Firstlife by Gena Showalter
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Summary from GoodReads

 ONE CHOICE.

TWO REALMS.

NO SECOND CHANCE.

Tenley “Ten” Lockwood is an average seventeen-year-old girl…who has spent the past thirteen months locked inside the Prynne Asylum. The reason? Not her obsession with numbers, but her refusal to let her parents choose where she’ll live—after she dies.

There is an eternal truth most of the world has come to accept: Firstlife is merely a dress rehearsal, and real life begins after death.

In the Everlife, two realms are in power: Troika and Myriad, longtime enemies and deadly rivals. Both will do anything to recruit Ten, including sending their top Laborers to lure her to their side. Soon, Ten finds herself on the run, caught in a wild tug-of-war between the two realms who will do anything to win the right to her soul. Who can she trust? And what if the realm she’s drawn to isn’t home to the boy she’s falling for? She just has to stay alive long enough to make a decision…


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REVIEW

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchnage for an honest review.
I think this is the first time I have rated a book by Gena Showalter under 4 stars. Don't get me wrong; the idea behind the novel was great. There is afterlife and there are two realms which fight each other, not only to claim the souls of those who live here on Earth but also to get more soldiers.

All begins with Tenley who is a prisoner inside a reforming Asylum since her parents want her to sign with Myriad, one of the two afterlife realms. Ten is an Unsigned, meaning she hasn't decided in which realm she wants to go after she dies.



When both Troika and Myriad send their own spies/super soldiers, in order to claim her soul, an all scale war will break with the future of the realms hanging on Ten's shoulders.

Although the premise of the book was great and Gena portayed a realm of forgiveness and love (Troika) and a realm consisted mostly of wealth and greed (Myriad), I couldn't help but notice how undeveloped the characters were. Ten in the whole book was undecided and only towards the end because of the circumstances, she made her decision. She is a strong heroine but in some parts her actions led to horrible outcomes. On the other hand, I really liked Killian and Archer. They both wanted Ten for themselves and despite my fear for a love triangle, it didn't happen!



The ending was a cliffhanger, which I hope to resolve on the next book. Overall it was a good book, but I wanted more world building and character development.


About the author:

Gena Showalter is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of over thirty books in paranormal and contemporary romances, as well as young adult novels. Her series include White Rabbit Chronicles, Angels of the Dark, Otherworld Assassins, Lords of the Underworld, Alien Huntress and Intertwined.

Her novels have appeared in Cosmopolitan Magazine, and Seventeen Magazine, and have been translated all over the world. The critics have called her books "sizzling page-turners" and "utterly spellbinding stories", while Showalter herself has been called “a star on the rise”.