Firstlife by Gena Showalter : Review

Firstlife by Gena Showalter
Series: An Everlife Novel
Published on February 23, 2016
Juvenile Fiction \ Fantasy & Magic
Harlequin, 480 pages
Source: ARC from publisher
My Rating: 3.5 Stars
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ONE CHOICE.
TWO REALMS.
NO SECOND CHANCE.

Tenley “Ten” Lockwood is an average seventeen-year-old girl…who has spent the past thirteen months locked inside the Prynne Asylum. The reason? Not her obsession with numbers, but her refusal to let her parents choose where she’ll live—after she dies.

There is an eternal truth most of the world has come to accept: Firstlife is merely a dress rehearsal, and real life begins after death.

In the Everlife, two realms are in power: Troika and Myriad, longtime enemies and deadly rivals. Both will do anything to recruit Ten, including sending their top Laborers to lure her to their side. Soon, Ten finds herself on the run, caught in a wild tug-of-war between the two realms who will do anything to win the right to her soul. Who can she trust? And what if the realm she’s drawn to isn’t home to the boy she’s falling for? She just has to stay alive long enough to make a decision.

MY THOUGHTS: This book is marvelous and will grab the attention of every reader. Once you read the book you see the cover in such a different light, you see all these details that you’ll only notice after you’ve read the book. Every time you look at the cover, you see something new and it makes you want to read this book all over again. The premise for Firstlife is one that I enjoyed. In the growing trend of parallel worlds/alternate universes is growing in the book world, but Showalter takes the concept and adds a twist with the idea of afterlife, which no one really wants or does think about. What if there is life after death and you can choose where to go? Our protagonist Tenley has been forced into an asylum to make her choose a realm. Essentially this book is about choices and the consequences of each person’s decision. I really liked this story and loved, and Killian’s character. Firstlife was a slow build in the beginning, which I liked and was okay with. I did have issues towards the middle of the book with the repetitive plot. The second half of the book had an uneven pacing, it was not as smooth and even as the first half, and it was rushed in scenes and then slow in others. The bromance/hatemance between Killian and Asher is amazing; I hope for more on that, we will see what happens!!! I have hopes for this series and where Gena will take it. Feel free to go pick up your own copy. Happy Reading J