The Ever King

Written by prolific indie author L.J. Andrews, The Ever King (2023) is a dark fantasy romance that serves as the first installment in the Ever Seas series and has three sequels: The Ever Queen (2024), The Mist Thief (2024), and, The Stolen Crown (scheduled for release in 2025). The Ever King is also a spinoff of Andrews’s other series, The Broken Kingdoms. As part of the romantasy genre, The Ever King incorporates elements of magic, mythology, and swashbuckling, making Andrews’s work reminiscent of such titles as Sarah J. Maas’s A Court of Thorns and Roses, Shelby Mahurin’s Serpent & Dove series, Abigail Owen’s Crucible series, and Kerri Maniscalco’s Throne of the Fallen.

The Ever King follows Livia Ferus, an earth fae princess of the Northern Kingdom, as she is kidnapped by her people’s mortal enemy, the sea fae Erik Bloodsinger, who is the king of the watery Ever kingdom. As Livia learns the truth about Erik and their people’s shared history, she must sort out her conflicting feelings for Erik and face the threat of the “darkening,” a curse plaguing the Ever kingdom. Throughout the narrative, Andrews explores the challenges involved in Breaking Cycles of Violence and illustrates The Tension between Tyranny and Compassionate Leadership and The Impact of Toxic Parental Relationships.

This guide is based on the self-published 2023 edition of The Ever King available through Google Play Books.

Content Warning: The source text and this guide contain depictions of child abuse, imprisonment, parental neglect, abuse, torture, and brutal deaths.

Plot Summary

As a child, Livia Ferus, the princess of the Northern earth fae kingdom, seeks out the young Erik Bloodsinger, who is the son and heir of Thorvald, the Ever king and ruler of the sea fae. Erik is being held captive by Livia’s father, Valen, as part of the earth fae’s larger war with the sea fae. Now, the young Livia seeks to read Erik her revised tale of the serpent and the songbird. On the night before Erik is meant to go on trial, she implores him to end the fighting between their peoples and gives him a story, a necklace of a swallow in flight, and his father’s talisman, or gold mantle. Erik takes the necklace and the story but tells her to keep the talisman because he will come back for it. However, Livia trips and breaks the mantle, embedding its mark of the House of Kings as a permanent scar on her arm.

Ten “turns” (years) later, Livia wakes from a recurring nightmare with a sense of foreboding but meets with her friends and her cousin Alek and tries to enjoy the Crimson festival while their parents are away. However, the Chasm (the great turbulent divide between the earth and sea fae) calls to her, and when she touches the water in this area, she unknowingly breaks the magical seal that has kept the sea fae away from the earth fae for so long.

Her accident does not go unnoticed. Erik Bloodsinger is now the Ever king, as his father, Thorvald, has been killed by Valen, Livia’s father. Now, he puts down yet another attempt to undermine his authority by brutally executing a rebellious noble. Suddenly, he senses that the seal between his sea fae kingdom and the earth fae has been broken, and he immediately takes his crew on the Ever ship to inspect the Chasm. Finding it wide open, Erik infiltrates the Crimson Festival to finally avenge the death of his father. When he finds Valen gone, he tricks Livia and seduces her in the ballroom, keeping his identity hidden. He then kidnaps her and sets the palace ablaze. Although Livia tries to escape, she agrees to succumb to her imprisonment to protect her younger brother, Rorik, whom Erik threatens.

Once aboard the grotesque Ever ship, Livia meets the only other woman onboard, a former siren named Celine, with whom she begins a tentative friendship. Erik directs the ship back toward his royal capital city and makes Livia work with Sewell, the ship’s cook, who is seemingly the only man on board who does not hate her for her status as an earth fae royal.

As Livia adjusts to shipboard life, news of a pirate attack on a small border town named Skondell reaches them, and Erik and his crew rush to overtake the pirates, who are led by a man named Lucien Skurk. Sewell is injured in the brutal battle, but Erik and the others prevail. As Erik brutally executes Lucien for endangering the peace-loving people of Skondell, Livia feels troubled to realize that she approves of his violent form his justice. She finds a small child crying over a dead plant, and to make the child feel better, Livia uses her innate magical ability to heal the plant, and in the process, she sense the presence of the “darkening,” a corruptive curse that is poisoning Erik’s lands. Erik realizes that Livia holds the key to saving his kingdom from the darkening.

To verify that his hope is true, he brings Livia to meet his estranged grandmother, Lady Narza, who is the greatest sea witch of the Ever kingdom. Narza confirms that Livia’s power is what the kingdom needs to survive. Instead of using her in his revenge plan against her father, Erik decides to publicly claim Livia as his own when they return to the royal palace, in order to protect her from nefarious plots. However, the nobles’ and citizens’ disdain for Erik resurfaces, undermining his authority. Meanwhile, Livia learns that Erik’s many scars were inflicted by his father and uncle’s brutal treatment; she also discovers that Thorvald manipulated Erik into causing the death of his own mother when Erik was just a child. (Erik’s blood holds the power to either poison or heal others, and Thorvald harnessed his son’s magical power to wreak harm.)

As sympathy and love swell between Erik and Livia, Erik enlists the help of Gavyn Seeker, his close friend and confidant, to inform Livia’s family that she has been claimed as a bride and will never return to them. He demands that his friend seal the Chasm against her people. With Livia, he makes a public demonstration of her power and its ability to push through the darkening—an ability that he can amplify or borrow because of Livia’s magical bond to him. The people of Ever rejoice, and during the party, Erik and Livia allow themselves to be vulnerable with one another. Suddenly, they are interrupted by an assassination plot. Livia is forced to kill a man with her powers, and Erik severely injured. Livia uses her bond with Erik to blend her magic with his and save his life.

Gavyn unexpectedly returns with Livia’s cousin, Alek, who attempts to offer himself as a captive in Livia’s stead. Alek also reveals that he owes a debt to Erik, who once saved his father’s life during the war. However, Livia openly chooses to remain in Ever, and in the next meeting of nobles, Erik openly declares Livia the first Ever Queen.

For weeks thereafter, Livia and Erik work to heal the land and discover who was responsible for the curse of the darkening. As their mutual love begins to bloom, Livia and Erik work with Alek and the others work to mend the relationship between the earth fae and the sea fae.

However, Larsson, Erik’s second mate, suddenly kidnaps Livia. Unbeknownst to everyone, Larsson is the illegitimate son of Thorvald, Erik’s father. In Larsson’s past efforts to overthrow Erik and take the crown, he accidentally unleashed the darkening. Now, with Livia kidnapped, Erik becomes desperate and travels the Chasm to seek assistance from her father, Valen. Upon Erik’s arrival in Valen’s kingdom, he is captured and bound.