Once

Once (Eve #2)

Anna Carey

When you're being hunted, who can you trust?

For the first time since she escaped from her school many months ago, Eve can sleep soundly. She's living in Califia, a haven for women, protected from the terrifying fate that awaits orphaned girls in The New America.

But her safety came at a price: She was forced to abandon Caleb, the boy she loves, wounded and alone at the city gates. When Eve gets word that Caleb is in trouble, she sets out into the wild again to rescue him, only to be captured and brought to the City of Sand, the capital of The New America.

Trapped inside the City walls, Eve uncovers a shocking secret about her past--and is forced to confront the harsh reality of her future. When she discovers Caleb is alive, Eve attempts to flee her prison so they can be together--but the consequences could be deadly. She must make a desperate choice to save the ones she loves . . . or risk losing Caleb forever.

In this breathless sequel to "Eve," Anna Carey returns to her tale of romance, adventure, and sacrifice in a world that is both wonderfully strange and chillingly familiar.

First off, I'd like to say thank you so much to Epic Reads for this book! It made me so happy :D 

Unfortunately, though, Once wasn't quite as amazing as Eve. Don't get me wrong, it was definitely good. It just didn't wow me like the first book did! 

So, Eve is in Califia and Caleb was sent out into the real world b/c it's a women's only settlement (who would even want that?!). Arden shows up and they end up having to leave (circumstances are explained in the book). So, they go out and get captured by the king's men (idiots). They get split up and Eve ends up in the City of Sand (it's really not that sandy). Eve lives in the King's palace and hates it all. Caleb shows up and you're like "Yay, everything's gonna be great!" and of course you are wrong, and something happens to throw a wrench in their plans (doesn't that always happen?). From there it's basically a lot of coded communicating and Eve hating on everyone for the crap that's happened and trying her darndest to rescue people. And then some more bad things happen and plans fall through and the end is kind of abrupt. The plot wasn't awful, but not a whole lot of stuff happened. I mean, there isn't really any exciting action and the stuff that does happen is just a lot of sneaking around and kissing. It was all kind of bland.

I liked Eve a lot in the first book, but in this one? She totally bored me. She let people do things for her most of the time, and rarely had a backbone. Drove. Me. Insane. And then Caleb, who I also loved from the first book, was hardly in this one! And when he was, he wasn't as awesome. I just, I was kind of disappointed in the characters here. I dunno. They weren't terrible, mind you. They just weren't as amazing as I thought they were in Eve.

The cover is definitely pretty, though! That's always a plus.

I'll give Once 3 stars, because it does continue the story and made me want to read the next book. It just wasn't amazing. Once was another one of those books that just kind of was. It wasn't great and it wasn't terrible. 

This review wasn't the nicest (or best) one I've ever written, but school starts on Monday and I'm kinda stressed. I guess that came out in the review. It is all my opinion though, it just wasn't as kindly put as I usually try to do!

Again, I kept getting distracted my City of Bones movie set pics (Robbie is so cute!). 

Sooo yeah! Anyone read anything good lately? Need to decide what to read next. :D

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