The Eternal Ones

The Eternal Ones by Kirsten Miller

Published: August 10, 2010 by Razorbill

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 work 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.

I was hesitant about this one because reincarnation plots for me are either really stinking awesome or just not my thing at all, depending on the book. Thankfully, this book turned out to be great, and if you're in the mood to read something about reincarnation I highly recommend it.

Why I love this book:

• Haven - Obviously, if Haven had stayed where Iain told her, there wouldn't have been much story, but I loved how Haven pretty much immediately decided that there was no way a guy that she had just met was gonna boss her around, especially when she hat gotten all the way to New York on her own.
• plot - Reincarnation done right, complete with a secret society, questionable motives, and a twisted past. There's the overly dramatic love story books, and then there's this book with a love story woven in.
• Iain - I enjoyed trying to figure Iain out - his motives were mysterious but he was charming enough so that I really had to wonder what side he was on.
• Snope City - Haven's tiny, backwards Tennessee town made her miserable - but it did so with its own quirks and her allies were all great, interesting characters.

Huh, what?:

• SPOILERS STARTING HERE! Ok. Convincing a girl to have sex with you, with the excuse that you'd already done it in your past lives (but only you remember those lives and Haven doesn't) is TOTALLY creepy! She just met you and had her 1st kiss ever AND you basically kidnapped her via private jet. Not cool. END SPOILERS! 

•  ending - I think this would have been fine as a standalone book. Everything seems pretty wrapped up at the end - so wrapped up in fact that it's totally optional to read the sequel. There are no cliffhangers or burning questions.
• back + forth - There was a bit too much back and forth going on throughout the whole book. From the second Haven meets Iain, until the big finish, she's torn on whether she can trust him or not. The 1st and 2nd time she changed her mind I thought that was it, but Haven's opinion changed so often it was almost dizzying. 

Favorite quotes:

• "It's la Bocca della Verita," Iain explained. "The mouth of truth. They say if you tell a lie while your hand is in the statue's mouth, it will bite it off. Care to try?"   "No thanks," said Haven. There was something about the image that she found unsettling. It was as if a great black void lay behind the face. She feared what her fingers might brush against inside of the toothless cavity.    "Then I'll go first," Iain said, thrusting his fingers between the statue's lips. "Anything you want to ask while my hand is at stake?"      - pg. 188-189  (ARC copy)
• The air was cool and smelled of dust and decay. Shelves of books circled the room, and several small statues stood atop them. The faces of men long dead and forgotten stared down at the girl who had invaded their domain. If the building wasn't haunted, it was missing a good opportunity , Haven thought.         - pg. 228  (ARC copy)

4 robots

A great story of reincarnation, definitely recommended.

Acquired: bought