Cleo's Literary Reviews: The Eternal Ones, Kirsten Miller

Friday, May 17, 2013

The Eternal Ones, Kirsten Miller

Haven was back. She glanced across the familiar little room. Silver clouds hovered over the skylight high above a rumpled bed. A candle sat on the edge of the vanity, waiting for the sun's weak rays to finally fade.

"Haven Moore has always lived in the town of Snope City, Tennessee. But for as long as she can remember, Haven has experienced visions of a past life as a girl named Constance, whose love for a boy called Ethan ended in fiery tragedy. One day, the sight of notorious playboy Iain Morrow on television brings Haven to her knees. Haven flees to New York City to find Iain and there, she is swept up in an epic love affair that feels both deeply fated and terribly dangerous. Is Iain her beloved Ethan? Or is he her murderer from a past life? Haven asks the members of the powerful and mysterious Ouroboros Society to help her unlock the mysteries of reincarnation and discover the secrets hidden in her past lives, and loves, before all is lost and the cycle begins again. But what is the Ouroboros Society? And how can Haven know whom to trust?"

The plot of this one sounds annoyingly YA-romancy, and the cover is hideous, but Kirsten Miller is the author of the Kiki Strike series, which I love, so I gave this one a try. And I wasn't disappointed.The Eternal Ones wasn't quite as good as the first two books in the Kiki Strike series, but it was better than The Darkness Dwellers, and was really suspenseful. Although it's different, once I started, I couldn't put it down.

The characters are all interestingly portrayed. The cruelty of Haven's grandmother is shown so well, and I was really furious at the way she was treated in Snope City. Haven's mother loves her, but she's never been quite the same after Haven's dad died, and she can't stand up for Haven. It's a really bad situation. I also wanted to learn more about the enigmatic Ethan/Iain and what had really happened. It did take a while for Haven to actually get to New York, and I think the beginning sections could have been tighter, but the book was still good. All of Part 1 is set in Tennessee, 147 pages or so.

I loved Part 1, but Part 2 kind of annoyed me. Haven started acting really stupidly, just blindly trusting Iain, which was really not a good idea, considering the fact that he was a notorious playboy and she had been warned by someone to avoid people who seem to know too much about her. I realize that they were in love in a past life, but I feel like Haven still should have proceeded with more caution. And plus, Iain bosses her around too much, and she just takes it. She really did a lot of stupid things in New York, and she kept going back and forth about whether she was in love with Iain or whether he was a psycho. It seemed obvious to me that he was a real jerk, even if he was just trying to protect Haven.

What I did like about The Eternal Ones is that certain elements of it are based upon the author's own life. She lived in a small North Carolinian town, and when she was seventeen, she went to New York City and lives there still. I have no idea what her parents were like, but the dedication to The Eternal Ones reads thus: "FOR MY PARENTS- if not my first, then certainly the best." It's very enigmatic.

I didn't love the two main characters, but I did love the writing and the plot, which made up for Haven being somewhat annoying. This is certainly a fascinating novel, and well worth a try, although it's not as good as Kiki Strike or How to Lead a Life of Crime. I did like the subject matter.

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