Book Review: The Eternal Ones by Kirsten Miller

Rating: 3/5; It was okay. Support your local library for this one.

Release Date: August 10, 2010

Series? Yes. This is Book One.

Synopsis:
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. 
-Goodreads


Thoughts:
Wow I really wanted to like this one. I love the idea of reincarnation (I especially fancy Buddhism), but gosh the protagonist really killed the reading experience for me. It wasn't just her stupidity and gullibility that made it a difficult read. The rest of the characters were lame and very flat. The story wasn't much better.
There are certain parts of the book I really enjoyed which made me like the book. For example: I love the author's writing. Miller pays such great attention to detail I could clearly "see" so much of the world she was describing. Unfortunately this book is still not something I would re-read or particularly recommend. Maybe if it were shorter (it can get SO slow and tedious) it would be slightly more enjoyable. Only slightly. The characters need some cojones. Most of the time, the actions the characters made were ridiculous. Why would you blindly believe something a stranger tells you? Why would you later believe the contradiction of things stated by said stranger from another stranger? D-U-M-B. Oh and the "twists." Psh! Please. I saw those coming from a mile away. Lame.
If you care about a well thought out story and characters, you will not highly enjoy this book. The love story did not convince me and neither did the antagonist. At some point, the story built up to a scene were it seems there will be a confrontation of some kind, but nothing happens. Can you say disappoint? Sometimes I don't care too much about the story if the love story is amazing and believable, but in this case it's not. Not even close.
Since this book is the first in a series it is possible the sequel has a few surprises in store, but I doubt it. If I get really curious I will just check it out of my local library. I still wouldn't run like crazy for it though.

Related:
reincarnation
Kirsten Miller
The Eternal Ones site
The Ouroboros Society site <-- Someone should let them know there's a typo under their page "Testimonials" (Gwendolyn's account)
My Name is Memory by Ann Brashares (click for my review) -- the storyline is very similar and the characters + "love story" are equally uninteresting and forgettable
The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger


~~Lisette~~