Conversations Through Walls and Purple Hands; March Readalong [Second Quarter Update]

It’s time for the Readalong update! If you’re following the timeline, by this upcoming Thursday you should be about 50% of the way through this book, which would put you at page 189. If you want to keep track of the timeline, remember to bookmark this page for future reference, though I continue to put in reminders for each quarterly update.

If you’re new to the blog, or if you’re just looking for a reminder, all information for monthly readalongs can be found via the link at the top of the page, though I have also included it here: Monthly Readalongs.

Also don’t forget that I host a giveaway at the end of each month where, upon winning, you can choose between the book we just read OR a copy of the next month’s book instead. This is only the second month of my readalongs and as such is still a WIP, however, I have high hopes that it will be more clear in the future. I now have a page at the top listing the rules for future giveaways and will be working to update them as needed.

I hope everyone’s been having a great time with this book thus far! Don’t forget to leave a comment below or on any of the update posts to let me know that you’ve joined the readalong so that you can have three bonus entries for the giveaway at the end of the month! And now, on to my halfway through the book reactions!

Regarding the book (so spoilers!);

I have to admit, I’m not sure what to think of Everless at this point. I think, honestly, if I were to rate it currently I would stick to my earlier guess of three stars since I’m not really all that impressed with any of it. I still find the love interest, Roan, very flat as a character. He’s simply the cardboard cutout of the nice rich/royal guy that naturally the main character can’t help loving. This might be largely due to the fact that up to this point we haven’t really spent a lot of time with him until very recently and I’m just not feeling all that interested in him? He just doesn’t strike me as exceptional or stand out in any way.

As far as the plot with Jules’ father, I have to say I feel like I sort of saw it coming. We’re introduced to her father’s tendency to give up everything for his daugher pretty early on and this habit of his really isn’t all that shocking. In fact, I think I would have been rather annoyed if he had never followed her considering how he felt about Jules leaving for Everless. At the same time, there’s a whole lot surrounding his actions that we still don’t know yet, so I’m curious to see how that will pan out.

As far as his letter confession goes…I didn’t see it coming but I’m a little annoyed about it. There was nothing in this book foreshadowing that plot and it genuinely felt as though it was just pulled out of a hat with potential plot points and the author just went with it. It doesn’t seem to fit in anywhere and I guarantee its only use is to further a piece of the plot. Not to mention the fact that the way she found out was just a little ridiculous as was her response to it all. Did she even have much of one? The only thing I saw was that she now has a new determination to insult her father’s memory by doing the very thing he died trying to warn her not to do.

Uhm…

And finally, I just have to ask…is Holland setting up for the evil, psychopathic brother to be a love interest? If she is, the only thing I have to say about that is, oh dear godric please NO. I don’t think I can take another abusive relationship in a YA novel right now, chalk full with convenient excuses for why the guy was a total psychopath in the beginning but simply wasn’t understood. I’m giving Holland the benefit of the doubt and going to say that this wont happen, but honestly that interaction made me very uncomfortable.

So, at the end of the day, I’m still not sure how I feel about this book. I’m beginning to worry that this is one of those books that just got overhyped and I’m not entirely sure why because, compared to other books that have gotten a lot of hype this year, Everless just hasn’t really held up beside them.

And now for you! What are your thoughts? How do you feel about the events thus far? Let me know in the comments!

Until next time, happy reading!