Evermore by Alyson Noel (+BEA!!)

Greetings, fair readers! This has been quite a week. When I'm not at the day job, it seems like every spare minute has been spent getting ready for next week's BEA/Book Blogger Con awesomeness. As I approach next week's bookish bonanza, I find that I'm reading neither books nor blogs, and I'm obviously not doing any blogging myself. That is, until now. Really, the irony of it all is startling. Despite my scrambled brain, fevered from evenings trolling Twitter for cool BEA stuff and dashing off e-mails trying to make plans to meet everyone I can in the span of about 2 and half days, I've determined that maybe I should try to write a book review and earn my book blogging keep, especially considering that within less than a week I'll probably be putting my business card with this very blog's URL into a variety of hands who might actually have an interest in seeing me write about, like, books and reading and stuff. If, right now, you, like me, are engaged in your last minute BEA planning and have little to no time for such things as reading blog content when you could be making a New York City lunch/dinner/anything really date with your "imaginary" friends from the book blogosphere, I'd love to hear from you. I'm all for getting the most out of those 2 and 1/2 days and meeting as many bloggers as I can, so if you're a helpless procrastinator that has waited this long to make BEA plans (like me!) and want to get together at BEA, please do send me an e-mail at toadacious1 at yahoo dot com. We can exchange numbers and enjoy each other's company in very short order!

In the meantime, how about a quickie review of Evermore by Alyson Noel to remind us all what it is I do here (and enable me to finally go to the post office and mail some books out to some people who are waiting for them)?

Ever Bloom had the kind of life everyone dreams of. She's a popular girl, a cheerleader. She has a great family, a mom, a dad, a dog, and the occasionally bratty little sister. Unfortunately, a car wreck leaves Ever the lone survivor, and things are more than a little changed for her. For one thing, when she wakes up after the accident, she can see peoples' auras and hear their thoughts, and contact with them can leave her immersed in their life stories. Overwhelmed by the constant noise of unwanted information, Ever closes the door on her past and becomes a hoodie wearing, Ipod toting "freak" shunned by classmates at her new school, and happy to fly under the radar. That is, until Damen shows up. Undeniably hot, there's something different about Damen, something even more magical and mysterious than his ability to conjure flowers out of thin air. At once drawn to and desperate to escape Damen and his unpredictable overtures, Ever finds herself wrapped up in something much bigger than she could have ever anticipated.

Evermore is a book that's all about plot. The secondary characters aren't terribly well fleshed out. The writing isn't even particularly top notch. However, the storytelling is top notch. Ever's voice is compelling and sympathetic, despite an occasional tendency toward teenage whiny-ness. Damen's aura of mystery and magic draws the reader in. Evermore is most definitely a bona fide page turner with a paranormal edge that works so well as a guilty pleasure of the sort that every reader needs. Teenage readers in the era of Twilight will love, and I, myself, definitely plan to seek out the next book in the series.