Dark Flame by Alyson Noël

*SPOILERS for the series so far*
Ever is dealing with the fall-out of her latest decision, saving the life of Haven and making her immortal.  Added to that is the effect of her last spell gone wrong, now she is bound to Roman instead of he to her and as she finds herself drawn to him in all the wrong ways.

"You're blond, blue-eyed, tall, fit, gifted, oh, and to top it all off, the sexiest guy on the planet just happens to be madly in love with you."  She sighs, wondering how I can possibly be so blind to her truth.  "I mean, let's face it, you've got the kind of life other people can only dream of - and yet, you make it look like the road to Suck City."  p.11 ARC

Amazing how little compassion Ever has for anybody despite the fact that she has effed up in about a million different ways.  I was so annoyed with her for three-fourths of the book because she is dumb as dumb.  But the ending was almost redeeming and I have hopes that the next book won't make me want to kill her like the last 2 books have.

On the positive side, Dark Flame moved along faster than Shadowland and there was finally a little action.  I liked Ever's changing character and I think she's taken a step in the right direction to getting a little brains in her head.  Good for her that Damen and even Jude are so freaking patient and nice.  I wish there would be a little more of Damen in the rest of the books.  He has barely appeared in the last couple of books.

Provided by Traveling ARC Tours
Hogwarts: History of Magic
YA

The Eternal Ones by Kirsten Miller

From Goodreads:
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.

The very first night she heard her parents arguing, she had whispered one last goodbye to Ethan and then set to locking him out of her head.  p.24 ARC

If this isn't the best book I've read this year, then it is at least one of them.  While I'm not a believer of soul mates and destiny, this book made me want to believe and I love the idea that people will be drawn to each other in every life that they live.  I was really struck by the idea of the Ouroboros Society and how people can remember past lives and even bring skills over from them.

The mystery surrounding Haven and Iain was a good one and I liked the tension Miller built into the book surrounding the two of them and the Ouroboros Society.  Haven was a good strong character though I did have one problem with her that I will discuss in the spoilers section that was resolved nicely.  It was more my impatience to find out the truth than a fault of the book itself.  This book is definitely the must read of the year.


*(highlight for) SPOILERS*

Haven and Iain are so sweet and I was rooting for them throughout the book.  I was really intrigued by the idea of the Ouroboros Society and how people can remember past lives and even bring skills over from them.  I love that Iain always remembered Haven in every life and looked for her.

Throughout the book, I kept thinking that Haven was really wishy-washy and, frankly, stupid because she would be with Iain and everything would be fine and then she would go out without him and immediately begin doubting him.  I'm pretty sure this was the influence of Rosier who I wish had been explained more.  I guess that is the point of his nature, but he was the one true immortal in this story, the one who never changed or aged or died and I wanted to know more about that.  Was he really the devil or an agent of the devil or chaos embodied?  I didn't expect his character to turn out like that and I really enjoyed the idea of it.*END*

Provided by Traveling ARC Tours
Publish Date August 24, 2010
Hogwarts: Arithmancy
YA

Shadowland by Alyson Noël

Ever begins her quest to fix her mistake from Blue Moon so she can be with Damen at long last. But Roman stands her in way as well as her undeniable attraction to her new boss, Jude. 

But I just stand there instead, determined to keep it together.  Gazing at my ridiculously gorgeous boyfriend of the last four hundred years as though it's the first time we've met.  p.40

Oh Ever, still as dumb as a rock.  What a waste of an Immortal given her inability to make even a smitten of the right choice.  At least her intentions are good, but she never wants to listen to anyone.  Always convinced that she is the exception and knows more than the people who have been around a lot longer than her.  Damen is a freaking saint for putting up with her BS though he had his moments in Blue Moon.

Anyway, I found Shadowland to be a much slower book, not quite as good as its predecessors.  That happens a lot with middle books.  But still the build-up for the next book was nicely paced as was the introduction to Jude, a person who is very familiar to Ever and Damen for a good reason.  The ending was good, a little surprising, but another opportunity for Ever to make exactly wrong choice yet again.  Can't wait to see what she gets up to in Dark Flame. 

Hogwarts: History of Magic
YA
Library

Blue Moon

*spoilers if you haven't read Evermore* *also contains ranting*
The sequel to Evermore finds Ever learning how to control her new immortal powers with her boyfriend, Damen.  She is enjoying her relationship and her new powers.  But when a new boy starts at school and Damen starts acting weird, Ever needs to find out what is going on and save Damen before it is too late for them all.

"The lions are now lunching with lambs. p.101

I'm going to be honest.  Is Ever an idiot?  I'm not kidding.  Damen starts acting like a total ass and she doesn't figure out they are broken up till p. 161.  Really? REALLY!!  "Which would be bad enough on its own, but having to hear the official breakup message delivered by Big Sheila instead of my boyfriend-" Gah!  But I guess it just sets up the ending where Ever demonstrates that she is beyond moronic and closer to brain dead when she believes effin Roman, who gives the crappiest villain speech, over the creepy twin.  I mean, the twins are creepy but why on earth would you listen to them over stupid  Roman who has been POISONING your boyfriend this whole time and controlling the mind of the student population.  Because that makes perfect sense.
Also she always gives Ava a hard time and there is a lot of eye rolling and thinking it is all stupid and then whatever they are doing works and she is surprised.  You know, if that keeps happening Ever, then just shut up about it.  Maybe it is because she is a teenager and therefore has to think adults don't know anything.  I don't know, but just shut up, Ever.  Rant over, just had to get that out there.

Good things about this book:  The pacing is really great and it doesn't bog down like Evermore did at the beginning.  Once Roman is introduced, the action starts moving and keeps going.  There are some great little mysteries set up like the twins and Ava and Riley and Summerland and I'm curious about what happens next.  Because Ever's obvious lack of intelligence, the premise for the next book is set up and now they have a problem to solve.  The writing is still a little too Twilight in places, but if there was less my perfect boyfriend, our love is so epic, that would be fixed.  I don't know ya'll.  It's like I liked it and it read really fast, but I was so insulted by Ever's profound stupidity that it made me like it less.  I will be reading the next one though so I guess that says something.

BTW, her name is Ever Bloom.  Was that in the first book?  I don't remember and that is one of the stupidest names so I think I would have remembered.

Evermore

After her entire family dies in a car accident, Ever is sent to live with her aunt.  An outcast and blaming herself for the accident, Ever spends most of her time drowning out other people's thoughts and feelings, a talent she picked up after her near death experience. When the new guy at school, Damen, arrives, his presence gives Ever peace from others.  But he is very mysterious and soon Ever is trying to figure out what exactly is going on with Damen and her friends.

As I was reading Evermore, I had a weird thought.  The characters reminded me a lot of My So-Called Life.  It was Ever's friend, Miles.  He reminded me of Ricky and then I kept thinking of Haven as Rayanne Graff, and Ever as Angela Chase. Ever even has a younger sister.  Anyway, this thought colored the first part of the book.  Not that it matters, but I wanted to share this.  Also I got some major Twilight flashbacks. Beautiful mysterious man tries to stay away from beautiful shy girl but their love is too epic and true.  Blah blah.  I was ready to write this book off, but then in the second half it got really good and actually surprised me.  The direction it took was not unexpected, but the details were and that is a very good thing.  I hope this keeps up in the sequel, Blue Moon.