Review: The Forever Song

Book three of the Blood of Eden trilogy
By Julie Kagawa
Available now from Harlequin Teen
Review copy
Read my reviews of The Eternity Cure, The Iron Daughter, and Grim

Julie Kagawa brings her Blood of Eden trilogy to a fitting conclusion, full of action, grief, love, and sacrifice.  Somehow, when I started the book, I thought Kagawa would instantly find a loophole to make the ending of THE ETERNITY CURE all better.  But she doesn't, and heroine Allie has give up struggling with her vampiric nature in her despair.

Allie, along with her mentor Kanin and brother Jackal, are traveling to stop mad vampire Sarren before he can make it to Eden and unleash a virus to kill all humans and vampires.  Unfortunately for them, Sarren is mad like a fox.  I truly enjoy the quasi-familial relationship that the three share, so it was nice to spend quite a bit of time with them on their journey.  It's also interesting to see how three people can pursue the same course while motivated for such different reasons.

I really didn't like Kagawa's faerie series (I quit halfway through the second book), so it's kind of amazing to me how much I loved this trilogy.  I thought it mixed post-apocalyptic fiction with vampire lore very well, creating something that played with the tropes of both without being the same old same old.  The strong characterization and relationships are also a highlight.  The romance is front and center (this is a Harlequin imprint), but it's certainly not the only relationship explored.

I definitely would read THE IMMORTAL RULES and THE ETERNITY CURE before diving into THE FOREVER SONG.  It doesn't spend any time explaining what is happening to new readers.  It is entirely focused on moving the story forward to the conclusion.  I think this trilogy finishes strong, for those who have been waiting for the reaction to the final book to start.  The science is terrible, but I can forgive that in a vampire book.  Especially in a vampire road-trip trilogy.

Review: The Eternity Cure

Book Two of the Blood of Eden
By Julie Kagawa
Available now from Harlequin Teen
Review copy

I avoided reading THE IMMORTAL RULES, the first book in the Blood of Eden series, for a long time because I wasn't a fan of Julie Kagawa's Iron Fey books.  But people kept saying that they didn't like the Iron Fey books, but they loved THE IMMORTAL RULES.  So I gave it a chance and liked it.

THE ETERNITY CURE picks up where THE IMMORTAL RULES leaves off.  Allie helped Zeke reach safe harbor, but she's not welcome since she's a vampire.  That's okay because she needs to leave to rescue Kanin.  Since he's her maker she can sense that he's in peril and track him down.  She's not the only one of Kanin's children seeking to help him, but that doesn't mean she can trust her brother-by-vampirism Jackal.

I loved how THE ETERNITY CURE built on the first book.  Characters return in different forms - some friendlier than before, some now enemies.  There's also more uncovered about the plague, and why some might not want it cured.  The romance also proceeds apace.  Zeke and Allie can now be open about their relationship, which means its a good time for them to start exploring the practicality of a human/vampire relationship.  For instance, should Allie turn Zeke if he's dying?

The best part of THE ETERNITY CURE might be that there's more Kanin.  Allie's vampire maker is a fascinating figure and an incredibly likeable one.  He's burdened by guilt, but he does his best to bring positive change to the world.  He refuses to not follow his principles, but he's more careful since he realizes just how big the consequences of his actions can be.

This is a great series for vampire fans.  There's lots of action, a touch of forbidden romance, and complicated relationships in a complicated world.  It's good enough to make me consider reading the Iron Fey again to see if I was wrong about those books.  I'm looking forward to the third book, especially after the dramatic events of the ending of THE ETERNITY CURE.

Who wants to guess what the cover of the third book will look like?  I'm happy this one doesn't have a white girl on the cover, since Allie is half-Japanese, but wish they'd put her face on the cover instead of the front flap after the brouhaha about THE IMMORTAL RULES cover.