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A Review of Erin Summerill’s Ever the Brave (Houghton Mifflin for Young Readers, 2017).
By Stephen Hong Sohn


 
Wow, so I made a little bit of a booboo: occasionally, I read a book but forget to write up the review until many, many weeks afterword. In this case, it’s literally been three or four months since I read this work, and I can’t remember much about the novel, except of course that I enjoyed reading it. After all, our intrepid web travelers who occasionally visit this site know that I’ve read many a young adult fiction with paranormal or fantastic elements. Without further ado, Erin Summerill’s Ever the Brave (Houghton Mifflin for Young Readers, 2017) is the subject of this review; it is the sequel to Ever the Hunted. Naturally, our cast of characters remains relatively the same. We’ll let B&N provide us with some details here:

“After saving King Aodren with her newfound Channeler powers, Britta only wants to live a peaceful life in her childhood home. Unfortunately, saving the King has created a tether between them she cannot sever, no matter how much she'd like to, and now he's insisting on making her a noble lady. And there are those who want to use Britta’s power for evil designs. If Britta cannot find a way to harness her new magical ability, her life—as well as her country—may be lost. The stakes are higher than ever in the sequel to Ever the Hunted, as Britta struggles to protect her kingdom and her heart.”

This rather pithy review doesn’t really give us much, so we’ll venture elsewhere for a meatier description: “While romantic lead Cohen and his younger brother track the villainous Spiriter Phelia, they run into Lirra, who asks for help solving the abduction of Shaerdanian Channeler girls by Malamian men, possibly to create a magical army. Meanwhile, Britta is coping with the attentions of King Aodren, newly freed from enchantment. When she used her own Spiriter abilities to heal him, she broke her magical bond with Cohen and built a new one with Aodren so strong that even he can feel it—and her. These three narrators allow readers to see their obligatory love triangle’s clichés from every possible angle. When Phelia finally shows her face, it’s to Britta—Phelia has secrets to share, namely that she’s Britta’s mother, and she wants Britta to join her. Nearly the first half of the book is slow-paced, a bloated slog to a genuinely surprising chain of betrayals that kicks off the plot in earnest. From the frequently unfocused first act even through the action-heavy back end, it frequently struggles with creating enough tension, especially through unclear motivations. While most characters are white, dark-skinned individuals are occasionally—Lirra is one—mentioned, and race appears to have no significance in the fantasy world” (Kirkus Reviews). Well, this Kirkus Reviews evaluative reading of the novel pitches its critique in the first half of the novel due to momentum issues. I don’t recall having any problems with the pacing, but young adult is often held to a higher standard in this regard, because the stakes are often so cataclysmic: characters must sometimes literally move heaven and earth to save their comrades and loved ones.  

Buy the Book Here: 

Review Author: Stephen Hong Sohn
Review Editor: Leslie J. Fernandez

If you have any questions or want us to consider your book for review, please don’t hesitate to contact us via email!
Prof. Stephen Hong Sohn at ssohnucr@gmail.com
Leslie J. Fernandez, PhD Student in English, at lfern010@ucr.edu

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