Item: Under the Never Sky
Rating: 4.5
Author: Meg

{Review} Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi

Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi
Also by this author: Through the Ever Night, Roar and Liv, Brooke, Into the Still Blue
Series: Under the Never Sky #1
Also in this series: Through the Ever Night, Roar and Liv, Brooke, Into the Still Blue
Published by HarperCollins on January 3, 2012
Genres: Dystopian
Pages: 374
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WORLDS KEPT THEM APART.

DESTINY BROUGHT THEM TOGETHER.

Aria has lived her whole life in the protected dome of Reverie. Her entire world confined to its spaces, she's never thought to dream of what lies beyond its doors. So when her mother goes missing, Aria knows her chances of surviving in the outer wasteland long enough to find her are slim.

Then Aria meets an outsider named Perry. He's searching for someone too. He's also wild - a savage - but might be her best hope at staying alive.

If they can survive, they are each other's best hope for finding answers.

The 411:

Aria has spent her life in Reverie. Perry is an outsider. A chance meeting starts a spiral of events that leads to chaos. All they can see is that they are from opposite worlds with nothing in common. But when they realize they might be each other’s last hope, they begin to see that maybe they aren’t all that different.

What We Loved:

There’s so much to love about this one and we continue to kick ourselves for waiting so long to read it. We picked it up a few months after it released, but we wish that we’d read it the second it came out. Here are a few of our favorite aspects:

The Characters: Every character in this story is created with a purpose. Some are loveable, while others are easy to hate. They are relatable and real, and most importantly none of them feel contrived in any way. Not only are there amazing main characters, there is a cast of secondary characters that you will want to read about over and over.

The Writing: If we were writers, we would want to be like Veronica Rossi. No, really. She has a way with words that we haven’t seen before, and she has the ability to make even simple sentences beautiful. Her writing never feels forced, it’s never too much. When you read her words, you can see them playing in your mind, it’s not just reading the book, its experiencing it.

The Swoon: We’re not going to pretend for even a second that the swoon in UtNS isn’t our favorite thing, even with all the things we’ve gushed about you can’t deny the appeal of these words:

“Perry. I want to see your back.”

Another surprise, but he nodded and turned away. Dropped his head forward and took the moment to try and calm his breath. He jerked when she traced the shape of the wings on his skin, a groan sliding out of him. Perry silently cursed himself. He couldn’t have sounded more savage if he’d tried.

“Sorry,” she whispered…

“He’s magnificent. Like you,” she added softly.

That was what did it.”

Right? RIGHT!?! This is just a taste of the swoon that is contained in these pages, the rest of it is just as good, and not to be missed.

Um…Not So Much:

There are only a few things that bothered us, and most of it came down to lack of information. We wanted to know more about some of the aspects of the story- the aether, the pods, why the world was split the way it is. It’s not really something we didn’t like as much as it is our brain needing some clarification.

There was also the small issue of some of Perry’s traits. When we first read we were a little thrown off by Perry’s “dog-like” qualities and needed time to adjust. Trust us when we say, it doesn’t take long to embrace his canineness (Is that a word? It is now!) and fall in love. {For more on our “issues” and if they were resolved in book #2, check out our review of Through the Ever Night}

The Boys:

There are a lot of boys we could talk about, and while we think Vale, Talon, Cinder, Marron, Reef, and plenty of the others deserve our love, we want to concentrate on Perry and Roar.

We’ll start with Roar. Roar is one of those rare secondary male characters that you love almost as much as the hero. He makes everyone stronger. Perry, Aria… everyone. You can’t help but love him. Just look at this:

“Roar leaned across the table and smiled at her seductively, his dark hair falling into his eyes. ‘When you say everything happens in the Realms, do you mean everything?’

Aria laughed nervously.’Yes. Especially that.There are no risks in the Realms.’

Roar’s smile widened. ‘You simply think it and it happens? And it actually feels real?’

‘Why are we talking about this?’

‘I need a Smarteye,’ he said.”

*giggle* We love him. {For more of our Roar love, check out our Roar/Perry podcast episode here.}

Oh , look at that. We’ve saved the best for last. We’ll start by saying Perry is gorgeous. He’s tall, a little wild looking, with bright green eyes, long blonde hair, and swoon-worthy tattoos. But there’s so much more to him than that. He’s brave and strong, but at the same time when it comes to Aria he’s sweet and vulnerable. And his words? Oh, man his words. There’s this:

“Your voice sounds like a midnight fire. All warm and worn in and golden. I could listen to you talk forever.”

“I could never do that”.

She laughed at him. He brought his lips to her ear.

“Your scent is like violets early in spring,” he whispered. Then he laughed at himself because though it was true, he sounded like the worst kind of fool.”

and this…

“That was my first kiss,” she said. “My first real one.”

He brought his head close, resting his forehead on hers. Blond waves fell around her face, soft against her cheeks. His chest rose and fell as he drew in a breath. “Felt like the first real one for me, too.”

*dreamy sigh* We could basically quote everything he says here, but we want to leave a little mystery for you. Perry is one of a kind, and without a doubt, one of our favorites.

The Girls:

We could talk about Paisley, Aria’s best friend from the pods. Or Brooke, Perry’s outsider ”friend” that we’d rather pretend didn’t exist. But we think Aria deserves the spotlight.

More so than any other character, Aria goes through a tremendous amount of growth. You see her go from a “spoiled” dweller, to someone who embraces the outsider way of life. She has doubts, fears, and insecurities, but she’s tough and learns to hold her own. We think she’s extremely easy to relate too and one kick-ass heroine.

“She knew how to put one foot in front of the other even when every step hurt. And she knew there was pain in the journey, but there was also great beauty. She’d seen it standing on rooftops and in green eyes and in the smallest, ugliest rock.”

Bottom Line:

Action, adventure, humor, and romance combined in a dystopian package. It’s like a dream you never want to end.

Verdict:

Dream Cast:

It was very easy for us to find our Perry, but we have a small disclaimer before you see him. We know Perry is blonde, and we think Taylor could pull off that look, but putting the hair color aside, the way he moves, acts, and looks is all Perry.

Taylor Kitsch as “Perry”

Of course we had to find our Roar too. This was another one that didn’t take long. Here he is:

Michael Trevino as “Roar”

What We Think Will Happen Next:

We don’t want to spoil anything, but if you’ve already finished UtNS, check out our review of Through the Ever Night to see our thoughts on what happens next.