nevermore by Nell Stark and Trinity Tam

nevermore
by Nell Stark and Trinity Tam
Pages: 264
Date: October 1 2010
Publisher: Bold Strokes Books
Series: Everafter (2nd in series)

Review
Rating: 4.0 out of 5.0
Read: April 1 to 3 2016

My second book by these two authors working together, and second in this series.

The story of the vampire and her werecat lover continues . . . mostly separately. Well, for the first half of the story at least. Apparently Alexa wanted to get better control over her panther, and so headed off to a vaguely mythical were-city. Meanwhile Val, the vampire, continues to do stuff in New York.

The first half of the book follows things from Val's point of view. I might be mixing up how much room each pov takes, since I also recall that the second half of the book has the pov switch more often than it did in the last book. Though still, like in the last book, very long sections are followed by one point of view before switching to the other lead character.

Val is struggling with her place in the world, attempting to continue her school studies, missing Alexa both physically and mentally, and, eventually, struggling with the idea that there is some kind of pathogen spreading through the were-community which causes 'issues' with them shifting, and could lead to death. Struggling, there, with trying to investigate while being cut off from exploring what is going on from the Consortium side of things, and struggling with the both the need to have Alexa by her side, and with the fear that if she returned she might be infected and die.

Alexa, meanwhile, is off being a panther. Well, and human but lots of running around as a panther, and getting in touch with her panther self. That is until the city she's in is attacked and she has to flee. As the book description notes, a '[w]ereshifter civil war' has broken out. Lead by the father of Sebastian Brenner (may or may not have that last name wrong). The father desires to live more naturally, and despises vampires.

Eventually the story-lines flow together and Val and Alexa are reunited. Only to then be nearish but still apart 'for reasons'.

A good solid continuation of the series. The nature of the alternating POV was vaguely annoying in certain aspects (like how the book opens with Val, advances the storyline a certain distance, then switches to Alexa . . . only to have the storyline fall back a certain way and follow Alexa up to where Val's part had ended off, then flow past that point). I liked the book well enough. Back in the days of me giving ratings like 3.891, or 4.421, I might play around with where I'd rate this book, probably some rating below four stars, but because I'm 'stuck' using GoodReads full star rating system, this book, like the first, ended up being a four star book. Though I liked the first book more than I did this one. Alas, both end having four stars, so how will anyone know I liked the first more? By reading this paragraph, I suppose.

April 4 2016