Needs More Mythology 
 I figured that was going to be my review opener until I hit the last portion of the book. The connection between the realm of the gods and our world wasn't made clear upfront, but wouldn't you know...the author had to sneak some of it in on us at the last minute. 
 Buried alive... 
 Nikki (Becks) is back in town after a long period of time away. 100 years underground, to be exact. Yet, in everyone else's perspective, they think she's only been gone a matter of months. When heartache caused Nikki to bargain for time in the Everneath as a way to cope with the pain, she was forced to pay the price - one which might not come with an 'out clause'. Is it possible for her to regain her life at all, now that she's living on borrowed time? 
 This is another case of a story which had good bones, but suffered from a little bit of a deficiency when it came to character depth. No one in this story truly grabbed me, other than Cole (of course it would figure that I'd be curious about the presumed villain). I feel somewhat guilty that the characters of Jack and Cole kept making me think of Dank and Leif from the Existence trilogy, because this was a huge hurdle for me to get over, considering how I wasn't a big fan of Existence. Jack was a combination of the old boyfriend and Dank, while Cole was Leif (although the rock star thing was switched, with the villain being the musician this time). However, in the case of Everneath, the story had a touch more finesse. Even if you weren't a fan of Existence, you might still be able to find something to enjoy about Everneath. 
 Although it took me almost an entire book to warm up to Jack, the last scene with him at the end of the book melted my heart and appealed to the romantic in me. But wouldn't it figure that of course I'm hopelessly and recklessly vibing on Cole instead. I know it's wrong, but I can't help it! 
 "You don't give my job enough credit. It's really hard to convince a girl to follow me. The average pickup lines don't work so well. 'Hey, wanna get coffee? And then spend an eternity getting the life force sucked out of you?' They don't go for it." 
 Aww hell, Nikki. I may not get why you did what you did, but at least you made me think of Charlie Sheen with this gem : One day is all I deserve, and I've had so many already. I've won. I've won! I had the urge to put up one of his "DUH WINNING" pics but then I saw this and felt it appropriate for the story : 
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 I'm guessing that's about how Nikki looked after being drained of energy, too. 
 Surprisingly enough, I was okay with the back-and-forth timeline. In this particular case, the "waiting" to find certain things out sort of lent an air of mystery to the book. The author had a way of bringing us between the past and the present with little loss of cohesion. There is a fair amount of skill involved in doing this without confusing the readers. I'll give a thumbs up for that. 
 "Where do we go from here?" 
 "Nowhere, really," I whispered. "it doesn't change anything." 
 I wasn't in love with the story but I was in like with the ideas presented. Because there was a great buildup to finding out some answers while still leaving many things a mystery for now, this ended up being the factor which had me wanting to keep reading. Even when I wasn't completely attaching to the characters, I was fascinated with the idea of what was to come. The end of the book is where the story finally hit an AHAH! moment for me. Then I had an oh hell yeah, I can't wait to see what happens next feeling. I'm happy that book 2 is just around the corner now because I have to believe that we're on our way up to the top of the roller-coaster now, just about to plunge over that cliff. 
 The pain of loss was fresh every night, but I no longer begged to have it taken away. I owned it.