Review: Lifeblood by Gena Showalter

Lifeblood

Author: Gena Showalter

Release Date: February 28, 2017

Publisher: Harlequin Teen

Everlife Book #2

ISBN:   0373212194

ISBN13: 9780373212194

Genre: Young Adult Fantasy

Review Copy Source: NetGalley

My Firstlife is over, but my Everlife is only now beginning.

With her last living breath, Tenley "Ten" Lockwood made her choice and picked her realm in the Everlife. Now, as the war between Troika and Myriad rages, she must face the consequences.

Because Ten possesses a rare supernatural ability to absorb and share light, the Powers That Be have the highest expectations for her future—and the enemy wants her neutralized. Fighting to save her Secondlife, she must learn about her realm from the ground up while launching her first mission: convincing a select group of humans to join her side before they die. No pressure, right?

But Ten's competition is Killian, the boy she can't forget—the one who gave up everything for her happiness. He has only one shot at redemption: beating Ten at a game she's never even played. As their throw-downs heat up, so do their undeniable feelings, and soon, Ten will have to make another choice. Love…or victory.

Ten's Firstlife is over and Everlife starts with a bang.

LIFEBLOOD starts exactly where FIRSTLIFE left off. There is a lot of confusion on the battlefield and in Ten's mind. The consequences of her choice hits pretty quickly when she finds herself torn between protecting Killian—the boy she loves— and helping Troika—the side of the Everlife she chose— win the fight. I didn't find Ten to be as independent and strong as she was in FIRSTLIFE which kinda bummed me out. She got stronger throughout the story, but I wanted her to kick ass and take names from the get-go.

The romance in LIFEBLOOD was all over the place just like it was supposed to be. Ten lives in a totally different Everlife than Killian and the push and pull they feel towards each other is hard to ignore and even harder to act on. Showalter did a great job in keeping us on our toes in regards to figuring out if Killian's feelings were real or just part of the job his superiors set him on. In the end you know, but it was hard to figure out and the suspense just about killed me.

LIFEBLOOD had a nice quick pace to it, but I felt that it could have been slowed down at some points. It was hard to really connect to some of the scenes. I enjoyed learning about Troika and thought the world building was nicely done. I'm excited to see what the last book, EVERLIFE, will give us. 

I gave it 3.5/5 stars

* This book was provided free of charge from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.