Daily Archives: March 1, 2011

I didn’t really think I was going to like this book. I picked it up because of the tag line: “At last Miranda is the life of the party: All she had to do was die.”

I read Tantalize a while ago and was disappointed. I just didn’t get into the plot- at all. But I was lured in by the cover of Eternal and wound up being pleasantly surprised.

Miranda has a Guardian Angel who watches her all the time – yes, even in the shower though he firmly denies that. When it’s Miranda’s “turn” to die, he intervenes and changes the course of both their lives. Through the events that follow Miranda (not surprisingly from the title and tag line) ends up a vampire and Zachary (her GA) ends up fallen. He then has to figure out how to fix his mistake.

The characterization is flawed at best – we’re expected to believe that after years of being an angel, Zachary is going to land on earth and go wild – but only sometimes, and only when we’re not looking. Anytime we’re paying attention, Zachary is making “good choices” and demonstrating the kind of restraint and wisdom you’d expect of a 200 year old angel. While we’re not watching him, however, he sneaks off and gets a tattoo (and an ugly one at that), drinks, and has sex with random women. It just doesn’t add up.

Still, there’s something about this story that sucked me in. I read it fast because I wanted to see what happened next. For those of you who can’t get over the vampire craze you’ll want to check this book out – maybe as a “light” beach read (don’t get me wrong, it’s a dark tale). It’s not heavy prose, and the difficult subject matter isn’t really given the weight it could have (which didn’t bother me, I just add that as an FYI).

Interesting thing I noticed when I finished reading – Smith lists her “references” in the back of the book, explaining where parts of the story reflect classic literature (Dracula is the most obvious example). When I finished reading the two page list of authors she drew from I had to wonder how much of the story she’d actually written herself. Someone more familiar with that list of works will have to chime in on that front.

Overall, I wouldn’t put this on my top ten list – or even my top twenty – but I still enjoyed it – and it made me want to re-read Tantalize to see if maybe I just missed something the first time.  Smith’s next book, Blessed, was released in January unites the casts of Eternal and Tantalize. It’s on my list – but it may be a while before I get to it.

Disclaimer: I don’t own this book (thank you library), nor was I compensated for this review in any way.

Image Credit: Amazon.com