Review - Everless by Sara Holland

Review - Everless by Sara Holland

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.

Everless is a fantastic magical fantasy novel, which a unique twist.

I loved how all of the magical elements of this fantasy world revolve around time and life. It made it very focused and very different from anything I've read before. The idea of money being intrinsically, vitally linked to our length of life is a great way to present class inequality, where the rich literally live off the lifeforce of the poor, and it was done in a suitably creepy and disturbing way with the actual letting of blood to turn into coins. 

This made the decadence of Everless, the castle, even more outrageous and the trials and tribulations of the servants harder to witness.

The mystery plot also kept me gripped throughout, with links back to old fairytales, myths and legends and hints around children's stories, as things slowly unfolded to reveal exactly what was going on in a very dramatic climax.

My only complaint is that I would have loved more of some of the elements. I'd have liked to have seen more of the noble decadence, and definitely would have welcomed actually seeing more of those old stories. But little hints and suggestions were definitely enough to keep me gripped.

Oh, and there was a Liam in it, who was a really nasty piece of work. So bonus marks for that!

Everless is destined to become a timeless classic.

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Everless by Sara Holland is out now, published by Hachette Children's Group.

I was given a review copy via Netgalley in return for an honest review.