The Eternal Ones by Kirsten Miller * * * *1/2

Title: The Eternal Ones

Author: Kirsten Miller

Genre: Young Adult

Rating: * * * * 1/2

Publishers Date: Aug 10, 2010

Hardback: 416 pages

Publisher: Razorbill

ISBN: 1595143084

FTC Disclosure: Local Public Library

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.

First of all, let me say that this book totally took me by surprise. I’ve been less than enthusiastic about the young adult books I read recently and wasn’t really expecting a lot out of this one. I was in our local library and noticed it and several other YA’s that were on my list and though I wasn’t really in the mood for another angsty teenage love gone wrong, I decided to give it a shot.

Wow, it was totally awesome. Only a few minor things kept me from giving it 5 stars, so let’s get that out of the way so I can gush about what I loved. First of all was Haven, yea she’s only 17 and grew up in the hills of Tennessee but my gosh after being reincarnated several times, I would have thought she wouldn’t have been so wishy washy about  her feelings for Iain. If your love is so strong that you keep being reincarnated, looks like you would not be back and forth about trusting him. She was too easily persuaded by the tales of others and this bothered me a bit.

The depth of the mystery and the characters in the book kept me turning pages late every night. It amazed me how quickly I read this book. I thoroughly enjoyed Beau and hope he will play a more substantial role in the next book. The subject of reincarnation was very believable. I loved Miller’s explanation of how this played out with models, actresses and super athletes that had reached the top of their profession at an early age. I loved Miller’s pokes at the southern rednecks and communities. As she’s from our mountains of NC, she obviously knows them well. I was fascinated to see that she like Haven, took off for NYC when she was 17.  This was a delightful read and I’ve already marked my calendar for September 2011 for the next book.