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A review by rainmisoa
Eternal by Cynthia Leitich Smith
3.0
Cynthia Leitich Smith improved with this novel. I'll be honest with you... I did not enjoy Tantalize, the first book in this triology, one bit. I thought it was boring and very uneventful for the most part. This book, however, was entertaining to an extent and the characters weren't as annoying as they were in the first book. I was actually quite surprised to see myself liking this one because I didn't think it was going to hold up seeing as how the first one was kind of toturous to get through.
I guess most of the reason why I liked this one a bit more was because Smith didn't continue the story with the characters from the previous book. She starts from scratch with brand new characters, brand new plot, and brand new setting. I was glad to see that Miranda was not as annoying as Quincie has been. She had her moments at the beginning of being whiny but that changes once she is transformed into a vampire (not a spoiler; says it in the synopsis). She is actually a pretty tough female lead. I'll admit that I enjoyed her a lot more when she WASN'T in the presence of her love-interest, Zachary. She became another pathetic, hopeless girl in love; always tripping and falling all over the place just to have him catch her. Also, I don't understand how she fell in love with Zachary. She met him and immediately fell in love with him. At least on his part, he's known her for all her life so of course he could develop feelings for her. Oh well... such is YA paranormal romances.
Zachary was... okay. I like him and yet I don't like him. At the beginning he came off as only liking her because he gets to see her naked and not really because he loves her. I don't know if that was Smith's intentions but that's how I perceived it as. On another note, he's pretty pathetic. He's supposed to be an "angel" but he sucks. He can't even protect himself let alone anybody else. He was just a nuisance most of the time. Radford is the "head vampire" but really, he's just corny as hell. I don't know why Smith's vampires are all corny but there you have it. I did like his mental side, though!
I found I liked the side characters a lot more in this book. My favorite has to be Harrison because he doesn't take crap from anyone! He's pretty badass and I love that about him. He's also daring, knowing full well he could be killed for it. Nora was another of a cool side character. I love her motherly nature towards everyone! Sabine and Phillipe are also awesome! The side characters are what made this novel, in my opinion. Without them, I fear that it would have been just as dull as the first one.
I'm really shocked that I liked this book. It was better thought out, well put together, and there was a lot more action this time! The characters weren't that bad and I actually appreciated the ending to this one! Yeah, I did have my problems with it; i.e. the writing, although improved greatly, still had moments where it didn't flowed smoothly; but I was able to get through it without cringing. To think I almost didn't read this book because of how much I disliked the first one. I say that this one, though not the best, still is worth the read. Check it out from the library! It's a decent read.
I guess most of the reason why I liked this one a bit more was because Smith didn't continue the story with the characters from the previous book. She starts from scratch with brand new characters, brand new plot, and brand new setting. I was glad to see that Miranda was not as annoying as Quincie has been. She had her moments at the beginning of being whiny but that changes once she is transformed into a vampire (not a spoiler; says it in the synopsis). She is actually a pretty tough female lead. I'll admit that I enjoyed her a lot more when she WASN'T in the presence of her love-interest, Zachary. She became another pathetic, hopeless girl in love; always tripping and falling all over the place just to have him catch her. Also, I don't understand how she fell in love with Zachary. She met him and immediately fell in love with him. At least on his part, he's known her for all her life so of course he could develop feelings for her. Oh well... such is YA paranormal romances.
Zachary was... okay. I like him and yet I don't like him. At the beginning he came off as only liking her because he gets to see her naked and not really because he loves her. I don't know if that was Smith's intentions but that's how I perceived it as. On another note, he's pretty pathetic. He's supposed to be an "angel" but he sucks. He can't even protect himself let alone anybody else. He was just a nuisance most of the time. Radford is the "head vampire" but really, he's just corny as hell. I don't know why Smith's vampires are all corny but there you have it. I did like his mental side, though!
I found I liked the side characters a lot more in this book. My favorite has to be Harrison because he doesn't take crap from anyone! He's pretty badass and I love that about him. He's also daring, knowing full well he could be killed for it. Nora was another of a cool side character. I love her motherly nature towards everyone! Sabine and Phillipe are also awesome! The side characters are what made this novel, in my opinion. Without them, I fear that it would have been just as dull as the first one.
I'm really shocked that I liked this book. It was better thought out, well put together, and there was a lot more action this time! The characters weren't that bad and I actually appreciated the ending to this one! Yeah, I did have my problems with it; i.e. the writing, although improved greatly, still had moments where it didn't flowed smoothly; but I was able to get through it without cringing. To think I almost didn't read this book because of how much I disliked the first one. I say that this one, though not the best, still is worth the read. Check it out from the library! It's a decent read.