Review: Firstlife by Gena Showalter

Title: Firstlife

Author:  Gena Showalter
Publisher: Harlequin

Publishing Date:  February 23rd, 2016

Pages:  467
Genre: YA Fantasy

Series:  Everlife #1
Source:  Audio

 

Step one...you die.
ONE CHOICE. TWO REALMS. NO SECOND CHANCE.
Tenley "Ten" Lockwood is an average seventeen-year-old girl…who has spent the past thirteen months locked inside the Prynne Asylum. The reason? Not her obsession with numbers, but her refusal to let her parents choose where she’ll live — after she dies. There is an eternal truth most of the world has come to accept: Firstlife is merely a dress rehearsal, and real life begins after death.
In the Everlife, two realms are in power: Troika and Myriad, long-time enemies and deadly rivals. Both will do anything to recruit Ten, including sending their top Laborers to lure her to their side. Soon, Ten finds herself on the run, caught in a wild tug-of-war between the two realms that will do anything to win the right to her soul. Who can she trust? And what if the realm she's drawn to isn't where the boy she's falling for lives? She just has to stay alive long enough to make a decision…

I received this book as an ARC a long long time ago and never read it. I am not sure why other than I did read a few not so nice reviews.  I decided to give the audio a try and I quite liked this book. It did have its slow moments and at times I was a bit confused. But all in all, it was an original read, very creative with the world building and I really enjoyed it. 

In the world of this book, there are two lives. Firstlife and Everlife. First life is the life you live once you are born and until you die, once you die, you enter into your Everlife. Everlife is a choice. Kind of like Heaven and Hell but not quite. They aren't good vs evil. Just one is more relentless and a little quicker to do what they must. They believe differently on how you live and what happens after the Everlife. But neither one is evil or good. One is just bright and the other dark. Like a field in the day and a forest at night. This is the story about one girl and both Everlife teams want her to decide to join them. Ten is her name. 

Ten hasn't decided to commit to either side. She is approached by a boy on both sides of the Everlife and they are trying to get her decision and commit while keeping her alive. IF she doesn't before she dies from her Firstlife then she will end up in a very not so nice place. 

Ten and the boys run into lots of trouble. All three learn about love and betrayal and the truth of what they are fighting for. 

I really loved this book. There were many things I really appreciated about this book. The world building was amazing and really thought through. I loved the Everlife realms and learning what they believed and why they believed it. I loved the writing. Part of the story was told in email format from the Everlife realms. These were fun. I liked the pacing, even though it was slow at times and rushed at others, I was interested the entire time and I always had something to learn about the worlds. I liked the characters. All of them. They all made me mad at times but they also made me love them. I also appreciated no love triangle. Ten had a relationship with both boys but one was romantic love the other was a strong friendship. No love triangle is a plus for me. 

I don't know what I loved more the characters or the world building. So I will start with the characters.  They were both great. Ten is a very interesting character. She isn't easy to love at first because she is hard. She has lived a very hard life and didn't have much love in her past. Her parents are both parts of the Myriad Everlife and they want her to choose Myriad, so they send her to a detention center to try and get her to choose. This place is rough. She has been there for a year and she has a few friends but is pretty much miserable. This is where she meets the boys Killian and Archer. 

I did have a hard time liking Ten at first, but once the story progressed and she opened up she was so likable, snarky and brave and heartfelt. She didn't want to commit to either realm because she didn't want to make the wrong decision. 

Killian is from Myriad and he is a little rougher out of the two boys. He is smooth and handsome and well bad boy but not really. He is sweet and loyal when it comes down to it. He tries to hide behind the charm and the bad boy vibes, but he is so much more. 

Archer is from Troika and he is completely different then Killian. He is positive and he is sunshine, sweet and kind, and authentic from the beginning. He is brave but prefers to not take the risky moves. He is very loyal to his beliefs. 

The two boys couldn't be more different than night and day or the realms they come from but both have an interest in Ten. They need her on their side. She is special and with her comes power. They fight for her and one ends up loving her while the other ends up respecting her. 

The romance isn't fast really but its there from the beginning. At least the attraction is. I liked the love story here and I am so glad there isn't a love triangle. The love story does make it even harder for Ten to decide where she wants to sign. 

There are a lot of different relationships going on in this book. there is also a lot of secrets, and betrayals, big adventures, and risks. 

The world building is just phenomenal in this book. It does read like a dystopian and a fantasy. Which I loved. From the realms of the world of Everlife to the world of Firstlife. The belief systems, the rivalries. There is so much to it and it was, like I said, so well thought out and played out. I really felt I was a part of this world and was quite sad when the book ended. I still need to read the second and will as soon as I get a chance. 

I really enjoyed this book, much more than I anticipated. It was a very pleasant surprise.

Gena Showalter is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of over thirty books in paranormal and contemporary romances, as well as young adult novels. Her series include White Rabbit Chronicles, Angels of the Dark, Otherworld Assassins, Lords of the Underworld, Alien Huntress and Intertwined.

Her novels have appeared in Cosmopolitan Magazine, and Seventeen Magazine, and have been translated all over the world. The critics have called her books "sizzling page-turners" and "utterly spellbinding stories", while Showalter herself has been called “a star on the rise”.