Everlasting by Angie Frazier

 
Title: Everlasting

Author: Angie Frazier

Published: June 1, 2010 by Scholastic

Pages: 336

ISBN: 9780545114738

Source: ARC from Around The World Tours

Description: 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. 

I Give This ...
 

I have conflicting thoughts about this book.  The settings and locations were awesome.  I liked that the book was set in the mid 1800s.  I think it did a good job of depicting what life might have be like for a upper society young women.  I liked the fact the book takes place in America, the ocean, and Australia.  It gives the book an different sort of feel because of the varying locations.  I especially enjoyed that part of the story were the are aboard the ship sailing to Australia.  The author is great with the descriptions.  The entire part of the book dedicated to the sinking of the ship really made me feel like part of the story.  My problem was the searching for the stone.  I didn't feel the magic of the lore behind the stones.  It never felt believable, let alone plausible.  I also was a little indifferent to the characters.  I never felt attached to them.  Nor did I feel I understood their emotions or their actions.