Ever is such a likeable character. There's one point in the book (I want tell you because of spoilers) but I did a fist pump. Love it when a girl can stand up for herself!

If you like paranormal romance, this is a good read. ( )

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First of all the cover: beautiful, whimsical, and a little haunting. Exactly the reason I picked up the book. So basically Ever's life just plain sucks. Her crush since forever is living with her but she can't touch him or hold him. He's just thin air. So she pines for him which isn't so unrealistic given the situation but she's ever so distraught about it all. It is quite depressing having him live in your house always out of reach. What the weird thing was that her parents and alive best friend (Jessie - the pink queen) could see him. What's up with that? Definitely different. It always was a bit of trouble because he always had to hide when new people came over especially with the new guy next door.

The new guy's name is Toby which I found so adorable but compared to his demeanor it made no sense. He initially did some things that made my stalker radar blare. And boy do I like crazy people in books so I got excited! This book does have a lot of drama which of course I love and it had a lot of layers of mystery to it. New people showed up to add to the mystery and growing questions in my mind. What I didn't really like about Ever was that she didn't think to ask questions about Toby. She talked on and on about herself and it took Jessie to spell it out for her. Do you really like talking about yourself that much? You know about yourself enough, question the guy! It took her a couple of dates (maybe the second) to realize how old he was which was scary especially since she has no idea who this person is! She convinced her parents so easily too that his age was okay. How are you any way that lucky!? Her parents were weird in the sense that they actually liked each other a lot and liked spending time together so I guess it makes sense they would have that abnormal response.

So. Much. Kissing. She dated this guy for a week and she lets him take control of everything. Letting her heart get away from her. I didn't really mind as much as I have with other books on the way she acted throughout the book. The plot and storyline was so amazing that I just went with it. I really don't think everyone would like this book though. I just happened to not mind with this book but others I have. Books where everything about the book is about touching each other and making out... I won't mention any names. But there was so much going on in this book, so much mystery, and DRAMA! That it wasn't as big of a deal. There was just one moment where I was like NO. You crossed a line. I really don't want to know about you having sex... come on.

Her and Frankie... hmmm... I didn't really see the connection there. They hardly talked with each other for her to be so in love with him. She did meet Toby right away in the book but the book didn't really establish a connection with Frankie and her that I can recognize as something that slipped by her. She did have these nightmares and he was there but that was it. It's not all about the physical even if he can't touch her. I wanted to see them actually having normal conversations from time to time but in the book she was ignoring him all the time so I missed out on that.

Sigh... Jessie, Jessie, Jessie. You go through a lot in this book. She's the pick queen in my mind. She doesn't wear anything other than pink clothes! Her car is even pink. Now I can appreciate the differences of personalities between her and Ever. Ever with her dark clothes and sad look but you can't possibly tell me that wearing pink all the time is better than wearing black. Pink means happy and bubbly which was Jessie but there comes a point in your life where you are not all happy go lucky and you need some black or at least get some red girl! Oh yeah... Ever apparently loves leggings but it was mentioned only like once. Odd thing to write on here but it just struck me as strange. And please ever don't call your shirt a wife beater... there are other words or clothes for that matter. Anyways Jessie is extremely loyal and gets even more riled up for Ever and her problems than she does for hers. I loved this intense loyalty she had, Ever should have reciprocated more. Well, she did have more going on with her life but still. Jessie deserved more than she got.

In the end I would hope that Ever becomes smarter about her choices and starts to take action in her life so she doesn't become a victim or naive. All that happened in this book - the twists and the turns make this book worth reading it and again the drama. All depending on you. I see some potential. I'm trying to make heads or tails of that MEGA cliffhanger that Russo left me with as well as some questions about some things not sought out in the book (hopefully) yet. I would like to see where it goes and hope that Jessie gets some happiness (Yes, I really do like her a lot). Hopefully this trilogy will have even more surprises for me and other readers to discover and unravel with more pretty covers too please! ( )

NOTE: I received the eARC from Netgalley.

Well, where should I start? This is one of those times when I don't know what to say. Well, I do but.. I... umm...gosh. It's hard to write a negative review, but *sigh* I gotta do it anyway.

So here goes...

In this book we meet Ever, this absolutely gorgeous girl, who has no idea how beautiful she is. Too cliche, but you know. Anyway, she's lost her best friend (Frankie) just last year, but he stayed on as a ghost, who almost never speaks. Well, most of the time he's brooding, and in the beginning I had no idea he was a ghost. I thought I was not getting the story right. Well anyway. So Ever's always been in love with him. How totally tragic, right? Well, if it weren't so cliche, a.k.a the impossible love, and if it weren't so badly written I might've actually liked it.

Then the picture enters Toby. He's the lovely, yet bad, boy who moves in next door. And check this out - Ever gets to fall in love with him only after a couple of minutes meetings. I could accept that as an (un)likely possibility if only Ever hadn't sworn that her heart would never belong to anyone but her ghost Frankie. Well, what do you know, she gets to love them both in this really freaktastic love triangle.

But that's not all. Oh no. Tighten your panties because there's more.

Now the picture enters Toby's evil ex-girlfriend who besides being a total slut is also a witch with some mojo skills. That got the whole picture confused beyond proportions.

Several things struck me as insanely stupid, here they are:

1. Frankie never calls Ever by her name. Instead he calls her Dollface. I could seriously gag right about now.
2. Ever umm.. went to bed.. with Toby on the night of her dad's funeral, and then broke up with him.
3. The scene with Ever's friend and her mom and crazy boyfriend blew me off. No realistic reaction from even one of the characters. If you get to read it, you'll see what I mean.

Okay, that's enough I think. All in all, the book flunk my expectations pretty bad. I don't think I'd be picking up the next one in the series, not after all that I mentioned above. ( )

Wanting to read something romantic and a bit different, I picked this story particularly cause the cover. It called me in with the romantic notion of loving someone even in death.

Plot. When I first dived into this book the plot is a bit confusing. The reader is introduce to a girl who can see her dead best friend who she is in love with. I thought no one else knows. Right? Like she is the only one who can see him. Wrong. Apparently other a few other people around him can see him and that bugged me. This particular element in the story lost me. The author did not clarity nor gives reason as to why certain others can see him.

Love. Well, its quite obvious that this two need to be together. They both lost their time to be together. I can see the chemistry between them just waiting to burst. And in comes the love triangle. Yikes! In some parts of the story it worked out and in others it just became dramatic. I’ll leave it up to reader to see how he/she feels about it.

Paranormal twist. Due to the synopsis, I knew that it was a ghost story but this little element of well… I don’t want to give away much but imagine Ghost Busters. Yeah, like that. I wasn’t quite expecting it and since it came out of nowhere, it left me a little emotionally strained. Still, this part of the story did bring depth and more understanding to the story.

Cliffy ending. Yeah, it happen and I suspected too since the little tidbit of ghost buster going on. Did I mention that there is an evil girl bent on power? Yeah, that too. The ending left on a note of dread and anticipation.

Ever consist of a lot of parts that are interesting but not quite satisfying. It consumes itself with drama yet manages to make the reader reader till the very end. A tasteful story of a chance at love that was once lost, Ever is good. ( )

Seventeen-year old Ever Van Ruysdael has a secret: she’s been in love with her childhood best friend, Frankie, for years and never got the chance to tell him. Two years ago, Frankie and Ever were involved in a car accident and Frankie died. He helped Ever stay alive by guiding her to safety and Frankie became ghost following his death. He’s been living with Ever and her family since that night. Although she knows they can never be together she longs for a boyfriend or to experience the feelings of falling in love. When Frankie’s father sells his house, she quickly catches the eye of the new neighbor’s son, Toby. Soon her and Toby are spending time together and she has to grapple with her new feelings for him while keeping him a secret from Frankie. Things are not what they seem and when Ever finds out Toby’s true motivates, she has to deal with the death of a beloved family member and the reality that Frankie may be back.

Jessa Russo does a good job of engaging the reader immediately and Ever is well written. In terms of characterization, I really liked Ever’s best friend, Jessie. Your heart aches for what she goes through regarding her family life. Putting myself into Ever’s shoes and if my best friend had a life like her’s, I would do everything I can to be there for her. In that one scene with Jessie’s mother and her boyfriend, I’m glad Jessie had the support of Ever’s parents.

There are a lot of unanswered questions. The first one is regarding Frankie and how easily he just adjusted to being a ghost and living with Ever’s family. I wish Russo would have explained a little more of her family’s reaction to having him around. Also, why did he focus on Ever and not his own family? I believe a lot of the heartache his parents experienced could have been avoided, but alas in order to have this plot, he needed to be with Ever. There’s also a line that had me scratching my head. When Ever’s mother is standing next to Ariadne, Ever makes note that both of them look alike. That unsettled me a bit because it’s never explored and there’s mention of Ever having a sister dying before she was born. Furthermore, there’s an incident involving Ever’s father and Toby says it was an accident and it wasn’t supposed to happen. Why the change in plans?

I debated heavily with the rating and often bordered on a three / four rating. Ultimately, I went with the three because of some unanswered questions and for the first quarter of the novel. Ever started strong, but it just fell flat with the constant feelings Ever had regarding Toby. It picked up once Ariadne made an appearance and even though she felt like a caricature at times, she was the second intriguing character. Frankie for me stole the show and I wish we had more of his perspective. He’s the first to warn Ever about Toby and says he’s not a good guy. Why is that Frankie? Did Frankie have an idea of Toby’s employment? What was his reaction towards Ariadne when was he given the choice of what ultimately becomes Ariadne’s gift to Ever?

Ever ends on a cliffhanger, which I won’t reveal, but I’m looking forward to reading book 2, Evade, because I’d love to know what happens to Ever and Frankie. The premise is interesting and if you’re a fan of the paranormal genre, then I recommend this book. ( )