Ever After

February 9, 2013

Ever After (The Hollows/Rachel Morgan, #11)by Kim Harrison

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... (goodreads.com)

Oh, this series, why do you do what you do to me? It's been such a roller coaster relationship for the last few books and I am starting to think perhaps the series should come to an end soon. That being said I did love the previous two books, even if I wasn't really sure about books 7 and 8. I don't know...This book was Al and Trent-centric and really, I should have been ALL OVER THAT - but I wasn't. I will be honest with you, I struggled through most of this book and was going to write it off completely until the ending. THAT ENDING! Ooooo!When I think about what I didn't like about the story (I think I just found it sort of boring), I realized that this is one of the few books where Rachel isn't completely inept at something - even if she is still being blamed for something that wasn't her fault, but if she couldn't fix it she'd be killed, AGAIN. Rachel was strong and in control in Ever After and I should be jumping for joy about this, but I just couldn't bring myself to care.The book wasn't horrible, but I found it sort of flat in comparison to the rest of the series. I will say this yet again - I miss Ivy. Why is Ivy always AWAY? Is it just me? It's like Ivy has tiny cameos in the stories now and they can't afford to hire the actress full time or something. I loved the start of this series with Rachel, Ivy and Jenks against the world. Now? If Ivy has anything to do with the story it's all about her brooding over being a vampire, getting angry at Rachel for no reason and Rachel trying not to emote and arouse Ivy's vampire senses...then? Ivy vanishes and it's all Rachel all the time.I want my urban fantastical trio back together.I want Al to not be BFFs with Rachel and be a badass demon once again.I did get a death in there I had wanted! But one I didn't want happened, too. It made me sad.I feel like I am reading this series out of loyalty to the first few books. Yes, there are some gems along the way, but I don't feel like there is any progression to the characters anymore. I am super curious about how the ending of Ever After will come into play in the next book. If it's just ignored completely I think I might give up and go on a break from this Rachel Morgan series because I can't take it anymore. The ending of this book needs to be explored (and ooooo, hotness!)I'm worried this series is becoming stale, and since it's a series I have loved for so long, this makes me sad. I hope that there's more awesome to come, but I also think it might be time to wrap things up sooner than later. What do you guys think?The Rachel Morgan/The Hollows series