Review: The Eternal Ones by Kirsten Miller

The Eternal Ones
The Eternal Ones #1

Author: Kirsten Miller

Publication Date: August 10, 2010

Publisher: Razorbill

Genre: Fantasy

---

Synopsis:

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.

My Thoughts: All I can say is that as soon as I put this book down I was looking for a sequel and hoping that there was one.  It could have stopped at this book but I just didn't want it to end!  I didn't put this book down from the moment I picked it up.

Haven passes out and says weird things.  It has been happening since she could remember and she had managed to stop them, until now.  After seeing a famous womanizer (Iain Morrow) on tv one day it happens in front of her grandmother, after she called him Ethan - the imaginary boy she has believed she is in love with since childhood.  After that, things get weird(er) and Haven ends up on a whirlwind adventure in New York City to find out who she really is.

I would just like to point out here that I feel really bad for the childhood Haven had.  Her beloved father died in a car crash when she was young, her mother broke down and was sent away for awhile and her crazily religious grandmother took her in.  Her grandmother then deduced that all of her fainting and talking of other lives were brought on by a demon and told the whole town to pray for her - which, in turn, caused her to be completely ostracized.

I love the idea of reincarnation and books that play on that idea.  The magnetic draw to people from their past lives in this series really makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside.  Just thinking about it gives me the tinglies.  I also loved the moment when, by fate, Iain and Haven meet for the first time (in this life).  She gets dragged along at his pace and it seems all too soon - but at the same time it doesn't.  Not with memories of Ethan and Constance inter-crossing.

Haven, I should say, acts like detective as she tries to solve the mystery behind the deaths of Constance and Ethan.  She is unknowingly reckless with it and it causes a lot of mistrust between her and Iain.  Iain is mysterious in and of himself.  He tells Haven lies about where he is going and what he is doing - but insists that it is for her protection.  Throughout the novel I was back and forth just like Haven.  Not quite believing all the information she turned up with but at the same time not knowing what to do with it or who to trust.

The ending of this book really got me and I am excited to read the next one.  The world that Miller created drew me into it and made me sad when I had to put it down.  I loved it!

Review: Dreaming Anastasia by Joy Preble

Dreaming Anastasia
Dreaming Anastasia #1

Author: Joy Preble

Publication Date: September 1, 2009

Publisher: Sourcebooks

Genre: Fantasy

---

Synopsis:

What really happened to Anastasia Romanov?

Anastasia Romanov thought she would never feel more alone than when the gunfire started and her family began to fall around her. Surely the bullets would come for her next. But they didn't. Instead, two gnarled old hands reached for her. When she wakes up she discovers that she is in the ancient hut of the witch Baba Yaga, and that some things are worse than being dead.

In modern-day Chicago, Anne doesn't know much about Russian history. She is more concerned about getting into a good college--until the dreams start. She is somewhere else. She is someone else. And she is sharing a small room with a very old woman. The vivid dreams startle her, but not until a handsome stranger offers to explain them does she realize her life is going to change forever. She is the only one who can save Anastasia. But, Anastasia is having her own dreams...

My Thoughts: I had been hoping to read this book since it was first published and I finally got around too it. Lucky that too, because I was certainly missing out by putting it to the wayside for so long. It got me so into the mythology and lore of Anastasia again that I just had to watch the animated movie (no matter how inaccurate it may be).

Anne is, I have to say, one of the most down to Earth girls ever to grace the pages of a paranormal young adult book. Oh, that guy you just met following you around like a creepy stalker? Ask him if he has been following you, tell him to stop and warn him you are going to call the police. What a normal reaction, I love it! Oh, a one-hundred year old immortal boy stuck at eighteen wants to kiss you? Instantly tell him how wrong it is that someone his age, despite his looks, wants any sort of relationship with a sixteen year old. I adore Anne.

Ethan (or Etanovich) is a Russian immortal who was eighteen at the time of the deaths of the Romanov family. He has to find the girl who is supposed to break the curse placed on Anastasia to save her life and finally set her free. He is full of old-world charm and can be virtuous to a fault.

This story kept my attention from the first page. It is full of mystery, folktales and lore about Russia in general and the events surrounding the revolt and assassination of Tsar Nicolas and his family. It has packed full of action and mystery and I enjoyed it immensely.

T,G,I.F. (20)

Thank Great Illustrators Fridays is a book meme created and hosted by Owl Read It.

They say don't judge a book by it's cover, but a lot of the time the cover is what draws you to the book in the first place. This meme is to show appreciation to the artists who put their time and effort into creating the great book covers of our beloved series.

To Participate:

• Pick a book cover you love (any book will do - released or not)
• Post the picture of the book along with the author & publisher 
• Post a brief summary of why you like the cover. 
• Take the pic above and link back to us :)

This week's TGIF cover:

Glimmerglass

Author: Jenna Black

Publication Date: May 25, 2010

Publisher: St. Martin's Griffn

Genre: Fantasy/Faeries

---

Synopsis:

It's all she's ever wanted to be, but it couldn't be further from her grasp...

Dana Hathaway doesn't know it yet, but she's in big trouble. When her alcoholic mom shows up at her voice recital drunk, again, Dana decides she's had enough and runs away to find her mysterious father in Avalon: the only place on Earth where the regular, everyday world and the captivating, magical world of Faerie intersect. But from the moment Dana sets foot in Avalon, everything goes wrong, for it turns out she isn't just an ordinary teenage girl, she's a Faeriewalker, a rare individual who can travel between both worlds, and the only person who can bring magic into the human world and technology into Faerie.

Dana finds herself tangled up in a cutthroat game of Fae politics. Someone's trying to kill her, and everyone seems to want something from her, from her newfound friends and family to Ethan, the hot Fae guy Dana figures she'll never have a chance with...until she does. Caught between two worlds, Dana isn't sure where she'll ever fit in and who can be trusted, not to mention if her world will ever be normal again.

I am not sure why I love this cover, I just think it is beautiful. I really want to read this one too, since it seems to be something a little bit different. What do you guys think of it?

Review: ReVamped by Ada Adams

ReVamped
(Revamped #1)

Author: Ada Adams

Publication Date: February 20th, 2012

Genre: Paranormal

---

Synopsis:

A simple mission turned deadly. Nineteen-year-old vampire Dawn has led a sheltered life within the confines of her father’s presidential headquarters. Upon being sent on a mission to revamp four goofy misfits into guardians of a peaceful little town of Angel Creek, Dawn believes that all her dreams have finally come true. What starts off as a simple task, turns into something unexpected, changing Dawn’s life forever and leading the action-loving, thrill-seeking vampire teen on a path of mystery, danger and intrigue. When a human girl is kidnapped by a group of rogue vamps, Dawn discovers that there is more going on in Angel Creek than meets the eye. And it all connects to Ethan, the cute newcomer who seems too perfect to be true, Sebastian, the mysterious vampire with a turbulent past, and even Dawn herself. Dawn must not only succeed in revamping the troubled recruits, but must also prevent the vampire race from being overtaken by a malevolent villain who has a strange and obsessive fascination with her. As threat escalates, romance blooms, and ghosts from her past begin to surface, Dawn is sure of only one thing: her life will never be the same.

My Thoughts: I loved this book, completely loved it! I think that I enjoyed it so much because it just seemed so different from the normal vampire book. Normally, vampires are made out to be super hot, strong, seductive and suave. In Ada Adam's novel, they are pretty good looking still, but not all are strong and agile, or seductive. In fact, the misfit vampires seem about as far as you can go from what's "normal" for vampires. And that cover? I love it!

In Adams' world, the vampires are coexisting with humans quite peacefully. They have products in all of the stores so that the vampires don't need to feed off humans. There is Blood Cola, Blood Beer, Blood Vodka and vampires can't forget to eat a healthy diet of garlic so they can venture out into the sun. There are two ways to become a vampire; the classic way, to be made a vampire, and then there is the extremely rare way, to be born a vampire. Dawn, our protagonist, is a Born vampire, so she will age until she dies unless she has a child, which is extremely dangerous.

I had a really hard time putting this book down once I started reading it. I was just so engrossed in the world Adams has created that I had to read it all. I kept thinking I knew what was going to happen next, but I just never saw what was coming. There is a huge revelation for Dawn that I was just so shocked for,did not see it coming at all. I had to keep reading after that!

There are two love interests for Dawn. Ethan, a human, and Sebastian, a vampire. Both are super hot and amazing, but who will Dawn choose? Before this mission she had no idea how to talk to guys. So it's pretty amusing reading about a vampire who is completely speechless around guys.

I literally laughed out loud multiple times while reading, getting me strange looks from the people around me. I was sad and just clinging on in anticipation in other parts. I just can't say enough good things about this book. I loved it, you need to read it, it's amazing. Forget what you know about vampires because Adams will completely blow your mind!