into your chest with her authorial claws and pulls your our soul and feeds it to the sharks with laser beams on their heads and pulls out your heartstrings and chops them into bit and WHYYYYYYYYYYYYY.



(Oh, but it's so good. But still whyyyyyy.)

Generally in trilogies, the second book pales a bit compared to the first. The reader somehow loses momentum, or the plots slow down, or the shine wears off. Not so at all in this one. The stakes get higher, the characters develop, and you become so much more invested. I think I would have lost my mind if I didn't have the chance to jump right into Into the Still Blue upon finishing this. It left me hungry and desperate for me. I had to see if my babies were all right after all that went down in TTEN and all that was set up to come.

Oh, and really do read Roar + Liv first. It just might be the best thing Veronica Rossi's ever written,--which, considering how incredible Through the Ever Night is, is really saying something.