Shallow stock characters barely mar the breathless allure of this formulaic supernatural romance, the first in the Immortals series, though feeble explanations wreck the ending. Ever (her very name a clue to immortality) lives the life of the wealthy in Orange County. Sister Riley visits daily in ghost form, having died with their parents in an accident that Ever perplexingly survived. Deluged by everyone’s thoughts and auras, Ever wears hoodies and iPod earbuds as shelter from psychic clamor, until mysterious hottie Damen silences it. This genre’s core ingredients are all present: a new school, paranormal events the heroine doesn’t understand and a deadly enemy fought by an irresistible, possibly-dangerous boy. Ever’s vernacular voice (description via negation: “it’s not like I haven’t had my hand touched before”) and amorous fixation will gratify romance fans. However, Noël’s metaphysics makes no sense. Manifestations are “simple quantum physics,” Ever is murdered lifetime after lifetime but escapes this time due to the serial murderer’s “lack of love” and the narrative never explains the prime ontological poser of how Ever reincarnates with a new body and consciousness yet remains herself. (aura color chart) (Fantasy. YA)
