The Eternal Ones by Kirsten Miller

The Eternal Ones by Kirsten Miller

Synopsis:
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.

Review:
The Eternal Ones is a beautifully written novel and a completely original storyline. I wasn’t sure what to expect from a book about reincarnation but Miller did a great job creating realistic characters that ground such a fantastical plot. The Eternal Ones has a little bit of everything, romance, adventure, fantasy and history and it all comes together for an irresistible and haunting read.

It was often hard to tell who was a good guy and who was a bad guy but that made the novel that much more interesting and impossible to put down. I liked reading the book from Haven’s point of view, as she traveled from Tennessee to New York and desperately searched for the truth. It was impossible to try and guess what would come next and I loved that because there is nothing worse than a predictable book.

My only complaint is that the book seemed a little long, there were a few times when I felt the pace was dragging and needed to be sped up. But I powered through those times and in the end the whole was good enough that it wasn’t a major fault.

If you are looking for a complex book, that will keep you on your toes and give you a little bit of several genres then you need to give The Eternal Ones a shot.

I read this book as part of the Book It Forward ARC Tours.

This book goes toward my Summer Break Reading Challenge

Personal Demons by Lisa Desrochers

Personal Demons by Lisa Desrochers Synopsis:
Frannie Cavanaugh is a good Catholic girl with a bit of a wicked streak. She's spent years keeping everyone at a distance—even her closest friends—and it seems her senior year will be more of the same...until Luc Cain enrolls in her class. No one knows where he came from, but Frannie can't seem to stay away from him. What she doesn't know is that Luc works in Acquisitions—for Hell—and she possesses a unique skill set that has the King of Hell tingling with anticipation. All Luc has to do is get her to sin, and he’s as tempting as they come. Frannie doesn’t stand a chance. Unfortunately for Luc, Heaven has other plans, and the angel, Gabe, is going to do whatever it takes to make sure that Luc doesn’t get what he came for. And it isn't long before they find themselves fighting for more than just her soul. But if Luc fails, there will be Hell to pay…for all of them.

Review:
I have a confession to make. I am a little burnt out on fantasy and paranormal books. I made this fact known on twitter but I was urged by Sara from The Hiding Spot (who has an awesome blog, seriously check it out.) to read Personal Demons before I switched gears and read some contemporary. And I am quite glad I listened to her!

A girl on earth, Frannie, inexplicably drawn to two boys who happen to be an angel and a demon, it’s a great plot made even better with Desrochers style of slowly letting out pieces of each characters back story. Luc, the demon, and Gabe, the angel, are amazing characters, so similar despite the fact that they are literally polar opposites and a perfect set of guys to play tug of war over Frannie.

Frannie ended up being way more enjoyable and complex than I originally anticipated and I loved that about her. I also loved her relationship with her grandfather, which although a very small part of the book, created some of my favorite scenes.

You have to give a ton of credit to any author who can make you feel sympathy for a demon, and wish the angel would go away. I was firmly on team Luc so I that was my stance for much of the book, although not all.
Once I got in to this book I thought I had it figured out pretty quickly but consider me wrong again. Desrochers plot line goes somewhere I never saw coming and when you think she is done surprising you there is another twist at the very end that I loved.

Overall, the book is a great, original read with awesome characters that are written perfectly. Great job to Desrochers on writing such a fun, intriguing, sexy book as her debut novel! There will be two more books in the Personal Demons series so head over to Lisa’s website and learn all about them.

My favorite quote from the book was the very first line: “If there is a hell on Earth, it’s high school.”

Personal Demons will be released Sept. 14, 2010.

I read this book as part of the Book It Forward ARC Tours.

This book goes toward my Summer Break Reading Challenge and 2010 Debut Authors Challenge

Kiss Me Deadly: 13 Tales of Paranormal Love

Kiss Me Deadly: 13 Tales of Paranormal Love
Full of dark seduction and modern romance, this short story collection presents a variety of talented voices sure to satisfy every werewolf, ghost, fallen angel, zombie, and shape-shifter’s dark desires.

Review:
I can’t say I have read a lot of short stories for fun. I read a ton as an English major in college (and I loved so many of them) but I never really thought to read them as part of my pleasure reading. Well I am glad I picked up this anthology as there are some great stories in there from some authors I really like. I have a minor confession, I had never read anything by any of the authors in this book. There are so many great titles out by this collection of writers, many in my TBR pile but every single word in this book was from an author new to me. I will say that I will quickly be playing catch up on many of these authors after loving the short stories. I also think Trisha Telep did a great job collecting phenomenal stories and put them together in a cohesive, enjoyable way.

I don’t want to review each, individual story, and I don’t think you would like if I did that so I will give you my personal highlights.

Favorite overall story: The Assassin’s Apprentice by Michelle Zink. The very first one.

Story that gave me the creeps (in a good way): Behind the Red Door by Caitlin Kittredge. This story gave me goosebumps and yet I couldn’t put it down. Great stuff.

Story I didn’t love: Errant by Diana Peterfreun. I guess unicorns aren’t my thing. But I can say I didn’t hate it, I just didn’t like it as much as the others. The writing is still phenomenal.

Most Suprising Story: The Spy Who Never Grew Up by Sarah Rees Brennan. This story is about Peter Pan, and it is amazing. I really didn’t see that coming.

Funniest Story: Familiar by Michelle Rowen. This was sweet and funny and a perfect way to lighten the mood after some of the really creepy stories.

Story That Makes Me Want To Read Everything Else By The Author: Fearless by Rachel Vincent. It was really original and further reminded me that this is an author I have to investigate!

I reviewed this book as part of the Book It Forward ARC Tour.

If you have read/reviewed please leave your links in the comments as I would love to know what everyone else thought!

Crossed Out by Kim Baccellia: Book It Forward ARC Tour

Crossed Out by Kim Baccellia Stephanie Stewart didn't ask for her gift of guiding the deceased to the other side but she's stuck with it. Why can't dead people just follow that br...more

Synopsis:
Stephanie Stewart didn't ask for her gift of guiding the deceased to the other side but she's stuck with it. Why can't dead people just follow that bright light and leave her alone? When Mr. Undead wants to use her special talent for his own evil purposes, her little gift becomes a major liability.

Review:
Every once in a while it happens, I have to write a bad review and let me tell you I never like doing it but here we go. I will do my best to state exactly what I didn't like so that it doesn't seem like I am needlessly bashing a book.

I felt like the book lacked originality, Steph is guiding the dead to the other side which I have been seeing quite a bit of in paranormal YA and of course a bad guy is trying to use her but getting her to fall for him while the good guy is trying to save her and of course is in love with her. Yeah, that pretty much sums up the plot. Well it does when you add in that she is trying to avoid using her gifts and there is a magical teacher that happens to arrive in her life at just the right time.

The story was predictable and I felt it didn't bring anything new or fun to the genre. It lacked the humor of Stacey Jay's You Are So Undead To Me or the drama and intrigue of Evermore by Alyson Noel.

I think if it was the first paranormal YA book I ever picked up I would have liked it, but there is much better out there so this one could easily be skipped. The writing was pretty good though so I won't rule out anything else by this author.

I reviewed this book as part of the Book It Forward ARC Tour.
This book goes toward my Summer Break Reading Challenge

The Replacement by Brenna Yovanoff: Book It Forward ARC Tours

Summary:
Mackie Doyle seems like everyone else in the perfect little town of Gentry, but he is living with a fatal secret – he is a Replacement, left in the crib of a human baby sixteen years ago. Now the creatures under the hill want him back, and Mackie must decide where he really belongs and what he really wants. A month ago, Mackie might have told them to buzz off. But now, with a budding relationship with tough, wounded, beautiful Tate, Mackie has too much to lose. Will love finally make him worthy of the human world.

Review:
The Replacement is creepy, and let me tell you I mean that in the most praise-worthy way possible. It isn’t like scary movie, hide under the pillow creepy. No it is creepy in a way that draws you in and makes you part of the town so you can literally feel the rain and sense everything Mackie does. Brenna Yovanoff creates a world that is so creepy and realistic it actually made me uncomfortable at times because the descriptions felt so real. She manages to write beautifully about a very ugly world.

I wasn’t sure I was going to like this book base on the description, but I really did think it is an incredibly original and imaginative novel. The first thing I loved is that the protagonist is a male, which I find is so rare in YA (see this post for more on that) and he is a complex, well-rounded character and not some simple stereotype.

Another thing I loved is that Yovanoff created a truly original setting in the town of Gentry. I have never read a book with a setting quite like this town and she did such an incredible job of describing it that I could literally feel like I was in the world. She described every scene using all the senses, I could smell the woodsy leaves she constantly talked about and felt damp and soggy from all the rain. She did an incredible job.

Yovanoff also drops the reader right in to the world and it does take about 90 pages to really figure out who everyone is and how they fit in to the town’s very strange dynamics. There were times early on that I was frustrated and confused but it all came together and became a very cohesive narrative.

Mackie’s supporting cast are also incredibly well-developed and realistic characters, I love his sisters Emma who is so loving and compassionate, his best friend Roswell who is steadfast and loyal and Tate who pushes Mackie toward the truth.

With this complex, original novel Yovanoff has set the bar incredibly high for whatever she comes out with next. I’m convinced she is the female version of Tim Burton and he will jump all over the chance to make this in to a movie.

The Replacement will be released on Sept. 21, 2010.
I reviewed this book as part of the Book It Forward ARC Tour.
This book goes toward my Summer Break Reading Challenge and 2010 Debut Authors Challenge