From School Library Journal Gr 10 Up—In this sequel to Firstlife, Tenley "Ten" Lockwood has chosen her allegiance to the otherworld realm Troika, much to the dismay of the Myriad realm. When the book opens, Ten is training to be a Conduit for Troika, an important position responsible for the light that powers the souls in the kingdom. Ten's ultimate goal, however, is to end the war between Troika and Myriad—a complicated task, considering that her love, Killian, is aligned with Myriad, and neither side wants to concede. When a plot goes awry and uncovers a mole in Troika, Ten stops at nothing to rescue her friends from the Myriad clutches and convince both sides to cease their fire. Her heart says Killian is loyal to her and not to Myriad, but her head says differently. Interspersed between the chapters are emails between various officials of the realms, again hinting at possible betrayals and setups. At the end, readers are left with a semblance of hope and an extensive list of work to be done, setting up the third book in this trilogy nicely. The otherworld realms contain numerous intricate politics and rules; a new rule or policy is introduced in almost every chapter. Still, this is a fast-paced fantasy, and familiarity with Firstlife isn't necessary to get caught up with all the happenings in each of the various worlds. Told in Ten's stream-of-consciousness voice, the narrative includes quite a few graphic descriptions of violent deaths and some hot-and-heavy scenes between Killian and Ten. VERDICT This gripping, stand-alone entry in the series will captivate fantasy readers, especially fans of Sarah J. Maas's A Court of Thorns and Roses and Susan Dennard's Truthwitch.—Amanda C. Buschmann, Carroll Elementary School, Houston Read more Review "Tense, philosophical, and enthralling." --Kirkus Reviews Read more See all Editorial Reviews
H**M
Better than the first
I didn’t have high hopes for this book. To be honest, the first book of the Everlife series was a little boring. I felt like I was pushing myself through at some points, while others had me sitting on the edge of my seat. It was full of ups and downs for me. But Lifeblood was so different. We knew the world so there was less world building, less filler. This book was chock full of Ten and and the boy now on the wrong side of the tracks. It was so much more than the first book. I flew through this book, unable to put it down, unable to even see where the book was headed. OOkay, so maybe I could see kind of where things were going, but not everything. There were so many surprises in this book, so many things that upset me, and so many more things that made me smile. I stayed up too late reading this book and I wouldn’t have changed that for anything.The writing was still fantastic, because I love Gena Showalter. But the characters really grew in this book. Ten started off as a girl so unsure of herself, tossed into a whole new world and doubting her choice in her afterlife. And she became someone stronger, maybe a little more broken as well, but she is stronger and confident in her role in the afterlife now. I feel like she can still be a little annoying with her indecisiveness, but she has the weight of the world on her shoulders, I would be just as bad.There were a few things that bothered me, but honestly, it was needed to move the story forward. I am so used to pretty little stories where everyone survives and everyone has a happy ending, that when an author actually grows a pair of balls and crushes their main character, I am a little thrown off. I guess, in a way, Lifeblood reminded me a little of Harry Potter. It’s heartbreaking as Ten finds family and friends in Trokia to only have them taken away.I thought the book was fantastic and better than the first book. I can’t wait to read the next book in the series.
K**E
It was okay.
I was a little disappointed with this novel. I love Gena Showalter and I've read every one of her books, including the first in this series (Firstlife), but this book just didn't do it for me. The writing was a bit tiresome and the plot itself was only just okay. While I was charmed by Ten's quirks and obsessions with numbers in Firslife, it just became annoying in this book and even seemed forced. The poems wren't anything to get excited about and I was more frustrated with Ten than I was rooting for her to succeed. On the contrary, Killian is as dreamy as ever and he's a reason I'll keep reading if nothing else. The plot seemed to drag at parts and then all of a sudden, so much was happening it was at times overkill. I'll still read the last book in the series because I do want to know how the character's stories play out, but I hope it's more convincing in this one.
G**O
I really loved it
This book is hard to tag. Please read the plot description. What a complex world Showalter has built. While I am positive I don't want to live there, I am hooked and even have been so rash and pre-ordered volume three which is not available until well into 2018 but I do not want to take a chance on missing it, I am that hooked.Must confess, I found the first 5%, according to my Paperwhite, hard to read. It was a series of communiques between two people and I had no idea who they were or what they were writing about. Although tempted to quit there was an indiscernible something that kept me reading and I am so glad I did. WOW.Talk about living with pressure in one's life. It's bad enough and hard enough to make one's life worthwhile and can you imagine living it knowing it wasn't this life that counts as much as one's next life which is definitely real.Reading this as a Christian, I can't help but think in terms of the popularist view within Christianity that claims that heaven and hell are in our futures. And yet it would be much too simplistic to equate Troika with heaven and Myriad with hell. That would be a mistake. Neither realm is purely good or purely evil, but a mixture. Then, of course, there is Many End where those who failed to commit to wither Myriad and Troika end up and what a mistake it is to fail to commit.Complex plot, complex story, complex people, some things are just not as they seem and my gosh is this a page turner.I really loved it.
H**S
First life multiplied by 10
This was the book that clinched it for the series, if your a fan of first life than you will enjoy lifeblood. This volume changed everything when it came to the battles that we left off on in first life and took them to the next level and our two MC killian and Ten locked right in the middle of these epic battles. This volume will show you battles, sub plots within the main plots and have your emotions going from happy to sad to distraught on those who live and those who die. This volume just took first life multiplied it by 10 and said ok where to next. It was very enjoyable; the story flow was great, there were no slow moments or filler it was pure story arcs leading to the conclusion of this volume which will leave you wanting more. I don't want to spoil the story for people so I keep my remarks general but if you want to invest in a series invest in this one because it takes you on a fun roller coaster of emotion and a story that keeps your heart pumping.
A**A
Ugh that ending
I first want to say that Gena Showalter is amazing. I'm not going to lie though, there are a lot of slow parts in this book. It wasn't boring by any means and I was entranced the whole way, and about sixty percent through it finally picks up and things get crazy intense! I understand that it probably needed to be slow because we had to see Troika and understand everything and learn with Ten. I enjoyed it a lot, I wished it had a little more action, but the last forty percent makes up for the whole book. I love how much Ten grows in this book, she's smarter, braver, and her heart is good. It's such a good series and I cannot wait for the next one!
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