Review: Once Every Never by Lesley Livingston

Grade: 3 Butterflies

Name: Once Every Never (Never #1)
Author: Lesley Livingston
Publisher: Penguin Canada
Pages: Paperback 312

Goodreads Summary

Clarinet Reid is a pretty typical teenager. 

On the surface. 

She's smart, but a bit of a slacker; outgoing, but just a little insecure; not exactly a mischief-maker, but trouble tends to find her wherever she goes. 

Also? She unwittingly carries a centuries-old Druid Blood Curse running through her veins.

Now, with a single thoughtless act, what started off as the Summer Vacation in Dullsville suddenly spirals into a deadly race to find a stolen artifact, avert an explosive catastrophe, save a Celtic warrior princess, right a dreadful wrong that happened centuries before Clare was even born, and if there's still time, literally, maybe even get a date.

This is the kind of adventure that happens to a girl once every, never.

So, I read Lesley Livingston Wondrous Strange series and really loved it. And I bought this one right when it came out a couple years ago. I just now read it and it was really good. I loved, loved the plot, it was so tragic in some places that I cried. However, There was somethings that held it back from being great.

So, this starts out with our main character, Clare, and her friend Al staying in London for the summer with Clare's aunt. And Something happens to Clare with some artifacts in a museum that her aunt works for. Let me start by saying Clare was very annoying in the beginning. She just come off as a stairitipical bratty teenager. She only thought about boys and shopping and everything that wasn't that was deemed uncool. She evolved through the book to a more developed character, but she still was a little annoying in the end.

Before I go farther I'm going to break this book up into to parts, the present story and the past's story. I do this, because while these stories are intertwined by our main character, both of them had completely different tones to them.

I loved this plot, I loved the pacing of it, I loved the writing in it, I loved the comedy in it. I especially loved the past's plot, because it felt so tragic. And it's the tragic stories that really stick with a reader, I cried so many times throughout this book. I just loved it and I loved all of the characters in this part of the book best. However, I felt like the plot in the present held that tragic element from evolving and making the plot great. I felt this way, because while the presents tone was nice for a summery type of book it isn't nice when half the book has a tragic tone to it. I just felt that it held it back.

Don't think that I didn't like the presents plot, I do. It's funny and light and fast. I just don't think it goes while with that tragic element. And also in the end the light fluffiness overpowered the tragicness. So, it is more of a summery read then a emotional read.

One thing I want to say that really annoyed me in this book was how in the beginning at least 10 words in one page would be italicized. I don't know why this is, whether the editor or the writer did it, but it annoyed the hell out of me. I think this had a huge part in me not liking the main character, because it made the characters sound whinny and just plain annoying. Gladly this went away about half way through the book, so I didn't have to suffer through it in the whole book.

Overall, I think this was a light book that would be a fun read on a summer afternoon. I wish the present's tone was more in sync with the past's, because then it would have gotten 4.5 stars. But alas, it wasn't and the author had to do that for the ending. Even though I think the ending that made you cry was better (people who read this will understand what that just meant). I would recommend this book for every ones summer TBR.

This book got..

3 Butterflies

Basic, nothing special.

Recommend if you like: Summery stories, historical fiction, and the Wondrous Strange Series.



That's my review, come back tomorrow for another one.
Happy reading