Ever
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Ever

3.38 of 5 stars 3.38  ·  rating details  ·  7,550 ratings  ·  1,145 reviews

Falling in love is never easy, but falling in love with an immortal god while your days on earth are numbered is almost more than a young girl can bear.

Newbery Honor author Gail Carson Levine has created a stunning new world of flawed gods, unbreakable vows, and ancient omens in this spellbinding story of Kezi, a girl confronted with a terrible destiny. Attempting to th

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Hardcover, 244 pages
Published May 1st 2008 by HarperCollins
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Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson LevineThe Goose Girl by Shannon HaleBeauty by Robin McKinleyFairest by Gail Carson LevineThe Princess Bride by William Goldman
The Best Fairytales and Retellings
16th out of 588 books — 3,533 voters
Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson LevinePrincess Academy by Shannon HaleThe Goose Girl by Shannon HaleThe Two Princesses of Bamarre by Gail Carson LevineFairest by Gail Carson Levine
Best Pre Teen Female Fantasy Novels
12th out of 347 books — 483 voters


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Community Reviews

(showing 1-30 of 12,362)
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Jennifer Wardrip
Reviewed by Lynn Crow for TeensReadToo.com

Olus, the young god of the wind, prefers to live with humans rather than his divine companions, all of whom are hundreds of years older than he is. In his travels he can't help noticing and falling in love with the beautiful and talented Kezi. At first he forces himself to be content merely watching, but then Kezi's father makes a deadly oath, and Kezi has only a month left to live. Unwilling to let her die, Olus reveals himself and offers Ke...more
Rachel
Rachel rated it 1 of 5 stars
I bought this book with great anticipation. I loved the author's previous works, and I was looking forward to a nice enjoyable read. I found something quite different.

First, I found the characters to be flat, one demensional, and simplistic. Perhaps Levine was trying to catch the simplicity of the setting, ancient times, with her tale, but I found it lacking her usual magic.

Second, and most importantly to me, I found her presentation of the female's god hitting too clo...more
Robbie
Robbie rated it 5 of 5 stars
Shelves: 5-star-ratings
From http://rowijo.void-star.net

The title of this post is my favorite quote from Ever, the new novel by Gail Carson Levine. Y’know, she wrote Ella Enchanted? And then some other books that weren’t as good in my personal opinion? Anyway, this one is amazingly good to the point of being ridiculous. It’s so good, it’s almost like eating chocolate. Unless you don’t like chocolate, in which case you probably aren’t allowed to read in the insane asylum you are in.

The story is t...more
Christina
Christina rated it 3 of 5 stars
Shelves: young-adult
I love Gail Carson Levine. She has a classic style that I love, which is also easy to read. That being said, this newest novel of hers was nothing like the Gail I knew! I did enjoy this one, quite a bit in fact, but it was definitely not you average princess story!

So, if you are going to read this novel, I have 3 bits of advise. First, just keep moving past the beginning. You are going to read the first two pages and go "hmmmmmmm...." but keep going! Second, get used t...more
Laura
Laura rated it 4 of 5 stars
I was a bit baffled by this book at first. I couldn’t figure out if I liked it because it is by Gail Carson Levine who I highly admire or because I actually enjoyed the book. I certainly like Fairest and Ella Enchanted more, but Ever is still really good.

Kezi lives with her Mati and Pado under her God, Admat. Her Mati gets sick very suddenly, and her Pado promises to Admat to sacrifice the first person to congratulate him if her Mati gets better. Kezi is already nearly 16, the age at...more
Melissa T
I wanted to like this because I like so many other books by this author...but it was utterly impossible. The very first chapter starts out stupid -- strange-and-hard-to-remember-names, odd notions about gods etc., and absurdly short sentences. Why is it that when certain authors are trying to write from the perspective of someone from long ago he/she assume the characters don't speak their language very well? It's almost as if Levine was trying to imitate a weak translation into English. She...more
Regan
Regan rated it 5 of 5 stars
All over, I enjoyed this book much more than Ella Enchanted and Fairest (to this day, I still don't really like Ella Enchanted, but Fairest is high on my list of favorites). Olus and Kezi are star-crossed lovers in a desert world, and they meet at a wedding only to fall in love immediately.

Ever is fantasically funny at times, and also heart-wrenchingly sappy. There are indeed its moments of cliche, but it's all-over well done. Imagination takes over, with only a few details to give ...more
Sam
Sam rated it 1 of 5 stars
I wasn't expecting much, and didn't get much out of this book. Gail Carson Levine just hasn't written as good a fairytale since "Ella Enchanted".

Besides the fact that I thought the whole storyline was rather *ahem* stupid, I thought it was weak, the characters were weak...it just lacked the special "something", I thought. I didn't care about the characters, didn't care what dangers they went through, or whether or not they'd make it in the end. It won't be one I'...more
Lucy
Lucy rated it 2 of 5 stars
Shelves: fantasy, kidlit, 2009
Olus is the Akkan god of winds, powerful and lonely. Kezi is a beloved daughter, bright dancer, talented weaver. When a rash oath leaves Kezi counting down the days until her inevitable death, Olus can't help but get involved. Now, Olus and Kezi have to be brave--more than brave--in order to achieve the greatest possible risk. At stake is everything both of them hold dear. The price of failure is high--but the promise of success holds all that their hearts desire.

Sometimes I fee...more
Needleroozer
Needleroozer rated it 3 of 5 stars
Recommends it for: younger teenagers into romance novels
Shelves: young-adult
This book is different from other that I have read by Gail Carson Levine in that it was about gods and goddesses and not about princess and princes and dragons and fairies and wizards and gryphons. But it was a fairy tale about love, so it's similar to her other books in that way.

The two main characters are the 17 year-old male wind god and a slightly younger female mortal. The wind god is kind and the mortal is lovely and weaves rugs and loves to dance. They meet and fall in love, b...more
Amber
Amber rated it 4 of 5 stars
A great fast read, this book had part Norse, part Mesopotamian myth incorporated its story lines. I of course I snatched up this book immediately when I saw Gail Carson Levine had published a new one, but even if she wasn't one of my favorite Juvie/YA authors, the first few lines on the back cover would have captured me:

He is watching me.
He is flawless, without a blemish. Majestic... Muscular.

Our hero, Olus, an Akkan God, is lonely in the heavens; the only ch...more
Emily Beeson
Emily Beeson rated it 3 of 5 stars
Recommends it for: fairy tale fanatics
Ever by Gail Carson Levine
Review by Emily of Deliciously Clean Reads

Ever is a brand new fairy tale brought to you by the author of Ella Enchanted, Fairest, and many other great stories.Ever is told from both the perspective of Olus, god of winds, and the mortal girl he falls in love with, Kezi.

Olus lives a lonely life. None of the other gods are even close to his age. When he turns 17, he leaves the Akkan gods and seeks a life with the mortals. He becomes a goathe...more
Laura
CIP: “Teenaged Kezi is to be sacrificed to the Hyte god because of a rash promise made by her father, but young Olus, Akkan god of the winds, falls in love with her and together they try to change her fate through a series of quests.”

This story of star-crossed lovers, the human Kezi and the immortal Olus, gains extra interest from its exotic pastoral setting and the unexpected elements of folklore and mythology. While the love story sometimes seems a little too perfect, it also raise...more
Sella Thorne
I love this book!!! It's so creative and amazing. The plot is so well-developed and complex, as are the characters. It's so fast-paced and exciting; the book captivated me from the first page to last, and I literally couldn't put it down- I finished it in a day, and only took breaks when I had to. I love Levine's writing style; it is really unique...it's poetic and musical and feels like a song. And something about it is so mesmerizing; her style has me hypnotized.

This is even better...more
Lia
Lia rated it 2 of 5 stars
Shelves: retellings
This book is okay for a no-brainer read, but it really falls short of being a good book in some key ways. The first is that the characters are only presented on the surface and never beyond. The main character does come to some interesting realizations about her belief in God, but it still doesn't amount to real character development.

Since there isn't any character development, this leads to the second major problem, which is that the interactions between the characters are also ver...more
Jessie Bear
Olus and Kezi fall in love and battle a horrible fate by braving separate trials. The premise of the book draws readers in, but the excitement of starting a new fairy tale by the wonderful Gail Carson Levine quickly wanes with the novel’s tedious exposition. There are a lot of prayer rituals and the like, which establish the importance of faith and belief but perhaps at the price of the reader’s interest. These themes are central, as the characters start asking questions about what they belie...more
Burçak Kılıç
Ben hikayeyi sevdim. Mitolojik güzel bi hikayeydi.
Rüzgar tanrısı Olus doğumundan beri insanların dünyasında yaşamak istemektedir. Bu sebeple yeryüzünde bi adamın arazisinde çobanlık yapmaya başlıyor. Ve gizli gizli işveren adamı ve ailesini tanrısal güçleriyle izliyor.
Adamın karısı ölümcül bi hastalığa yakalanıyor ama tanrıların iyileştirme gücü yokmuş. Bu insanlarda başka tanrıya inanıyorlar ve adam karım iyileşirse ilk tebrik edeni kurban etcem diyor. Ve baldızı tebrik etmaya çalışı...more
Neeraja S
Olus, the God of the Winds is a lonely young man earnestly flying across the skies searching for someone who would be his friend and companion instead of revering or fearing him. His parents repeatedly warn him against getting entangled with mortals, whom they allude to as soap-bubbles, due to their evanescent existence. Inevitably, Olus finds himself enraptured and in love with a pretty damsel, Kezi, whom he ardently follows, taking the role of her guardian angel. Due to the twisted mix of a de...more
Kayna Olsen
In this novel Kezi falls in love with Olus, God of the Wind, before even knowing he is a god. Then after she finds out she can't help but trying to worship him until he finally gets it through to her that he doesn't want her to do such things. These two falling in love would be wonderful except that well, Olus is an immortal god and Kezi only has one month to live before she must be sacrificed to Admat the God of All, which none of the Akkan Gods has ever heard of. For a marriage to occur betwee...more
Rebecca
Enjoyable and interesting, but not as good as Gail's previous books. Ever is not noticeably based on any previous tale, which is a plus for originality. However, the story flip flops POVs between the two main characters and is slightly unbelievable at times emotion-wise. The main girl meets and falls in love with the main guy, who is a god of a foreign land. She comes from a place that believes in one god, essentially the Christian God, though this is not what they call him in the book. The main...more
Shanayaj
Have you ever felt like everyone was depending on you? Well in this romantic love story that’s how Kezi the main character feels when her mother was struck with a terrible sickness, and the only way she was going to live was if Kezi’s live was sacrificed. Join Kezi’s journey as you read the book EVER by Gail Carson Levine.

In this book the main character Kezi loves to dance and was always cheerful until her mother became very ill. Kezi wants her mother to live...more
Kiera Beddes
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
Shauna
Shauna rated it 4 of 5 stars
Although this was not what I expected from someone who writes lovely princess and fairy tales, as it deals more with ancient mythology than fairy tales, I did end up enjoying it all right. What I found most interesting was the discussion of how different societies believe in and worship different types of gods. I enjoyed Levine's take on early Mesopotamian gods (immortal beings dedicated to various aspects of life, i.e. pottery, agriculture, wind), including how interactive they are with their...more
Connie
Connie rated it 4 of 5 stars
Shelves: grade-school
I've enjoyed reading books by this author. That's why I picked this one. The AR reading level is 3-4th grade, though I think a few things will go right over an 8 year old's head. One being the chapter headings changing who the author determines the 1st person to be. I hadn't noticed she was doing this at first. Then by the 3 or 4th chapter I was confused... now, who's story is this suppose to be about? The boy or the girl's? Lucky for me, I was only mixed up a few other times and simply h...more
Mikel
Terrible. This is NOT one of her better works. She obviously attempted to shake up her writing style and it did not work out. The book is written in first person switching in between the two main characters but their dialog is juvenile to the point of being childish. The sentences are short and choppy as if her audience didn't have the mental capabilities to deal with more. I felt like I was back in kindergarten reading 'See Spot Run.' I was willing to make allowance for it in the beginning as t...more
Julie
Julie rated it 3 of 5 stars
I liked the uniqueness of this book. I found it an entertaining bit of fluff (not a bad thing in my book), but not particularly captivating.

I appreciated that it was based on a different body of lore than most current fantasy, which almost always has a tie in or more to medieval Europe and related fairy tales. Even though I liked that breaking out of the mold, I think that was part of what made it less accessible, and her writing and storytelling were trying to match. We like unique...more
Kermit's BFF
I normally love anything by Levine.
Normally.
But this was book....different. I wasn't expecting much, gotta love goodreads reviews, but I was expecting something!! Someone pointed out the characters were flat, another said the writing was simplistic. Its all that but more. I felt no sympathy for the main characters, not the mortal girl or her supposed god of the wind.
The writing wasn't as magical, its almost impossible to imagine, or care, what happens next.
Mostly though,...more
Meagan
Meagan rated it 2 of 5 stars
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
Lexie
First for anyone looking for another book set in the same universe as Ella Enchanted, Fairest or the Princess Tales collection should look away now. This is a stand alone book with no ties to any other book she has written. Which is both in its favor and against it I think.

And yes my main gripe about it during the Read-a-thon was the fact the girl on the cover is depicted as brunette with blue eyes (never happens...no wait Sarah MacLean's cover for The Season has a brunette with blue...more
Arya
Arya rated it 3 of 5 stars
For me this book was enjoyable...enjoyable, but not memorable. No "gods and goddesses" of fiction can ever compare with the Greek gods.

Kezi is a weaver of rugs and a dancer. She is a joy to watch and everyone in her family adores the sweet girl.

Olus is the Akkan god of the winds. The "lonely" god. He travels far from his Akkan land and becomes a sojourner in Hyte.

From afar he watches Kezi and her family. They are so passionate abou...more
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Gail Carson Levine grew up in New York City and has been writing all her life. Her first book for children, Ella Enchanted, was a 1998 Newbery Honor Book. Levine's other books include Fairest; Dave at Night, an ALA Notable Book and Best Book for Young Adults; The Wish; The Two Princesses of Bamarre; and the six Princess Tales books. She is also the author of the nonfiction book Writing Magic: Crea...more
More about Gail Carson Levine...
Ella Enchanted Fairest The Two Princesses of Bamarre The Princess Test (Princess Tales) The Fairy's Mistake

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“He is flawless, without a blemish. Majesic . . . muscular.” 27 people liked it
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