Everless: Book 1

By Author / Illustrator

Sara Holland

Genre

Adventure

Age range(s)

11+

Publisher

Hachette Children's Group

ISBN

9781408353394

Format

Hardback

Published

04-01-2018

Synopsis

THE TOP TEN BESTSELLER

Time is a prison. She is the key. Packed with danger, temptation and desire - a perfect read for fans of The Red Queen.

In the land of Sempera, the rich control everything - even time. Ever since the age of alchemy and sorcery, hours, days and years have been extracted from blood and bound to iron coins. The rich live for centuries; the poor bleed themselves dry.

Jules and her father are behind on their rent and low on hours. To stop him from draining himself to clear their debts, Jules takes a job at Everless, the grand estate of the cruel Gerling family.

There, Jules encounters danger and temptation in the guise of the Gerling heir, Roan, who is soon to be married. But the web of secrets at Everless stretches beyond her desire, and the truths Jules must uncover will change her life for ever ... and possibly the future of time itself.

'Sara Holland is a fierce storyteller. An intoxicating blend of blood, secrets, and haunting mythology, Everless gives new and terrifying meaning to the phrase running out of time.' Stephanie Garber, New York Times and Sunday Times bestselling author of Caraval

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Reviews

In Everless, time really is money. As forms of punishment, people have their blood drained from them in order to lose years from their lives. It's a bizarre form of ritual that keeps everyone in check and everyone in a constant state of panic. People with money have nothing to fear and can potentially live forever. They don't need to give up their blood, it's protected by a well-established system meant to keep the powerful in charge and everyone else under their boot heels. However, people like Jules Ember have to literally bleed themselves dry in order to pay the landlords what they are due. Jules's father is sick so in order to help pay for his medicine, she gets a job at Everless, a massive estate owned by the wealthiest family in the land, the Gerlings. As Jules wanders the grounds, she discovers hidden secrets buried within the walls. Family secrets that her father wanted to keep from her. With its epic scope, Everless is the kind of land that you can get lost in. A land where nobody is who they say they are and everyone can potentially have a dagger at your back. It can be tricky to invent a believable fantasy world that grabs readers by the collar and demands their attention, but Sara Holland has done it with this book. In the Library that I work at, students have a craving for relatable characters no matter what kind of world or situation they find themselves in. I think that Jules is definitely a character that the students will love, she is smart, ambitious and a great heroine that the students will fall in love with. Fans of the Three Dark Crowns series by Kendare Blake and the Red Queen series by Victoria Aveyard will really love this compelling new series. 368 pages / Ages 12+ / Reviewed by Lucas Maxwell, school librarian.