In a new twist on the classic Hades/Persephone myth, contemporary teen Nikki has been given a six-month reprieve from the Everneath to tie up the loose ends in her life. Narrator Amy Rubinate’s slightly breathy voice captures Nikki as she tries to resume her friendships and familial relationships, and to reconcile with Jack, the boy whose memory helped her to maintain her identity during her century-long imprisonment below. As Nikki and Jack search for a way to escape her obligation to the Everneath, Rubinate evokes Nikki’s despair, her longing to stay with Jack, and her destructive fascination with Cole, the boy who originally lured her to her doom. Rubinate’s charismatic narration delivers the sweeping romance of this taut mythological tale. J.M. © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine

Seventeen-year-old Nikki Beckett has just returned from the mythical underworld known as the Everneath, where her six-month stay felt (to her) like a century. Now her father, the town’s mayor, doesn’t trust her; her relationship with her ex-boyfriend, Jack, is in flux; and everyone else thinks she’s a recovering drug addict. She has six months of real life left before she must make a choice: be eternally condemned to the Tunnels, where her life will be drained away, or become one of the immortal Everliving, feeding off of “Forfeits” like herself, who have succumbed to despair (Nikki’s pain is the result of her mother’s death in a car crash). With her former captor, Cole, pressuring her to choose the latter option, Nikki discovers the awful truths about the Everneath. Jumping frequently between Nikki’s time before and after her capture, this dark romance, Ashton’s debut, is complex and intriguing. Drawing inspiration from such myths as Osiris, Orpheus, and Persephone, it explores the nature of loss and longing and what it means to be alive. Ages 14–up. Agent: Dystel & Goderich Literary Management. (Jan.)

Enthralling and suspenseful, EVERNEATH is pure indulgent escapism!

I was pulled under by this bittersweet, beautiful retelling of the Persephone myth. Ashton's lovely storytelling and strong-on-her-own-terms main character set this one apart. Wonderful!

In a new twist on the classic Hades/Persephone myth, contemporary teen Nikki has been given a six-month reprieve from the Everneath to tie up the loose ends in her life. Narrator Amy Rubinate’s slightly breathy voice captures Nikki as she tries to resume her friendships and familial relationships, and to reconcile with Jack, the boy whose memory helped her to maintain her identity during her century-long imprisonment below. As Nikki and Jack search for a way to escape her obligation to the Everneath, Rubinate evokes Nikki’s despair, her longing to stay with Jack, and her destructive fascination with Cole, the boy who originally lured her to her doom. Rubinate’s charismatic narration delivers the sweeping romance of this taut mythological tale. J.M. © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine

Ashton's debut is a melancholy, modern retelling of Greek underworld myths. Nikki Beckett regains lucidity after a 100-year Feed in the Everneath. Cole, the immortal Everliving who brought her there willingly to feed on her emotions and life, is delighted that she has emerged from the Feed intact and offers her the chance to become an Everliving herself. Instead, Nikki chooses to go back and deliver the goodbyes she neglected when she initially fled the living world, though she cannot tell her loved ones where she has spent the past few months, which seriously hampers the repairing of relationships. Additionally, she has only six months before the Tunnels, the darkest part of the Everneath, claim her as a battery until the underworld drains her out of existence. As readers see her trying to find how to say goodbye, flashbacks reveal why she was in enough emotional pain to agree to go with Cole in the first place. While Cole persistently chases her, wanting her to return as his queen, she resists; choosing Cole means dooming another to her fate. A slightly overextended romantic subplot involving Jack, the boyfriend she left behind, resolves in time for a desperate Hail Mary pass. The intense prose is slow-motion grieving mixed with mythology, awakening hope and redemption--a mix ideal for angst connoisseurs. (Paranormal romance. 13 & up)