Book Review: The Ever King

Title: The Ever King
Author: L.J. Andrews
Genre: Romance, Romantasy, Fantasy, Magic

What It’s About: The girl reads a story she had finished about the Serpent and the Songbird to the boy in the cell, who is only visible through the window. She also shows him a disc that had been taken from him, and gives him a necklace consisting of twine and a bird-like pendant. The boy promises her that he will find her; that she has to keep the disc safe for him, but that he will come for her. Then she runs away from him as she needs to be home, and trips over a root, breaking the disc.

Livia Ferus meets her friends, Aleksi, Mira, Jonas and Sander, at the Fort where all of the royals of their continent meet to celebrate the closure of the Chasm; the end of the war with the Sea Fae, where they shut out Erik Bloodsinger and his kind. The five of them have fun, while celebrating, and they go out to outcropping in the water, near the chasm, where Livia touches the chasm and it reacts to her. This gives her the feeling that things will change.

Erik Bloodsinger has spent the many years thinking of the girl who had shown kindness to him, but trying his best to save his people from ruin as there is a disease spreading across the lands. He finds himself drawn to the Chasm, and realizes that he is now able to cross it, so he and his men take the ship and make their way into the city. He notices Livia with her friends at a market, overhears that they will be having a party in the fort, and decides that they need to infiltrate it so that he can get to her as she is the one that had the disc that he needs to restore things for his realm.

At the ball, Livia is drawn to the man that is tall dark and handsome, and Mira eggs her on to go with him, and live for a night. She meets with the man and the two of them dance together, before she takes him up to her room, where she quickly learns that he is none other than Erik Bloodsinger, and is not happy to see him, having feared his return would mean more war. He kidnaps her onto his ship, in full view of her friends, who are unable to do anything to save her, and takes her through the chasm into the Sea Fae realm. He intends to use Livia as a pawn against her family and seek vengeance for his father, who was killed at the hands of Livia’s father.

But as they spend time together saving a town from raiding pirates, and Livia pulls back the plague that has been destroying his land, they realize that they have loved each other from the time she read him a story while he was in a cell. They were always drawn to each other from those days, and so Erik claims her as his, and decides to make her his first Ever Queen. This sends up the Lords of the Realm into a tizzy as some do not agree with him at all since there has never been an Ever Queen. At one point, Erik sends Gavyn, one of his most trusted friends to the realm of the earth fae, where Gavyn encounters Aleksi, who clings onto him as Gavyn turns back into a mist to go through the portal. Erik decides to save Aleksi because he knows that Alek is important to Livia, and they become friends. The group learns that there is a rumor that Erik is the second son of his father, and that he may have a brother out there, who may be the cause of all of the damage. As a result, Erik tries to find out more about this, and Livia becomes friends with the people of his court. At one point, Larsson, Erik’s trusted crew member, calls her over telling her that Erik has asked for her to come heal something. There is something off about it to her, as she follows him onto a boat, and then Tait, Erik’s cousin who can read the Heart—each other Fae in the Sea Fae Realm is given their last name based on what their abilities are and what they can do—and know other’s intentions, shows up. Larsson kills Tait, and kidnaps Livia away, revealing that he is Erik’s older brother.

My Thoughts: I was absolutely invested in this story from the first page! Holy moly, this is apparently a spin-off from a different series by the author, by several years or decades, but it is such a great book as a stand alone series. I love the tension and the exploration of the feelings that they hold for each other between Erik and Livia, and how they have been fated to meet because they have always been drawn to each other. I really loved this story, and I can’t wait to see how Erik gets Livia back in the next book in the series! Highly recommend.