Review: Ever After (The Hollows #11) by Kim Harrison

Publisher: January 22, 2013 Harper Voyager
Genre: Urban Fantasy, Paranormal
Format: Kindle
Source: Purchased

*Please note that it is very hard to review books past the first one in the series without having any spoilers at all. I will try to keep it as spoiler free as I can. The review for the first book in the series is here.

Goodreads Summary
The ever after, the demonic realm that parallels the human world, is shrinking. If it disappears completely, so does all magic. It's up to witch-turned-daywalking-demon Rachel Morgan to avert catastrophe and keep life from changing... for the worse.

While saving the world is important, it isn't Rachel's only motivation. There's also the small fact that she caused the ley line to rip in the first place, setting off a chain reaction of unfortunate events. That little mistake has made her life forfeit unless she can fix it. It's also made her more than a few enemies, including the most powerful demon in the ever after—a terrifying entity who eats souls and now has an insatiable appetite for her. He's already kidnapped her friend and goddaughter to lure her out, and if Rachel doesn't give herself up soon, they'll die.

But Rachel has more than a few impressive and frightening skills of her own, and she isn't going to hand over her soul and her life without one hell of a fight. She's also got a surprise: elven tycoon Trent Kalamack. With this unlikely ally beside her—a prospect both thrilling and unnerving—she's going to return to the ever after, kick some demon butt, rescue her loved ones... and prevent an apocalypse before it's too late. Or, at least that's the plan...

Trouble with the Cute Socks

WOW...This series is definitely one of my favorites and this particular book topped the list of favorite in the series.

The Good

Rachel is growing into herself and making much better decisions. Since I'm in her head, it's nice to hear her think to herself that in the past she would have gone about a circumstance in a different way than she is now. She exhibited even more power than I have seen before. This girl has skills! And friends...which brings me to...

Trent..I don't know exactly what to say about him, except for the fact that I loved him in this book. There was even a situation that went down where he made a choice that looked similar to something he used to would have done, and it ended up being someone else's idea and was initially against his better judgement! Every single scene with the two of them in it was an exceptional back-and-forth.

The action was paced very well. The book is very exciting. Yes, it does slow down at times, but those parts are all necessary to see the decision-making processes and understand what will be happening next. This read was so fun to follow.

The characters were all enjoyable to me reading this time around...even the ones I can't stand. Jenks calls a demon that can walk under the sun and is more powerful than any of them, Cute Socks.  I think maybe my favorite part was that this was set so much in the Ever After and I did get to see much more of the demons. Al and Newt are back in full force with their personalities shining through, and I also got to see more of Al than I have before. That was exciting, and I hope I learn even more about them in future books.

The Bad

Bad? I really have to wrack my brain to come up with anything wrong with this one! I devoured it. I guess I would have to go with some of the choices that Harrison had to make to move the story along. However, since I understand everything behind those decisions, I don't really consider them as bad just a sad part of the story.

The Romance

A ton of tension and emotions flying around! I don't really want to say much to spoil this so I will just say that I am a FAN.

Conclusion

This was my favorite in this series so far. I thought it would be hard to beat Pale Demon, but Harrison has done it. The story moves along at a great pace, is in a setting that is different and exciting, shows new sides of characters, and the ending absolutely doesn't disappoint. Oh, I just figured out what the bad thing is...that I have to wait another year for the next one.

Excerpts

“Holy crap, did you get Ceri pregnant again? Congratulations! You old dog! But what do you need me for? Babies are good things!"

"Hurry up, Jenks. I'm no good at monologues."

"I never liked the move Titanic," I said, and he grunted, his gaze sharpening on me. "They both could have gotten on that damn door."

"What are you doing now?" Al questioned, listing heavily as he tucked another one of those bottles under his arm and staggered for the cot half hidden behind the curtain. "Seeing if your circumcision is gone? It is."
My expression went blank, and Trent hesitated, a silk sock in his hand as he felt the underside of his big toe. He looked at me, and I put a hand to my mouth, face flaming. "Oh. My. God. Trent. I'm sorry." Crap on toast, could I screw this up any more?
"Um," Trent said, clearly at a loss.
"Call me tomorrow," Al said seriously, pointing at him with a bottle as he reclined on the cot. "I've got a curse that will take care of that."