Evermore by Alyson Noel (The Immortals Series: Book 1)

5/10

Seventeen-year-old Ever is the sole survivor of a car crash that killed her entire family. Living with her aunt in Southern California, she's plagued by the ability to hear the thoughts of those around her, and haunted by the ghost of her little sister. She tries to tune everyone out, shunning her old lifestyle as the pretty, popular cheerleader, but somehow she can't hide from Damen, the new guy at school. Stunningly handsome, clever and not a little bit intimidating, there's something about him that doesn't quite add up. Ever realises he's hiding something, but nothing could prepare her for the truth - especially when the truth involves past lives, murderous enemies, everlasting love and the secret of eternal youth...

Although this book is interesting in its concept, it's still the typical story about a beautiful girl (Ever) falling in love with the mysterious good looking bloke (Damen) who joins her school. I found that most of the supporting cast were not fully rounded characters but are more there as filler so that in the final pages we can find out why they were really needed rather than believing that Alyson Nöel didn't want to make her heroine a complete outcast in the vast jungle that is American high schools (or at least the fictional ones).

I liked the idea of Immortals, that this take on paranormal romance did not have a Vampire as one of the main characters, but felt that there should have been more back story into how and why Damen is who he is. There were some great concepts such as alchemy, recurring souls, different planes of existence, telepathy. But none of these concepts were fully explained.

This is the first book in a series with at least another 4 books to follow, the newest one to be out sometime next year. I can only hope that Alyson Nöel takes the ideas she has started with and expands on them as that would make this series stand out from comparisons to Twilight.