Ever After (The Hollows #11) by Kim Harrison

Published: January 22nd 2013 

Publisher: Harper Voyager

Length: 435 pages

My Rating: 5 stars

Blurb:

The ever after, the demonic realm that parallels the human world, is shrinking. If it disappears completely, so does all magic. It’s up to witch-turned-daywalking-demon Rachel Morgan to avert catastrophe and keep life from changing… for the worse.

While saving the world is important, it isn’t Rachel’s only motivation. There’s also the small fact that she caused the ley line to rip in the first place, setting off a chain reaction of unfortunate events. That little mistake has made her life forfeit unless she can fix it. It’s also made her more than a few enemies, including the most powerful demon in the ever after—a terrifying entity who eats souls and now has an insatiable appetite for her. He’s already kidnapped her friend and goddaughter to lure her out, and if Rachel doesn’t give herself up soon, they’ll die.

But Rachel has more than a few impressive and frightening skills of her own, and she isn’t going to hand over her soul and her life without one hell of a fight. She’s also got a surprise: elven tycoon Trent Kalamack. With this unlikely ally beside her—a prospect both thrilling and unnerving—she’s going to return to the ever after, kick some demon butt, rescue her loved ones… and prevent an apocalypse before it’s too late. Or, at least that’s the plan…

My Review:

Ever After was action from beginning to end. Rachel is embracing her demon magic, but she has lost her spark. She seems broken down in this book and is blamed by others for things she had no part in. The elves, gargoyles and demons are the primary focus of this book. While I love the demons and the gargoyles are fantastic, I’m not fond of the elves. They believe themselves to be above everyone else and have some pretty damn weird rituals. 

This book is Ivy-lite, for which I am very thankful. Even after eleven books, she still hasn’t grown on me. Trent is now a full-blown main character in the series, and he features heavily in this book. It’s clear he is intended to be Rachel’s love interest, I’m disappointed, but it is what it is.

We lose some crucial characters in the course of this book, I wasn’t a fan anyway, so no significant loss.  This book is precisely what we have come to expect from this series, action-packed, emotive, and thrilling.

*Blurb and cover image via Goodreads.