Review -- The Eternity Cure by Julie Kagawa

Title: The Eternity Cure
Author: Julie Kagawa
Series: Blood of Eden (2)
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Release Date: 30 April 2013
Date Read: March 2013
Rating: ★★★★★

Allison Sekemoto has vowed to rescue her creator, Kanin, who is being held hostage and tortured by the psychotic vampire Sarren. The call of blood leads her back to the beginning—New Covington and the Fringe, and a vampire prince who wants her dead yet may become her wary ally.

Even as Allie faces shocking revelations and heartbreak like she’s never known, a new strain of the Red Lung virus that decimated humanity is rising to threaten human and vampire alike.

Actually Rating: 4.5

Woah...

Good God, Julie. That was unbelievable. I knew it would be, but I'm still just absolutely blown away. I'm just really like...

The Eternity Cure picks up a couple of months after the end of The Immortal Rules where Ali left her group, more importantly, Zeke, safe in Eden and is now on a quest to find her sire, Kanin, after he was kidnapped by crazy, whacked in the head, Sarren. She knows exactly where to go and how to find him. Trouble is just trying to catch up with them before Kanin loses his mind.

"Blood calls to blood."

But what if she's been answering the call of a different blood? At the end of the trail, Ali finds herself face-to-face with Jackal, her blood brother. They end up teaming up, trekking across the country, fighting side by side to find their sire, not without the cheeky arguments of course. Jackal is a real jerk. But he's an entertaining jerk, the kind you'd like to have around. He's hilarious, sarcastic, isn't afraid of voicing out the most inappropriate things and has such a distinct cold personality that I just couldn't help but love. I could guarantee you that practically 75% of the things he said made me laugh out loud. He's easily one of the best things about this novel.

Ali and Jackal's search brings them back to Ali's home- New Covington. The very place she's sworn she would forget, yet here she is, back at the sewers trying to gain entry to the vampire city, Jackal grumbling and muttering curses right behind her. Ali encounters some familiar faces during her return. I won't be telling you who it is but it's quite obvious now that I've mentioned it. Anyway, it was nice to see him back, even if he is a lying, backstabbing leech. At the very least it showed Julie's care for fully developing her characters.

Which brings us to Kanin. Can't forget about Kanin. I love that he is a father figure to Ali. Can you even imagine the new levels of drama if Julie had chosen to make the romance between Ali, Zeke and Kanin? *shudders* I love Kanin, I really do but I love their non-romantic relationship even more. A lot of things are romanticised in young adult so it's nice to see love shared between two people who just genuinely care for each other, without worrying about
wanting to make out with each other.

""Kanin is..." I paused, thinking. It was hard to explain my relationship with the Master vampire. Yeah he was my sire, but he was also my mentor, my teacher and... my friend. "It's complicated," I said at last..."

Oh, and Zeke. My dear, beautiful Zeke. He is just perfect, okay? The romance wasn't as cute as it was in Immortal Rules when they were all flirty with each other and everything was new. Zeke and Ali are very different people now. They are harder and tougher because of all they've faced. They are bitching struggling to 'control' their feelings for each other because, after all, a vampire just can't be in love with a human. The romance wasn't as big of a focus as it was in the previous book since Julie threw enough curveballs to keep you busy reading Eternity Cure.

Sarren, the aforementioned crazy, whacked in the head vampire, is the villain in this instalment. And he is a damn good villain. He is just so hauntingly creepy, like I can feel him breathing down my neck, like he's just right behind me, every time he appeared in the novel. Shivers, every time. Worse, or maybe the best, of all is the manner of calmness he has over the screwed up things he does and plans. He finds genuine joy in inflicting pain and believes doing so would make the world better.

""I will make your little bird scream for an hour. Her song will seep into the very walls and will here forever, and everyone who hears it will know how much she wanted to die. The longer this goes on, the longer her music will last, until she is begging for it to end. But it will not end, as long as you are still alive.""

Julie brings us her usual captivating style with Eternity Cure. Like its predecessor, Eternity Cure is split up into parts, each one more action-packed and thrilling than the last. Julie really stepped it up on the novel's pace and I just couldn't. Stop Reading.  

"30 more pages. I can function with 7hrs of sleep for tomorrow. It's fine."

"Oh, I can't stop now. This is a great part and it'll totally ruin the moment if I just stop."  

"Oh, screw it. I'm already awake this late. Might as well finish the whole thing."

Thank you, Julie, for breaking my heart. It's not like I needed it.

A million thanks to the Harlequin Australia and NetGalley for providing me an ARC in exchange for an honest review. No monetary funds or gifts was received.

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Review: Immortal Rules - Julie Kagawa

Title: The Immortal Rules
Author: Julie Kagawa
Series: Blood of Eden
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Release Date: 24 April 2012
Date Read: September 2012
Rating: ★★★★★

I've got to admit. I was honestly not keen on reading this book. The cover looked cheesy to me. I am not that big of a fan of vampires. I read the first book of Kagawa's other series, Iron Fey, and I didn't enjoy it as much as I hoped. I put reading this book off as much as I could until about a couple of days before it was due back to the library.

You have no idea how much I'm kicking myself for not reading this sooner.

Vampires rule cities and humans, as a result of the creation of the Red Lung disease. This disease threatened, and is continuing to threaten both the human and vampire species. Those who are infected eventually became Rabids, plagued with a mutant version of the disease. As a human, you have the choice to become a Registered, a blood slave to the vampires, or an Unregistered, where you would have to struggle to survive, find food and shelter.

The Immortal Rules has excellent world building. It succeeds both as a dystopian novel as well as a paranormal. The idea that vampires are conquerors, instead of creatures of the night hiding their existence, is different. The atmosphere was set and it was subtle. Kagawa wasn't trying hard to impose her world, it was just there and it was easy to accept. The imagery was very good, so it was really easy to imagine the scenes in my mind.

Allie Sekemoto is the heroine, a great one, at that. She's had to survive as an Unregistered for a long while and it's toughened her. She's realistic and independent. She knows how to take care of herself and she can kick some serious butt, even before she gets turned into a vampire. Plus, she gets a killer katana, a Samurai sword, as her weapon. Her wit, sarcasm and dark humour only added to her awesomeness. Allie has to face the constant struggle of trying to keep the hold of her humanity in spite of her monstrous nature. I'm grateful to Kagawa for not getting Allie to just drink animal blood. I think Allie's inner conflict is much more interesting. It adds depth to the character.

And of course, the romance. Ezekiel Crosse. He is perfect- selfless, strong, generous, kind, funny, handsome. Good guy. (which is such a nice breath of fresh air after all the mysterious, broody bad boys paranormal/dystopian novels usually have) But he is extremely prejudiced against vampires. He believes them to be all soulless monsters, demons. I guess that's understandable considering the life he's had, the people he's had to see die because of the vampires. But it's ok. He changes, as all good characters do. The relationship between Allie and Zeke is realistic and so cute. (I was really worried that there was going to be a love triangle but it was avoided, in this one anyway. The second book holds lots of possibilities, including a *shudders* love triangle.)

The pace was perfect for me. Too often, authors try to get the action moving too quickly, throwing challenges at the characters without getting the readers to know them to be able to empathize with them. But Kagawa spent her time setting up the Allie's world- the vampires, the disease, Rabids, getting the reader to familiarize themselves with Allie and her world- and it paid off. By the time Allie gets herself in danger, I was so invested in her that the tension was agonizing.

So yes, I loved this. This was so different from the Iron King, and different from all the other paranormal novels I've read. I was surprised and impressed. Needless to say, I am eagerly waiting for the second book. More Allie! More vampires!

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