Jun 8, 2026 · 37 min · 8 segments
In this week's episode of Being Bookish, I'm digging into the layers of *The Ever King*, the 2023 fantasy novel by LJ Andrews that made the transition from indie favourite to traditional publication…
Livia Ferris has a soft heart.
Following a battle that saw many dead and lives changed irrevocably, she sneaks into her father's chambers and steals a golden talisman, unaware of the power it holds.
She creeps down to the prison cells where the seafay, unlucky enough to have been captured during the war, are being kept, including a young boy barely older than her.
She gifts him a token of friendship, a silver necklace with a bird pendant, and offers him the golden talisman she knows is his.
He declines the medallion, telling her he will come back for it.
However, as she is walking away, she trips and it breaks, leaving a rune-like scar on her inner elbow.
That this moment binds her fate entirely to the boy who will grow up to inherit a crown of shadows.
Twenty years pass and those childhood days fade into the realm of memory.
Now grown, Livia is relentlessly haunted by vivid nightmares of twisting serpents and singing birds, visions she doesn't understand.
Her world is preparing for the Crimson Festival, an event, a grand glittering celebration, honouring the peace that has followed the war.
As her parents are departing the kingdom, Livia meets with her friends to celebrate the return of her cousin Alexei, who brings with him fond memories and a glimmer of joy and warmth.
As the celebrations build, and they follow their own traditions, Livia and her friends journey to the very edge of the chasm, the great turbulent magical boundary that prevents the sea fae from entering the earth fae's realm.
While her friends drink and laugh together, she stares into the dark churning waters that have separated their people since the end of the war.
Overwhelmed by a sudden, inexplicable pull, Livia reaches out and touches the water.
The moment her fingers brush the surface, her earth magic flares, reacting violently with the ancient barrier.
In that single, accidental moment, she unintentionally cracks the magical seal that has kept the seafay imprisoned beneath the waves.
Across the divide, Erik Bloodsinger, the young boy, shown a moment of kindness by Livia all those years ago, is now the feared Everking.
Heavily marked by the brutal scars of war and betrayal, driven by a fierce desire for vengeance against the night folk king, Livia's father, who dealt the death blow against the last Everking, Erik's father.
Sensing a structural shift in the magic, Eric takes his crew on the Evership, a stunning, powerful pirate vessel, to inspect the boundary.
He finds the once impenetrable barrier fragile and highly breachable.
With the gateway weakened, he forces his way through the gap.
Instead of a loud, violent invasion, Eric slips into Livia's world during the height of the Crimson Festival.
Spying the princess, he charms her, luring her into a false sense of security and disarming her guard completely.
She is enchanted.
Having already spoken with her friends playfully about the time being right for her to perhaps take a lover, she sees this mysterious masked man as the one and invites him guilelessly to see her window paintings, and he willingly agrees, playing along with her.
Livia Ferris has a soft heart.
Following a battle that saw many dead and lives changed irrevocably, she sneaks into her father's chambers and steals a golden talisman, unaware of the power it holds.
She creeps down to the prison cells where the seafay, unlucky enough to have been captured during the war, are being kept, including a young boy barely older than her.
She gifts him a token of friendship, a silver necklace with a bird pendant, and offers him the golden talisman she knows is his.
He declines the medallion, telling her he will come back for it.
However, as she is walking away, she trips and it breaks, leaving a rune-like scar on her inner elbow.
That this moment binds her fate entirely to the boy who will grow up to inherit a crown of shadows.
Twenty years pass and those childhood days fade into the realm of memory.
Now grown, Livia is relentlessly haunted by vivid nightmares of twisting serpents and singing birds, visions she doesn't understand.
Her world is preparing for the Crimson Festival, an event, a grand glittering celebration, honouring the peace that has followed the war.
As her parents are departing the kingdom, Livia meets with her friends to celebrate the return of her cousin Alexei, who brings with him fond memories and a glimmer of joy and warmth.
As the celebrations build, and they follow their own traditions, Livia and her friends journey to the very edge of the chasm, the great turbulent magical boundary that prevents the sea fae from entering the earth fae's realm.
While her friends drink and laugh together, she stares into the dark churning waters that have separated their people since the end of the war.
Overwhelmed by a sudden, inexplicable pull, Livia reaches out and touches the water.
The moment her fingers brush the surface, her earth magic flares, reacting violently with the ancient barrier.
In that single, accidental moment, she unintentionally cracks the magical seal that has kept the seafay imprisoned beneath the waves.
Across the divide, Erik Bloodsinger, the young boy, shown a moment of kindness by Livia all those years ago, is now the feared Everking.
Heavily marked by the brutal scars of war and betrayal, driven by a fierce desire for vengeance against the night folk king, Livia's father, who dealt the death blow against the last Everking, Erik's father.
Sensing a structural shift in the magic, Eric takes his crew on the Evership, a stunning, powerful pirate vessel, to inspect the boundary.
He finds the once impenetrable barrier fragile and highly breachable.
With the gateway weakened, he forces his way through the gap.
Instead of a loud, violent invasion, Eric slips into Livia's world during the height of the Crimson Festival.
Spying the princess, he charms her, luring her into a false sense of security and disarming her guard completely.
She is enchanted.
Having already spoken with her friends playfully about the time being right for her to perhaps take a lover, she sees this mysterious masked man as the one and invites him guilelessly to see her window paintings, and he willingly agrees, playing along with her.
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