Everlasting by Angie Frazier

**2010 Debut Author Challenge List**
Reading level: Young Adult
Hardcover: 336 pages
Publisher: Scholastic Press (June 1, 2010)

Summary: Sailing aboard her father's ship is all seventeen-year-old Camille Rowen has ever wanted. But as a lady in 1855 San Francisco, her future is set: marry a man she doesn't love in order to preseve her social standing. On her last voyage before the wedding, Camille learns the mother she has always believed dead is in fact alive and in Australia. When their Sydney-bound ship goes down in a gale, and her father dies, Camille sets out to find her mother and a map in her possession - a map believed to lead to a stone that once belonged to the legendary civilization of the immortals. The stone can do exactly what Camille wants most: bring someone back from the dead. Unfortunately, her father's adversary is also on the hunt for the stone, and she must race him to it. The only person Camille can depend on is Oscar - a handsome young sailor and her father's first mate - who is in love with Camille and whom she is inexplicably drawn to despite his low social standing and her pending wedding vows.

With an Australian card shark acting as their guide, Camille eludes murderous bushrangers, traverses dangerous highlands, evades a curse placed on the stone, and unravels the mystery behind her mother's disappearance sixteen years earlier. But when another death shakes her conviction to resurrect her father, Camille must choose what - and who - matters most.

My review: Camilla didn't expect her last sailing with her sea captain father to be what it becomes: a trip filled with heartbreak, loss, adventure, discovery and love. Reading Everlasting is like watching a colorized black-and-white movie. The author deftly handled details from the time period of the 1800's in Australia, never bogging the reader with too much detail. Camilla's adventure starts out slowly (oftentimes the most enjoyable stories do) and we see the prim and proper young lady she is supposed to be but doesn't feel comfortable acting as. She is engaged to Randall and when they kiss she expects something to happen--a trickle of desire, a fluttering in her chest--and yet she feels nothing. When her hand brushes against Oscars' hand as she boards the ship, she experiences what she should have when she said goodbye to her fiancée. But what can she do when she learns from her father her marriage to the wealthy Randall holds more importance to her family's future than she could have ever imagined?

I'm glad I began this book without knowing anything about it. I didn't read the summary, skipped the reviews, I didn't even read the back flap. It was a good thing. Everlasting was an old-fashioned story complete with knife-wielding bad guys, a magical map and a quest, ghosts from the past, and love. The story moves at a steady pace and the secondary characters are drawn out well. Frazier's writing made me hear Ira singing his ditty and feel the hatred from McGreenery's eyes as he stared at Camille. This was also a nice break from some of the other fast-paced stories I read and I really liked it.

Favorite excerpt: "The wind kicked up, blowing Camille's hair across her cheek. The locks tickled her nose and whipped into her eyes.

Oscar tucked the wild strands of hair behind her ear. Like the time he'd touched her cheek on the Christina, his hand left a trail of fire. He rested his hand against her neck, and pressed his fingers into her skin just enough to make the blood inside her veins throb. She had the sudden urge to melt right into him, to just let him absorb her and keep her safe and snug. She'd wanted this moment for so long, though she'd tried desperately to ignore that she did. She had a duty. A duty to her father, to Randall.

"Don't doubt what you want, Camille," Oscar whispered as the space between them closed. His eyes, as gray and brooding as the incoming storm, didn't waver from hers. His lips were full and inviting, the warmth of his body, alluring." (pages 223-224, ARC edition)

Rating: ++++

Cover comment: As much as I enjoyed the book I thought the cover was a bit too cute. The artwork focuses on Camille and Oscar but the only time they're in a ditty is when he's rescuing her. A cover portraying that scene would've made me pick this book up off a shelf.

For fans of: Historical adventure stories with a hint of romance.

Book source: Traveling ARC Tours.

Reviewed by: Laurie