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    Neverfall
    Neverfall
    Neverfall
    Ebook129 pages2 hours

    Neverfall

    By Brodi Ashton

    3.5/5

    ()

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    About this ebook

    A thrilling new novella from the author of the Everneath series!

    Jack is trapped for eternity in the Tunnels while Nikki has managed to evade Cole's grasp . . . for now. But Cole is more desperate than ever to find answers about Nikki, his best chance for taking over the throne of the underworld. How did she survive the Feed? Can Cole find another Forfeit like her who can survive it too?

    Cole's quest leads him to the other side of the world, to a mysterious, dangerous society known as the Delphinians, whose price for information might be higher than Cole can pay—a price that could destroy Nikki. But when Cole attempts to steal the answers instead, his mission ends in disaster. Faced with centuries in a Delphinian dungeon, Cole is confronted with questions he's been too scared to ask himself: Is he really obsessed with the throne—or is he obsessed with Nikki? And can she really give him a new beginning as the Everneath's king . . . or will she instead bring about his tragic end?

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateDec 26, 2012
    ISBN9780062236418
    Neverfall
    Author

    Brodi Ashton

    The Lady Janies are made up of New York Times bestselling authors Brodi Ashton, Cynthia Hand, and Jodi Meadows. They first met in 2012, when their publishers sent them on a book tour together, and they hit it off so well they decided to write My Lady Jane so they could go on book tours together all the time. Between the three of them they’ve written more than twenty published novels, a bunch of novellas, a handful of short stories, and a couple of really bad poems. They’re friends. They’re writers. They’re fixing history by rewriting one sad story at a time. Learn more at ladyjanies.com. 

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    Reviews for Neverfall

    3.5/5

    53 ratings7 reviews

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    • 3/5
      Just finished this novella.

      It was good. Not great..but I am glad I read it...It was good to read Cole's side of things..

      I read Everbound first so I already know what happens after this but if I had read this first...I would have thought Cole had a heart...And I think to a certain degree he does, but for what ever reason, he just ends up the jerk...

      But I do think he loves Nikki, in his own way...but he feels he has to pull the'tricks' to get what he wants because he knows sh want do it any other way...

      But, I guess I might be saying too much for those who may not have read the series...so I will just stop here and just say...The books are at least worth the attempt to read...

      I guess I will wait patiently for Evertrue and hopefully I will get through it when it comes out... :-)

    • 3/5
      Just finished this novella.

      It was good. Not great..but I am glad I read it...It was good to read Cole's side of things..

      I read Everbound first so I already know what happens after this but if I had read this first...I would have thought Cole had a heart...And I think to a certain degree he does, but for what ever reason, he just ends up the jerk...

      But I do think he loves Nikki, in his own way...but he feels he has to pull the'tricks' to get what he wants because he knows sh want do it any other way...

      But, I guess I might be saying too much for those who may not have read the series...so I will just stop here and just say...The books are at least worth the attempt to read...

      I guess I will wait patiently for Evertrue and hopefully I will get through it when it comes out... :-)

    • 3/5
      Just finished this novella.

      It was good. Not great..but I am glad I read it...It was good to read Cole's side of things..

      I read Everbound first so I already know what happens after this but if I had read this first...I would have thought Cole had a heart...And I think to a certain degree he does, but for what ever reason, he just ends up the jerk...

      But I do think he loves Nikki, in his own way...but he feels he has to pull the'tricks' to get what he wants because he knows sh want do it any other way...

      But, I guess I might be saying too much for those who may not have read the series...so I will just stop here and just say...The books are at least worth the attempt to read...

      I guess I will wait patiently for Evertrue and hopefully I will get through it when it comes out... :-)

    • 2/5
      So many things went wrong here. Had I read this between Everneath and Everbound, as the author intended, I'd have abandoned the series before book two. I'm glad I didn't, because I thought Everbound was really lovely.

      This novella flashes back and forth between two nearly equally low-stakes timelines. The first is all that shit from a year and a half ago, and I guess it's supposed to be cool to see it from Cole's perspective (it is not). The second takes place "Now," and follows Cole on a quest to find a bunch of oracles. Why do I call that low stakes? Because nothing can happen to him--he has to be in two more books still, and, since most readers don't know about these little interstitial stories, nothing major can happen. And nothing does.

      You know what really bummed me out, though, was Cole's complete lack of personality. I hate when YA writers who are neither a Gayle Forman nor a Maggie Stiefvater try to tell stories from both the feminine and the masculine perspective, because it can be incredibly difficult to write from inside the head of someone of the opposite sex. Cole was my favorite character in Everneath and Everbound because he's sooooo interesting. Seeing things from his point of view was...ugh. It was terrible. Like eating melty vanilla ice cream out of a paper cup.

    • 4/5
      I almost didn't read this. I read book 2, EverBound, before this and I hate to go backwards. Thankfully I went back. This is Cole, this is who he is inside and his inner demons shine and does something else he didn't even know he had anymore. He is so much more than written in the first two books, and so are his friends. Warning there are some extra creepy crawly parts, and torture that is horrendous.
    • 5/5
      Neverfall is an intense and short read from Cole's perspective. While this novella didn't totally win me over to team Cole (for some reason I have a soft spot for Jack), I do appreciate the fact that Ashton didn't feel the need to make Cole a completely sympathetic and perfect character, once we got to know him better. I love Cole, and I think that he's a fantastic character. However, I really wish he'd get over his selfishness. He made some improvements during this novella, and I look forward to see how he handles things in the future. For now, I'm holding off on deciding whose team I'm on. Regardless of my indecision, this novella is fast-paced and full of suspense. I enjoyed learning more about Cole and the world of the Everneath. It was also interesting to learn about the Delphinians. Overall, this is an excellent novella that adds to the series.
    • 3/5
      I enjoyed this novella. I am actually a fan of Cole's. I like Jack. I mean he's a great guy, but he's too Wonder Bread and I tend to root for the guys that are more complex. Not the guys who act bad, but truly have a heart of gold. I mean the guys who are most often self-centered jerks, but sometimes they can do the right thing. I am looking forward to how Cole's character grows in the next book.

    Book preview

    Neverfall - Brodi Ashton

    Contents

    Cover

    Title Page

    The First Persephone

    Prologue

    Chapter One

    Chapter Two

    Chapter Three

    Chapter Four

    Chapter Five

    Chapter Six

    Chapter Seven

    Chapter Eight

    Chapter Nine

    Chapter Ten

    Chapter Eleven

    Chapter Twelve

    Chapter Thirteen

    Excerpt from Everbound

    Chapter One

    Chapter Two

    About the Author

    Credits

    Copyright

    Back Ad

    About the Publisher

    THE FIRST PERSEPHONE

    Everybody knows who the first queen of the Underworld was. Persephone. Human mythology books begin and end with her.

    But the truth is, Persephone was merely the first of many queens of the Everneath. There are those of us who know the truth: the Everliving, like me, who feed on willing human beings—Forfeits—in exchange for eternal life. We know that Persephone was brought down by a Forfeit who emerged from the hundred-year Feed with her youth, and sanity, intact.

    Every succession of power since has been brought about by a Forfeit who survived the Feed.

    We know this. This is common knowledge among the Everliving.

    What we don’t know is who will be next in line for the throne.

    My Forfeit survived the Feed. I believe I’ve found the answer.

    PROLOGUE

    All I could do was watch.

    The Tunnels came for Nikki, invisible wind grabbing at her hair, tendrils of smoke wrapping around her waist. Relentless.

    This was it. This was the end.

    Fighting against the force of the funnel cloud, she reached up to touch Jack’s face. Declarations of love were exchanged. She couldn’t spare one last glance toward me.

    All I could do was watch.

    Jack threw her to the ground behind him. He jumped into the Tunnels, feet first, sacrificing himself so that Nikki could live. The Tunnels were satisfied.

    Nikki collapsed into the arms of Jack’s brother, who whisked her and her freshly broken heart away.

    And all I could do was watch.

    She left me on that balcony, paralyzed by emotions I didn’t know I had in me.

    The question I should’ve been asking myself was, In ninety-nine years, how will I find another Forfeit who will survive the Feed? But the question I actually asked myself was, Could Nikki ever look at me the way she looked at Jack in those final moments?

    I was done watching. I had to act.

    ONE

    NOW

    A bunch of weeks after the tunnels came for Nikki and left with Jack.

    In a strange bed, in a strange room.

    The haze started to clear, and I realized I was in a bed in an unfamiliar room. Eclectic lamps, shaded in deep-purple fabric, cast dark light against the walls.

    And someone was calling my name.

    Cole. Rough hands slapped my face. Cole. Wake up. A male voice. Familiar.

    I tried to say Leave me the hell alone, but it just came out as a groan. I rolled over to one side, swatting at the intruder like a fly.

    How much did you say he drank? the voice asked.

    A second voice scoffed. I’m not his babysitter. This time the voice belonged to someone of the female persuasion.

    Sure. Especially when you had the chance to get with the lead guitarist of the Dead Elvises, right? The more wasted he is, the better.

    Ah. Maxwell. Fellow Everliving. Friend.

    I opened my eyes—apparently I’d shut them again—and blinked several times. Max’s face hovered over mine.

    There you are. Ready to leave the brothel? he asked. We’ve got a gig.

    A girl with blond hair stood next to him, also staring down at me. My bedroom is not a brothel. She sighed and put a hand on her hip. Okay, so he’s drunk. I don’t see what the big deal is.

    Max leaned down, put my arm around his shoulders, and hoisted me up off the bed. The Dead Elvises drink, but we don’t get drunk. We don’t need to.

    He pulled me toward the door.

    "He needed to, the girl said defensively. And he had fun."

    Excellent. I’m sure he’ll remember it clearly and document it in his diary under the heading, ‘What the Hell Was I Thinking.’

    I swung my head back as we went through the doorway. The blond girl raised a hand and waved at me. I lifted a finger in response.

    What the hell was I thinking? I hated blondes.

    8 coffees and 4 dry-heaving episodes later.

    In a green room somewhere.

    I pushed myself up into a sitting position on the circa 1970s couch and groaned loudly as a spring broke free and gouged my thigh. Damn green-room couches. The muffled bass tones of some random opening band floated in from the stage, making it difficult to think straight. I was not ready to go on.

    I groaned and rubbed my eyes.

    That’s what you get for going on a five-day bender, Max said from the small kitchenette that broke off from the main room.

    Five days? I swore loudly.

    Max came back in, carrying a fresh pot of coffee. He filled my mug. Yeah. You left to confront Nikki about how she survived the Feed. Fast-forward five days, and I find you passed out in a superfan’s bedroom. What happened?

    I rewound my brain to five days ago, when I had stood on Nikki’s front lawn. She said she didn’t know how she survived. I frowned. But she was lying.

    Why do you think that?

    Because her eyes always gave it away. I saw them clearly as I asked her how she had survived. When her words were as full of holes as a sieve and held no truth, she would blink more than she needed to. As if to create a barrier between herself and the person she was lying to.

    But I couldn’t tell Max this. It would bolster his claim that I was obsessed with her. Which I totally wasn’t.

    I just know, okay? I put my head in my hands, breathed in deeply, and for the first time realized I smelled something other than coffee brewing. What’s burning?

    What do you think? Max said.

    I rolled my eyes. Maybe someone else would be alarmed by the odor, but for me it was the new normal. It meant that Oliver and Gavin, the bass player and the drummer, were in the kitchenette messing around with the chemical pyrotechnics our manager had suggested for our next tour.

    They’re gonna burn the place down, I said, rubbing my eyes. I turned toward the kitchenette. Indie bands don’t need pyrotechnics!

    Oliver leaned his head out the doorway. But it’s awesome!

    But we’re not a hair band from the eighties.

    "But … it’s fiiiiiire! On a stage!" Oliver ducked back inside the kitchenette. I shook my head.

    A knock came at the door. Ten minutes, Deads! the club manager shouted.

    I glanced around the room for my guitar and felt Max’s intense gaze. He was waiting for something. What? I asked.

    He frowned. You know it’s over with Nikki, right?

    I grimaced. She’s the closest we’ve ever gotten to finding someone who could take over the throne.

    But it’s over, Max growled.

    She was our only chance to never have to find human sacrifices for the queen again. We would be done with the quotas.

    But it’s over! The Tunnels came for her, and she escaped. It’s done. You have no power over her anymore.

    Max always had a problem with me choosing to take Nikki to the Feed, but I still wasn’t sure why. At first I knew he thought my pursuit of Nikki would be pointless because she would never choose to go with me.

    But she did.

    Then he thought she didn’t have the right training, or the right lineage, to survive the Feed and stay young.

    But she did.

    Why do you resent her so much? I said.

    Max sighed loudly. I don’t. I just don’t think our future lies with an unknown girl from nowhere.

    But she survived the Feed.

    So? She’s an anomaly. She also avoided the Tunnels, because another guy—also obsessed with her—made a stupid decision that cost him his life. All for a girl.

    I relaxed my shoulders. Is that why you hate her? Because you think I’m going to make a stupid decision too?

    He took a step closer to me. I think you are primed to make the stupidest decision of your nine-hundred-year life. She’s gone. You have nothing to hold her to. Nothing to threaten her with. She’s free.

    Another knock came at the door. Five minutes!

    Max started to turn away as if he’d won the argument. He held the door open, and the band went through the doorway. As we approached the stage, the sound of screaming fans grew louder, and I forced the practiced unimpressed-but-happy-to-be-performing smile onto my face.

    What Max didn’t understand was that from the moment I’d met Nikki, I couldn’t imagine either one of us ever being free of the other.

    TWO

    LAST YEAR

    Harry O’s.

    The night fate threw a wide-eyed girl in my

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