Review: The Eternal Ones by Kristin Miller

Author: Kirsten Miller

Pages: 411

Publisher: Razorbill

Series or Standalone: 1^st in trilogy

Genre: YA Paranormal

Reading Level: 15 yrs old+

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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 Eternal Ones was much different than I anticipated, which is both a good and bad thing. Overall, The Eternal Ones fell a little flat for me, especially regarding some of the hype that surrounded it. I had seen it featured on several different blogs around the time of its release, so I went out and bought it, and then I finally read it about a month and a half ago.

The reincarnation concept is a very genuine and thrilling idea that Kirsten created, and that made me very eager to read the book. In the beginning of the novel, reading about Haven having dreams and flashbacks to her old lives were the best parts, because it was mysterious and intriguing. But once Haven and Iain finally met, I got annoyed with Haven. What self-respecting girl would possibly subject herself to that crap? I, for one, would have given Iain a good kick where the sun don’t shine, and left his sorry, lying, secret-keeping ass in his posh little rich house. The entire novel, Iain would do something really sketchy and sneaky, lie right to Haven’s face and do shit behind her back, and when she would confront him about it, he would say he was doing it because he ‘loved her’ and blah blah blah… and the worst part? HAVEN FORGAVE HIM. JUST LIKE THAT. She would resist for a moment and then she would melt in his arms again. I liked her much better when she was single.

That major annoyance aside, Kirsten Miller had a wonderful and fluid writing style that built the scene vividly. I just think she needs to work a bit more on her characterization. I did like Haven at some parts, and I loved her gay best friend Beau throughout the whole book, but other than that, none of the others stood out. The only other one that I was also invested in was the antagonist, Adam. But mostly because he was insane, and crazy people are always interesting.

I will be reading the sequel, because I’m slightly interested in what happens next. I’m hoping that the sequel will build more character, because I honestly wanted to really like this book, I really did. But I was just mildly interested as I read it. I give this novel 3 out of 5 stars.