Review: Once

Title: Once
Author: Anna Carey
Series: Eve Trilogy #2
Publisher: Harper Collins
Find it here: Amazon, Goodreads
Source: ARC from publisher

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.

My thoughts:

Once is the second book in Anna Carey’s Eve trilogy about a dystopian United States that is trying to rebuild the New America after the plague killed off millions of people. In an attempt to repopulate, most girls are sent off to be used a breeders without their choice or consent. Once picks up only a few months after Eve and it is very fast paced right from the beginning!

Eve, the main character learns so much more of the world in Once. There is a big revelation about a quarter of the way in and she has to figure out how to from this new mess that she finds herself in. Even though I really enjoyed the fast paced nature of the novel, it was one dilemma after another, one adventure after another. There was no time in between to process what had just happened. If you wanted to do that you would have to put the book down. So it also seemed like Eve didn’t have any time to process what was happening.

There wasn’t as much Caleb in Once as there was in Eve. He was very elusive, popping up here and there, trying to stay one step ahead of the King. But of course, what’s always most important to him is the safety of Eve and trying to get her out of the King’s clutches. He’s so cute, always worrying about her!

Surprisingly, I really liked Charles who is one of the new characters and there becomes something of a love triangle. I honestly think he has a lot of good intentions and wants to do good for the City of Sand and the New America! He brings up a lot of tough decisions that Eve is going to have to make later! There are also a lot of sad parts that made me wish that Eve could just save everyone! Arden is one of my favorite characters and I hope we see her more in the third novel!

I’m really interested to see how all of this wraps up in Rise, the third novel. It’s nice to know ahead of time that the series is going to end and that it’s not going to be a never ending series (those are the worst sometimes). Overall I really enjoyed Once! I give Once 4 hearts because I thought it was an improvement from Eve and I was always guessing at to what was around the next corner!