Book Review: Once by Anna Carey

Once by Anna Carey
(Eve, #2)
Release Date: July 3, 2012
Publisher: HarperCollins; 320 pages

Sixteen years have passed since a deadly virus wiped out most of the Earth’s population. After learning of the terrifying part she and her classmates were fated to play in the rebuilding of New America, eighteen-year-old Eve fled to the wilds and Califia, a haven for women determined to live outside the oppressive rule of the king of New America. However, her freedom came at a price: she was forced to leave Caleb, the boy she loves, wounded and alone at the city gates. Eve quickly learns that Califia may not be as safe as it seems and soon finds herself in the City of Sand and the palace of the king. There she uncovers the real reason he was so intent on her capture, and the unbelievable role he intends her to fill. When she is finally reunited with Caleb, they will enact a plan as daring as it is dangerous. But will Eve once again risk everything—her freedom, her life—for love?

I want to start off by thanking the author, Anna Carey, for choosing me as her winner for an autographed arc copy of ONCE on twitter. I was at work when I got the tweet from her and I couldn’t have been more excited. Sadly, at that time I hadn’t read Eve (I had just gotten it) but I was excited, nonetheless. (It’s been a book I’ve been wanting to read since before it came out) If you’ve read my review for EVE you’ll know I LOVED the book and I read it in four hours. So when ONCE arrived at my house RIGHT before Christmas, I couldn’t have been more excited. But I was afraid to read it because I’m impatient and I hate waiting. EVE doesn’t come out until July so I knew it would be at least a year from now (if not more) until we saw the next book but I couldn’t resist reading it. I am kicking myself now because the ending is just plain torture.

Let’s back it up a bit here because I’m getting ahead of myself. Writing a review for a sequel is always so hard because you don’t want to spoil anything for someone so I will try my best here. We left off in EVE with Caleb not allowed to enter Califia because it’s only for girls, so they’ve become separated. We start ONCE a few months later of EVE having stayed in Califia and making friends, sort of. She hasn’t seen Caleb or even heard of a sighting of him and it breaks her heart, it breaks mine, as well. He has to be alive, right? Well, finally one of the girls spill about talks of him…about a stray who they came across who was wearing shoes very similar, too similar, to the ones Caleb was wearing the last time they saw each other and said he picked them off of a guy who was badly injured. Eve loves Caleb and of course she’s going to risk everything to go find him. Unfortunately, it’s not what she thinks it is and she captured by the King’s soldiers.

This is where things get tricky. I can’t really say much more without ruining the rest of the book so I will tread carefully. There was a huge surprise that I certainly did not see coming. But it was a pleasant surprise, one I am very thankful for. Though it’s not all rainbows and unicorns with this twist…oh no, not at all.

We meet Moss in this book and you’ll never guess who he is until he outs himself to Eve. I adore Moss even more after knowing who he was and I cannot wait to see more of him in the next book. We get the opportunity to meet the King in this book and I’m torn on whether I should hate him or not. I’m leaning more towards loathing him. We meet so many new people in this book, those against the King, those right there with him and then those who are stuck somewhere in between. This book is building up for some very exciting things to come in the next book.

Caleb. I know you all are wondering about him since I haven’t really mentioned him. He’s in this book and he’s just as dreamy as he was in EVE. Things are riskier than they were in the previous novel but nothing ever stops love, right? Things are heating up between Eve and Caleb, things she was always warned against but they feel so right with Caleb. They come up with a plan to run away together and leave behind the City of Sand forever but at what cost? Their lives? Their relationship?

If you loved EVE you will love ONCE. It’s got a lot of heartbreak, a lot of romance and a lot of promise of what’s to come. My heart breaks more than once while reading this book and to be honest, it’s still broken with the cliffhanger. You’ll enjoy this book so much but you’ll want to throw it across the room when it ends. It’s a good emotion, trust me. I just get so excited thinking about what is going to come, or what I hope is going to come.

*highlight to view spoiler* Caleb CANNOT be dead. He just cannot. That would break all of our hearts. I'm holding on to the hope that, again, he was only injured. But the not knowing for sure it torture. Plain, ole torture. *sigh* Though, he can't be dead...cause he's our main characters love interest...but still, the cliffhanger is just horrible. (In a good way lol) *spoiler*