Shadowland: Alyson Noel

SUMMARY (Courtesy of amazon.com):

Ever and Damen have traveled through countless past lives—and fought off the world’s darkest enemies—so they could be together forever. But just when their long-awaited destiny is finally within reach, a powerful curse falls upon Damen…one that could destroy everything. Now a single touch of their hands or a soft brush of their lips could mean sudden death—plunging Damen into the Shadowland. Desperate to break the curse and save Damen, Ever immerses herself in magick—and gets help from an unexpected source…a surfer named Jude.

Although she and Jude have only just met, he feels startlingly familiar. Despite her fierce loyalty to Damen, Ever is drawn to Jude, a green-eyed golden boy with magical talents and a mysterious past. She’s always believed Damen to be her soulmate and one true love—and she still believes it to be true. But as Damen pulls away to save them, Ever’s connection with Jude grows stronger—and tests her love for Damen like never before…

OPINION: 3 STARS

I have to be honest, I don't know why I keep reading these books but the plot is just good enough to make me want to know what happens. But Ever really irritates me and I try but it is very hard to just get past that. So what if Damen has 600 years of experience and she only has 16 years that she can currently remember- she knows what she's doing and she knows far more than him, right? So it's totally okay to ignore him in everything and do things on her own, even though we all learned in book 1 that was stupid, and the point was reiterated in book 2 and in fact, her current big problem is really her fault but, she knows what's best right? Right....

The overall plot idea is something I do like and though I still can't over how little real justification there was in book 2 for Ever to make the decision she did- and choose to trust the way she did when a 2 year old could have known which way to go- the idea is still there and I am still interested to find out what happens. Will I get the next book? Yes I will although for me, it seems like I dislike the series more with each additional installment. I really liked the first book- the writing wasn't great but the plot was good, and it had a lot of good moments. The second book wasn't as great but I still liked it even if I thought Ever was an idiot at the end- characters are allowed to be idiots because people are idiots. Its realistic even if it's annoying.

But this book really hurt it for me. It's as though Ever doesn't learn anything, she just continues to do things how she wants, when she wants and the overall plot really didn't even advance far. We learned a few new things but in 340 pages, I really think there should have been more. Many parts of this book were repetitive and I found it almost record setting that in the span of about 30 pages, Ever felt like a spoiled, immature brat about 10 times and yet... she just kept doing it, following the same pattern with Damen all 10 times.

The introduction of Jude into the story was interesting and it did lead to a surprising revelation that did up the intrigue factor of the whole plot with its own little twists and turns and Roman's continued antics do interest me. In terms of mystery and bewilderment, Roman hits it right on for me and Miles is still one of the most adorable, funny characters in this series for me. And I have to agree with Ever- the fun loving, living the high life, mysterious and daring Damen we met in the first book is far sexier and better than the going way too far in trying to make karma happy again Damen we meet in this book although there were some good moments that came with it.

Overall, I give this book 3 stars because again, the plot is just good enough and intriguing enough that I keep reading. The writing is not great and I really need more character development from Ever but I still feel like most of the overall plot is strong, it just needs better developing and movement.