The Eternity Cure

Allison Sekemoto is on a quest to save her creator, Kanin, who needs help. What she doesn't expect is when her blood tie brings her to a blood brother and the town she thought she had left behind in her past to come crashing into her present. The boy she left, the monster who stabbed her and the Fringer whose life she saved - they all play a part in her attempt to save Kanin and the world from the new threat its facing and the slightly unhinged Sarren. I enjoyed The Immortal Rules but The Eternity Cure has completely sold me on Julie Kagawa. I loved how she brought humanity to the monsters and showed how inhumane the humans can be. That's not to say the vampires can't be villainous. Allie is still struggling to deal with her new and eternal life with the pressures and cravings life as a vampire brings. She's grown since the first book and continues to do so throughout this second instalment of the Blood of Eden series. Relationships in this book were a strong point. There's a romantic relationship is heartbreakingly bitter-sweet. I loved seeing how the mentor/mentee dynamic between Allie and Kanin has shifted as Allie grows more comfortable and confident with her place in the vampire world. And then there's Jackal - he's surprising in many ways. The humour and banter that Jackal provides is a highlight of this novel. The Eternity Cure is fairly fast pasted - there is a lot that goes on in a short period of time but the pace is at a speed that feels right. It's exciting and dramatic at times. The characters are fascinating - flawed but fantastic in their own ways. I loved the journey Julia Kagawa took me on. I am looking forward to the third book in the series and in the meantime I will definitely be reading Kagawa's Iron Fey series!show more

(Source: I received a digital copy of this book for free on a read-to-review basis. Thanks to Harlequin Teen and Netgalley.) This is the second book in the 'Blood of Eden series', and picks up where book 1 left off. **Warning - some unavoideable spoilers for book 1 (such as where book 1 left off!)** Alison is now determinedly searching for her sire Kanin, who is being held hostage and tortured by Sarren, she's also determined to find a cure for red lung. Trying to track Kanin through their blood bond, she inadvertently finds her blood brother Jackal instead, and although she doesn't want to trust him, she feels like she has no choice. Can Allie find Kanin and save him before he loses his mind? Just how much can she really trust Jackal? And is there even such a thing as a cure for red lung? This was an enjoyable book, but like the first, it was quite a slow story, and felt like it took ages to get through. Allie was once again portrayed as a kick-ass heroine with a heart. A girl who knew right from wrong, and wasn't afraid to stand up for what she thought was the right thing to do, be it to help vampires or humans or both. I think she did sometimes do things without considering the consequences, or exactly what she was getting herself into, but thankfully things seemed to work out most of the time. There were some familiar faces again in this book. We once again come across Zeke, Kanin, and Jackal, and visit some of the same places we saw in the first book. I did like the storyline in this book, although the story itself did seem quite slow. The whole 'searching for a cure' part reminded me of the 'Partials' series by Dan Wells, where the main characters are also trekking around looking for a cure for a disease - a disease that affects two different races(?) of people (vampires and humans in this one, partials and humans in partials). It also reminded me of the partials series because like those books, this story is also long! (and it feels it.) There were some surprises in this book, and I'm happy to say that there was some romance again between Allie and Zeke. There were some moments where I was wondering what the hell Allie was doing though, and why she was so trusting of certain parties. The ending of the book was certainly the most compelling part of the story for me, with a horrifying occurrence, and then a bit of a cliff-hanger at the end! Once you've read this you will certainly be wanting to read the next one! Overall; a slow story, but a good second instalment, with a bit of a cliff-hanger ending. 7 out of 10.show more

I really enjoyed The Immortal Rules, with Kanin winning a place in my heart. After what we seen happen to him then, I was anxiously awaiting the release of The Eternity Cure and looked forward to journeying with Allie to find and save him. What I didn't expect was to finish this book with a new favourite character, Jackal, who really made this book for me. The book opens with Allie, alone, and following the blood tie she has to Kanin as he's her sire. She's been dreaming of him and the torture that he's being put through at the hands of Sarren, the psycho vamp. She won't give up until she finds him, she wouldn't be where she is now without him. He saved her life when she was attacked by rabids, and then thought her how to live as a vampire. But I found this wandering tedious and boring, making the first 100 pages or so of this book, not quite as enjoyable as I was expecting, or as the rest of the book, thankfully, turned out to be. Once Allie meets up with Jackal I was hooked. We first met Jackal in The Immortal Rules where he was cruel and vicious. He has an army of human followers, but he is on a mission to find a cure for the red lung disease, and then plans to turn them into a vampire army. I hated him with passion then. But in The Eternity Cure, while he is still cruel and vicious, still searching for the cure, still planning his army, and kills humans without any concious thought, we also see another side to him. He is sarcastic and witty and adds a lot of humour to this book. Kanin is much the same in this book as he was in The Immortal Rules and still as likable. After all he's been through over the past few months, he doesn't show signs of it having had a lasting impact on him, he's stoic and calm, and seems to hold his head quite well in dire situations. Foolishly, I wasn't expecting to see Zeke return in this book, he was in Eden, and I expected him to stay there. I liked Zeke even more in this book than in the first one. He's a tougher, stronger, harder Zeke. Where I kind of felt he was a little too 'good' previously, he didn't seem to have that same persona here. He's still good, and extremely caring for everyone, but tough and less of a doormat here. He's out for revenge and we see that past events have definitely taken a toll on poor Zeke. I feel more pity towards him now, funnily enough, than after he lost his father and friends at the hands of Jackal. A large majority of this book is spent travelling, a lot of which is through the sewers. Again, Kagawa's world building is faultless. And, I have to commend her recapping, I don't have the best memory and often find myself quite lost going into sequels, but not here. It was quite easy to pick up where I'd left off with The Immortal Rules. Julie left me in shock with the ending. And with no information yet on the third book, I just hope we're not going to be left hanging too long.show more