Review: The Eternal Ones, by Kirsten Miller

The Eternal Ones
by Kirsten Miller
Hardcover, 416 pages
Published August 10, 2010 by Razorbill
ISBN: 1595143084 (ISBN13: 9781595143082)

What if love refused to die?

Haven Moore can’t control her visions of a past with a boy called Ethan, and a life in New York that ended in fiery tragedy. In our present, she designs beautiful dresses for her classmates with her best friend Beau. Dressmaking keeps her sane, since she lives with her widowed and heartbroken mother in her tyrannical grandmother’s house in Snope City, a tiny town in Tennessee. Then an impossible group of coincidences conspire to force her to flee to New York, to discover who she is, and who she was.

In New York, Haven meets Iain Morrow and is swept into an epic love affair that feels both deeply fated and terribly dangerous. Iain is suspected of murdering a rock star and Haven wonders, could he have murdered her in a past life? She visits the Ouroboros Society and discovers a murky world of reincarnation that stretches across millennia. Haven must discover the secrets hidden in her past lives, and loves¸ before all is lost and the cycle begins again.

Haven Moore comes from a small town in Tennessee where being different isn't complimented - in fact, the town pretty much thinks you've got a demon in you. I'm sure you can take a guess at what they think of Haven - who faints when she has visions from a past life - and her best friend Beau - who is gay. That's right, it's small town closed-mindedness at its best! One fateful day, Haven just so happens to see Iain Morrow on the TV and is instantly drawn, knowing in her heart that he is her beloved Ethan. With the help of her friend Beau, Haven takes off to New York in hopes of finding her one true love. What follows is a story of a girl not only trying to figure out who she was, but also finding out if her love is truly the man she thought he was - or if he's the murderer he is accused of being, in both this life and the past.

I have to say, I have a love-hate relationship with this book. There was definitely moments when I wanted to toss the book against the wall.. but the story was intriguing enough to keep me reading until the very end. I'd have to say that I could have done without about a third of the first part of the book. Yes, we get that Haven's grandmother is not a nice person. Yes, her mother is a spineless lump that doesn't really act as her mother - though she does start to step up, though not much. Yes, Haven is treated as an outcast because she has visions and faints where ever she may be when the vision comes. Oh, and did I mention that all the Christians are closed-minded. I live in a small town and I can say that I'm honestly sick of the whole portrayal of small towns being so judgmental and unforgiving. Gossip? Yes. But, in real life, I've never experienced something like this.

I digress. I'll get off my soapbox now.

Past that: Once Haven gets the box of notes written by her father from her mother, things start to pick up. You get even more insight into Haven's visions - and proof is from Haven's father, who started chronicling all of her visions as a child. Part Two starts out with Haven arriving in New York, and she quickly finds Iain. It's obvious that they're drawn to one another and Iain seems to be just as in love with Haven as he was when he was Ethan and she was Constance.. and it may help that he's able to recall ALL of his past lives. Haven, however, has this whole hot-cold relationship with Iain. Between not recalling all of her memories from her life as Constance and believing every single word out of every single person's mouth, she's very bi-polar when it comes to Iain. One moment she'll be all over him and completely trust him, the next she'll take the word of someone and believe Iain is a killer, and within the next few moments she'll be back in his arms all lovey-dovey. I'm sure Iain's ability to withhold truths and tell white lies doesn't help any, but I don't think that would merit Haven's inability to decide something and stick with it. Yes, she's only seventeen so you have to account for some immaturity ... but, Haven's behavior was a little too much for me.

I know it sounds like I hated the book, but it was actually a good read. Like I said, it kept my attention and kept me reading until the very end. I like the history of the Ouroboros Society. The other characters were also well fleshed out. The villian was good, but the villian's big reveal was a little bit of an "oh, come on!" moment for me - it could go both ways though because I didn't see that one coming. The history, the flashbacks to the previous life, the Society, and all of the twists definitely hooks you into the story and keeps you until the very end. The writing was well-constructed. Overall, I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys YA paranormal reads.

The Verdict?

I'm leaning more toward 3.5, but the story is too good for 3 stars.

Review: Uninvited, by Amanda Marrone

Title: Uninvited
Author: Amanda Marrone
Pages: 224
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Release Date: October 23, 2007

Genre: Young Adult
Keywords/Themes: drugs, high school, paranormal, vampires

When rejection comes back to bite you...

Jordan's life sucks. Her boyfriend, Michael, dumped her, slept his way through half the student body, and then killed himself. But now, somehow, he appears at her window every night, begging her to let him in.

Jordan can't understand why he wants her, but she feels her resistance wearing down. After all, her life -- once a broken record of boring parties, meaningless hookups, and friends she couldn't relate to -- now consists of her drinking alone in her room as she waits for the sun to go down.

Michael needs to be invited in before he can enter. All Jordan has to do is say the words....

Review: It's actually been a while since I've read this, so bear with me if I'm a little too vague in this review. I know most of the key points and I know how I feel about the book -- but re-writing the synopsis here just made me question something I read. Without being too spoiler-ish, isn't the "Jordan's boyfriend dumper her" part wrong? I mean, I thought that she dumped him, which was one of the reasons why he did certain things. It's not going to ruin the book, or the review, but it's something I'm questioning right now. I'll have to go back and check my point at another time.

So, back to the review. There were two main points that caught my attention with this book from the very beginning. The first was the cover. It was gorgeous. Not too flashy, but not too plain either. The second was the synopsis. As a loyal vampire lover for over the past 13 years or so, the synopsis made me squee like a little school girl. Honestly, this sounded exactly like the old school vampire stories that first sucked me in. The whole rule of having to be invited in, the stalker-ish behavior, the darkness ... it's great. Don't get me wrong, I'm obsessive about my Twilight books too, but this is getting back to how vampires used to be.

Sadly to say, the book didn't quite live up to my own self-imposed hype. Maybe no book will because I put too much enthusiasm into things before actually starting them. I did like the book, though. I'd recommend to fellow vampire-lovers. It's just not the highest on my ranks.

Jordan was a decent character. I think she was fleshed out decently. Michael seemed to stay in his own little character bubble and you thought you knew him, until he popped that bubble close to the end. Jordan's other friends ... well, they were around ever so often, but not enough to get a good grip on who they were. You got a bit of a back story on Jordan's best friend, but it still wasn't enough, in my opinion, to relate to her as a character.

And the whole vampire story line? Yeah, not so much there. You don't get a good grip on the vampire world - other than they come out at night and they have to be invited in. There wasn't good world building at all. Besides Jordan's room, I couldn't necessarily picture anything else in my head except for maybe their location at the end of the book.

What I DID like about this book was that Jordan was a real character. She had a lot of problems and she coped with her problems with alcohol, drugs, and sex with different guys. It's not the best solution, but you could see that she was human and could relate to her - or at least empathize. The vampire thing seemed to be more of like a loose metaphor for the effect of the drugs and reckless behavior on her life.

If you're looking for a wonderful vampire read, you may want to look elsewhere. If you're looking for a book on teenagers, angst, social anxiety, addictions, and relationships gone wrong ... this will probably suit you better.

Rating: ½ - The story was more telling than showing, most of the characters were flat, and it didn't hold my attention as well as I would have like. However, aside from all the things that I wasn't too happy about, I did enjoy this take on a young adult paranormal(ish) story. It was a good idea, but I think the author held back a little too much on it. In the words of Heidi Klum on Project Runway: "It's too safe."

Other Books By Author: Revealers, which I haven't read but came out after Uninvited. She also published another YA book called Devoured in 2009 which I do want to read, as well as a middle grade series, Magic Repair Shop, that's being published this year.

Source: Purchase

Review: The Betrayal of Natalie Hargrove, by Lauren Kate

Title: The Betrayal of Natalie Hargrove
Author: Lauren Kate
Pages: 248
Publisher: Razorbill
Release Date: November 12, 2009

Genre: Young Adult
Keywords/Themes: death, deception, high school

A steamy Southern beauty makes one fatal mistake

Natalie Hargrove would kill to be her high school’s Palmetto Princess. But her boyfriend Mike King doesn’t share her dream and risks losing the honor of Palmetto Prince to Natalie’s nemesis, Justin Balmer. So she convinces Mike to help play a prank on Justin. . . one that goes terribly wrong. They tie him to the front of the church after a party—when they arrive the next morning, Justin is dead.

From blackmail to buried desire, dark secrets to darker deeds, Natalie unravels. She never should’ve messed with fate. Fate is the one thing more twisted than Natalie Hargrove.

Cruel Intentions meets Macbeth in this seductive, riveting tale of conscience and consequence.

My Review: I'm one of those people that, once I discover an author that has a great book, I like to read what ever else they have available. I had read Fallen a while back, and looked up on Lauren's website to see if she had any other books available. When I saw The Betrayal of Natalie Hargrove and read the blurb ... I hesitated.

I'm not a huge fan of the "popular" people, or people that do harmful things to get ahead in life - it's never been my thing. So, I guess it was a blessing in disguise when I won an ARC of The Betrayal... through a blogger contest.

I have to admit, I enjoyed the book than what I thought I would. Lauren Kate made sure that we got glimpses into Natalie's past to show why she acts the way that she does, and I think that helped to make Natalie a more real character that you could actually relate to and empathize. In the end, I still thought Natalie's actions were horrible and definitely something that could have been avoided all together. But, then again, I guess we wouldn't have had a great YA book to read if that would have happened.

Overall, the plot was good. The characters were very real, though I have to say the only one I actually liked was Mike. The writing was wonderful, as it was in Fallen and the ending was kind of expected, but I was still surprised even when I fancied the idea of the ending before I actually read it. Lauren Kate is a wonderful author and I look forward to reading more books by her in the future.

Rating: ½ - I am definitely more of a fan of Fallen, but this one was better than what I expected. I'm not a huge fan of the cover, it's not an attention-grabber like others. The plot is a twist on something we've seen many times before, but it's definitely different enough to keep you reading through the end.

More Books By Author: Lauren Kate is the author of Fallen, who's sequel [Torment] will be released September 28th of this year - which I am too giddy about!

Source of Book: Won via blog contest.

Etc Etc: Read my review on Fallen here.

Review: Wake, by Lisa McMann

Title: Wake (Dream Catcher #1)

Author: Lisa McMann
Pages: 224
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Release Date: March 4, 2008

Genre: Young Adult
Themes/Keywords: dreams, paranormal, fantasy, love, series.

Synopsis: (from book's slipcover) NOT ALL DREAMS ARE SWEET.

For seventeen-year-old Janie, getting sucked into other people's dreams is getting old. Especially the falling dreams, the naked-but-nobody-notices dreams, and the sex-crazed dreams. Janie's seen enough fantasy booty to last her a lifetime.

She can't tell anybody about what she does - they'd never believe her, or worse, they'd think she's a freak. So Janie lives on the fringe, cursed with an ability she doesn't want and can't control.

Then she falls into a gruesome nightmare, one that chills her to the bone. For the first time, Janie is more than a witness to someone else's twisted psyche. She is a participant ...

Additional Information: Read Lisa McMann's commentary on Wake here.

You can also check out the book trailer on Lisa McMann's website, or also on YouTube.

My Review: I know I have a ton of reviews to catch up on. However, I'm starting with my most recent read because it's the freshest in my mind. As soon as I read it, I wanted to talk about it - which is the whole reason of this blog. So, instead of letting it join in the notebook of jumbled reviews, I'm dealing with this computer to bring you a fresh review!

As a footnote, I'd like to say that I did actually read some other reviews and the author's book commentary before I started this review. I needed some information to make my rating completely justified, and I feel as though I have that now - which I will explain in further detail within my review.

When the book starts, you meet a present-day Janie dealing with what is your first insight into her "condition". You learn that whenever someone goes to sleep in her presence, she instantly gets sucked into it. She's not narcoleptic - she's actually aware of her surroundings during the whole thing - she just can't control her gift enough to get herself away from the dream. She doesn't tell anyone about what she has to go through, she just keeps to herself about it. If at all possible, she avoids being around anyone that falls asleep ... but school seems to be a problem, considering that kids can and do fall asleep in her classes. She's pretty used to the petty dreams that highschoolers have because they usually just center around that person, a crush they may have, or something more perverted. However, that changes one fateful night when she happens to drive past a house where a guy is having a nightmare and actually murders someone in his dream. It shakes Janie up - and shakes her up even more when she figures out that the murderer notices her in the dream.

I love the plot of this book. It's something that hasn't been touched on a lot in the YA genre and has a unique feel to it. Having said that, I have to point out my biggest problem with this book: the writing style. Short, choppy sentences. Incorrect grammar. Too many time flips. I do love the concept of the timestamp, but I feel as though it was overused. The positive to this was that the dates helped out a lot when it flipped from present to past, then back again. As I said before, I've read reviews and I've seen the commentary on the writing style - but, I just cannot accept it. Call me a grammar nazi if you'd like, but I'm a stickler on using complete, descriptive sentences. I don't believe in ending a short sentence, only to use "but" as the beginning of a new sentence. Yes, I know "but" can be used to begin a sentence when used with "for" or "what" as an idiom - I just don't agree with it. Nor do I recall if this was the case when used in this book - I'm just stuck on short sentences. I'm also shocked by the fact that people see the use of short, choppy sentences as "lyrical" and argues that such is better to keep the attention of young adults. As a student, I was taught in school that you have to pause after each period. Doing so in this book gives me a headache. Periods indicate the end of a complete thought. It's not the case in Wake.

The author argues that the reason it was written that way was because it was just the way she wrote it out the first time. I agree with this. As a writer, I know that most authors do tend to write short sentences when writing their first drafts. It allows the author to get everything out while their mind is going, and then they can go back and edit with more description. While this book had description, I didn't feel like it had enough. It was written in third person so it had the potential to give you a wonderful look at the world around the characters as well as more insightful feelings inside of the characters. I feel as though I was cheated of these things and felt as though the characters lacked growth and development because of it.

I'm getting off the subject of the review. Writing is a bit of a soft-spot for me. ;) Despite the writing, the story is wonderful. Normally, I tend to trash reading the rest of the series if the grammer gets to me, but I can't see myself doing it with this series. Why? The story is THAT good. The characters, while I feel I'm missing some of their depth, do have enough to them to keep me interested. Even if I don't know their past or most of their present, their actions can sometimes speak louder than words. My emotions did get tangled up in the story because these are true characters, most with not-so-perfect lives, that you can relate to. Janie is also NOT a Mary Sue ... and that is something in YA that you don't see much of. She's actually flawed and sometimes makes bad decisions. Like I said, you can definitely relate to the characters in the book.

Rating: 3.5 Stars! The story could have definitely been a four or better, but the writing killed it for me. Unfortunately, the writing style to me is just as important as the plot and the characters. Sorry! Even so, I would recommend this book to all of my friends that read these types of books as well as others that are fans to YA paranormal.

Source of Book: Public Library.

Other Books by Author: Lisa McMann has finished the Dream Catcher series with Wake's two follow-ups in the trilogy, Fade and Gone - which was just released this past February. Also, McMann has just signed a four book deal with Simon Pulse and Aladdin - two books for each division.