Real Teen Review: Once by Anna Carey

Meet Christina, a real teen, and her opinions on YA books!

Once by Anna Carey

This book, Once, takes place after Eve was dropped off at Califia. Caleb is gone from Califia and wanted by the king. Meanwhile Eve is getting used to her surroundings at Califia. When word travels back to camp that Caleb was found in an Ikea store, Eve being her stubborn self goes out looking for him. When Arden and Eve make it there, she is attacked by the city’s soldiers. They take Arden with them and dropped Arden back off at the schools and take Eve to the City of Sand. Eve is so scared because the valedictorian of the class gets sent to the City so she can have the king’s kids. When she gets there she is surprised with some very deep information about her family. She then finds Caleb and they form a plan to get themselves out of the City. Love is pronounced, weddings are talked about, and people are killed. It’s a very tangled web of suspense of wondering what’s going to happen next.

I loved this book for the most part. There are lots of secrets spilled and blood is shed to protect Eve. Everything is going smooth until some stupid soldiers got in the way! The ending, for me, was awful. I wish it would’ve ended differently but I think Anna Carey did it that way for a reason. I mean now there definitely has to be another book. YAY!! I liked that there were new characters introduced and some of the old characters were talked about and brought back. I think deep down I knew something was going to happen because the way everyone was being secretive and kind of weird around Eve made me get to thinking. There are a lot of character reveals that I didn’t expect.