Review: The Forever Song (Blood of Eden #3) by Julie Kagawa

Thanks to Harlequin Teen and Netgalley for allowing me to read an e-galley of this final book in an awesome series.  I must start out by saying that once again I have been pleasantly surprised at how well the series has been ended.  So many trilogies where I just loved the first book disappointed me in either the 2nd book, or the last one.  I won't name names, you've seen my reviews if you've followed me.   But this was a great finale.

We start the book out with Allison and her sire, Kanin, and her brother, Jackal.  They are on their way to find Sarren and kill him, as well as stop his evil plans to release a modified virus on the world that will kill all living things, not just humans, not just the rabids, but vampires as well.  Sarren is just that crazy.  Allison is in a bad state.  We all know what happened with Zeke at the end of the last book.  And she is ready to give in to the monster inside her.  To get over her last bit of humanity, the things that Kanin tried to take the time with her to teach her.  Jackal of course is happy about that.  He wants her to become more like him.  But we continue to see that Jackal has softened a bit maybe, at least where his family is involved.  Sarren is leaving horrible displays along the way, knowing that they are following him.  Bodies hanging in barns, ripped apart.  Messages that hit right in Allison's heart, about her human family, including Zeke.  And when one of them shows up, left there to really get at Allison, let me say I was so upset!  Wanted to cry!  They really have to catch Sarren before he reaches Eden and unleashes the virus.

I won't go on about the story.  Just know that the way the whole outbreak, as well as the problem with Sarren himself, is solved is really creative in my opinion.  I love how it happens.  I love the things Allison learns about herself and about her family.  I love that things aren't all just humans love vampires at the end, that it is still a very tentative situation of trust.  Great characters, even the banter between Jackal and Allison is fun to read.  I loved this story.  Can't believe that when I met the author, Julie Kagawa, I hadn't ready any of her books, so couldn't go all fan girl on her, like I would if I got the chance to meet her again.  On a side note, it's kind of fitting that I finally got my orders of the first two books in at the high school library where I work.  I can't wait to share them with the students, and will probably have to go buy the 3rd one myself since I'm out of money through the school district.

The Iron King (The Iron Fey #1) by Julie Kagaway

Once again I must ask myself why I waited so long to read this book!  Kagawa's writing is the kind I really like.  It draws me in and makes it hard for me to put the book down.  This is a much different story than the Blood of Eden series, obviously as this one is about fairies, and the other is vampires.  But it is another enjoyable story with characters that you are interested in.  Meghan Chase is the main character, and she is one of those girls who just never seems to fit in at school.  Her life has been sad, her father disappeared when she was a small child, and she doesn't remember much about him.  She has a best friend, a boy named Robbie.  And no matter what he seems to be by her side.  I like Robbie, he is very funny.  Weird things start to happen, including something cruel at school.  When she goes to tutor the cute, popular boy at school, one she's had a crush on, the computers in the lab start saying things on their own, that make him upset, and mad at her.  And then, he goes out and embarrasses her in front of the whole school.  As she goes home, extremely upset, she finds things even worse.  Her mother is hurt, but refuses to go to the hospital.  Her younger brother is acting like he's sick, but also like he's not himself.  He's been scared all week, saying something was in his room watching him.  When Meghan's stepfather comes home, he insists that her mother must go to the doctor.  So Meghan is home alone with her brother Ethan.  She soon comes to figure out something is really wrong with him.  And it is her friend, Robbie, who shows her exactly what.  Robbie is not who he has said he is, he is actually the fairy Puck, and Meghan is also part fairy.  She learns her father is not who she thought he was.  And also now she must go rescue her brother who has been kidnapped with a changeling left in his place.  To do that she must go to the world of the fairies.  Once there, she finds more danger than she expected, finding out just who her father is, and that her brother has been taken by the Iron King Machina.  While there are different types of fairies, this is a kind that is destroying the world of the other fey.  She meets one of the princes of the winter fey, and soon must rely on his help.  She also learns how you must be careful in how you express your gratitude.  Just saying you owe someone can put you life in danger, you don't want to owe debts to some people, or creatures.
I love Meghan, and while there may be a bit of a love triangle, it works okay for this story.  I will have to read on and see how badly or how well it is handled by this author.  I was lucky that these paperbacks were being stripped in my bookstore, well, the 1st, 2nd, and 4th in the series.  So when I get to number 3, I'll be going to the library I guess!  And because I like to share, here is my picture from when I met Julie Kagawa at BEA 2012, before I'd ever read any of her books!

The Eternity Cure (Blood of Eden #2) by Julie Kagawa

Of course I must first say thanks to both Netgalley and Harlequin Teen for allowing me to read this as an e-galley in March.  I just recently finished reading the first in the series, The Immortal Rules, and loved it.  I was so pleased when one of my followers told me the sequel was available on Netgalley.  But then when I looked at first, all I could find was a copy for Australian readers only. But I kept searching, and found the one I could download, and I did.  And even though I had another e-galley that was supposed to expire before this one did, I just couldn't wait to read this one!  So I'll have to pick the other one up in April when it expires.  But anyway, let me go on with the review, just be aware, if you haven't read the first one, there may be a few spoilers for the first book.  But I'll do my best to keep them few and far between!

So, Allison is of course our returning main character, or Allie as she goes by.  Her human group of friends from the first book, including Zeke, are safe in Eden.  But Allie's been having nightmares, feeling her sire, Kanin's pain as he's being tortured by Sarren.  And since she has this connection to him, she can feel the direction she needs to go to find him.  And so she is off to find him and hopefully rescue him from the crazy vampire that when she last met with him, she stabbed him in the eye and took that eye away from him.  On her way though, she sees Kanin be put into basically a hibernation or coma for a vampire.  And so the link seems to grow weaker.  And at the same time, there is a pull in another direction.  She follows that other pull and it is the wrong one, as it leads her to Jackal, the vampire that killed Jeb, Zeke's father, as well as other members of their group.  Turns out, she has a connection to Jackal as well.  I'll go ahead and tell you, since I figured it out in the last book myself, Jackal is her brother, Kanin is his sire as well.  So of course he's been dreaming of Kanin as well.  And he has connections in the town where Allie finds him, which is Washington DC from the description.  He tells her that based on where Sarren was in the town, he must be looking for a cure for the rabidism.  We now know that Kanin was the vampire who gave the humans his fellow vampires to test on to try to find a cure for the Red Lung disease so long ago.  And because of that, he is hated by most if not all vampires.  So Allie teams up reluctantly and grudgingly with Jackal to find Kanin.  And it ends up they are headed back to the Fringe where Allie grew up.  Once there, they will have a surprise helper show up, Zeke.  And Allie must once again face her love for a human.  They must get into the city as they find that there is a new disease taking over the humans.  And they are sure that Kanin and Sarren must be in the city somewhere.  This leads them to the Vampire Prince of the sector, as well as a blast from Allie's past.  A friend, or is it a foe?  It is obvious that Sarren has released this disease, but does he have the cure?  The prince wants this cure as well, and so Jackal, Allie, and Zeke must find Sarren for him, and determine if he has the cure and bring it back.

This book was another good sequel in that it didn't have the 2nd book slump that so often occurs.  Now, at first, it did start out a bit that I was going to bored.  I mean, Allie, by herself, on a road trip?  While Jackal is a bad guy, I do enjoy his humor, it does keep the story at least interesting, and it makes you wonder if maybe he can some day redeem himself, as most of the other vampires don't have the same sarcastic personality as him, at least not any that we've met in the books.  But the book quickly picked up once she got to work with Jackal, and once they hit the city of New Covington, where Allie grew up, the story got really good again.  Only problem?  I now have to wait for book #3, at least a year!

One last thing I'm curious about, the cover.  The first had a picture on it, of Allie I assume.  This one is a very plain cover.  I see on Goodreads a different picture of a possible girl, but just wonder why the change.

Waiting on Wednesday: The Eternity Cure (Blood of Eden #2) by Julie Kagawa

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine where we spotlight upcoming releases that we're eagerly awaiting.  This week I've chosen the sequel to a book I just reviewed on Monday. I so loved The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa, that I'm very excited to know that the sequel, The Eternity Cure, will be coming out on April 23rd.  So while I can't believe it took me this long to read the book that I got last summer at BEA, I'm glad in a way because it will be fresh in my mind in time for the sequel!  Here is the blurb about it from Goodreads.com:

Allison Sekemoto has vowed to rescue her creator, Kanin, who is being held hostage and tortured by the psychotic vampire Sarren. The call of blood leads her back to the beginning—New Covington and the Fringe, and a vampire prince who wants her dead yet may become her wary ally.

Even as Allie faces shocking revelations and heartbreak like she’s never known, a new strain of the Red Lung virus that decimated humanity is rising to threaten human and vampire alike.

So tell me, what book are you anxiously waiting on this week?

The Immortal Rules (Blood of Eden #1) by Julie Kagawa

Okay, once again I have been totally wowed and am asking myself why in the world I waited so long to read a book by this author.  Now, I must admit the other series by this author, is about Fey, and I'm not really into the fairies that much.  Not that I haven't read any good books about them or with them, I just haven't quite gotten to the stage where I'll go pick them up.  As I've mentioned before, I got this book at BEA last summer and actually got to meet Julie Kagawa, but didn't get her autograph.  Hmm.  Not sure why.  Maybe I'll get another chance.  In fact, wonder if she'll be at the Romantic Times Convention in Kansas City in May since her books are by Harlequin Teen.  Cool, I'd better go check my list of what authors are going to be there!
This book, let's just say it sucked me in right away and I was hooked!  And it was awesome to start reading it during the big snow storm so that I had all the snow days off of school to really get it read.  Now, I've also mentioned that I don't always jump at any and all vampire stories.  And often the idea of a world where vampires rule, etc., just doesn't draw me in.  But this was done in a way that we weren't in with the vampire society all the time, we were following the main character, Allie Sekemoto, who lived in the Fringes around the vampire city.  With people who chose not to be registered, so they weren't required to give blood weekly, or monthly, or whatever the requirement was.  She wasn't a "pet" of the vampires, so it was like a post-apocalyptic world, the kind of story I do enjoy.  Allie and the "gang" she lived with had to fight for their territory sometimes, and also had to try to find their own food.  One day Allie went outside even the fences that surround where she lives with her gang, into the area that is full of rabids.  Rabids are vampire/zombies that people became from the Red Lung disease that I read about in 'Til the World Ends.  Out there she found a whole shed/basement FULL of canned food and all kinds of good stuff.  When she takes her friends out there, after her own close call with a bunch of rabids, something goes wrong and they get attacked.  As they try to run back to the fenced in area, two are killed, and as Allie tries to get back, she is overtaken by the rabids and passes out while being fed on.  She awakes to the sound of a voice, the voice of a vampire.  He is offering her a choice.  He can end her pain by giving her a quicker death, or he can end her pain by turning her into a vampire, still a death, but she gets to keep her life going.  She chooses to become a vampire.  Once she changes and wakes up, her vampire maker, Kanin, begins to teach her the rules of being a vampire.  And how to fight, etc.  She learns that he is hated by the other vampires, for his role in the past which caused the rabids to form in the first place.  And because of this he is hunted.  When it seems they have been caught, he sends her away, out of the town, past the fences, because anyone knowing she was related to Kanin would kill her.  So as she is travelling, she runs into a group of humans.  She is able to fit in because they have learned to travel at night,  which works for her because she must sleep all day and stay out of the sun.  She has to try to fake eating, etc.  But she is happy to be surrounded by humans, and to do what she can to help them.
Of course, as you know must happen, she will come to be found out eventually, and she must decide whether to try to help them from the sidelines, or go on her own way.
The story reminds me also of road trip types of stories, like The Stand, The Long Walk, Swan Song, and even a bit of shows like The Walking Dead.  A group of survivors trying to get somewhere, always distrust between some, dangers, like rabids, or vampires, or people working for the vampires.  No food, etc.  I love, love, LOVED the book!  I'll definitely be recommending it to people, and eagerly awaiting the sequel, The Eternity Cure, due out this April!   So happy I don't even have to wait that long!

'Til the World Ends by Julie Kagawa, Ann Aguirre, and Karen Duvall

Thanks to Netgalley and Harlequin Teen, I got to read this book as an e-galley.  It was the perfect time for a book of short stories, or novellas as they are often called.  This was a pretty good book.  I have to say that I got The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa at BEA last summer (still not sure why I didn't get her to autograph it when I was getting my picture taken with her), and since I haven't read any of her books yet, I've been a bit reluctant, dragging my feet to pick it up.  So when I saw this available on Netgalley, and that the first story was a prequel or 0.5 in the Blood of Eden series, I thought what a great way to see if I want to read on, if the story works, if I like her writing, etc.  Believe it or not, as much as I do love vampire stories, I get very picky and skeptical of new stories.  I mean, people get all up in arms about Twilight vampires sparkling, and yet if you read ANY vampire series, good ones that is, there are all kinds of different aspects based on what that author has written.  And I am a Twilight fan, but also a Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan, and a Sookie Stackhouse fan, as well as a fan of Anne Rice's vampire series.  So, after reading this book, my next book I've picked up to read on my snow day is The Immortal Rules, that is how good the Dawn of Eden story in this book was.  So here are my reviews of each of the stories below.
As I said, the first story is Dawn of Eden, and in it we meet Kylie, who was in school to be a doctor, but we're not ever told for sure, I don't think she quite completed her education before the plague called Red Lung started taking over.  It's a virus that basically does what the name says.  People get sick, and begin coughing up blood as well as bleeding from other areas.  Kylie is about the only doctor left at one of the few clinics left to help people.  As there is no cure, pretty much they just help the people be comfortable as long as they can.  One night two men come in.  Ben Archer is helping his friend who is bleeding.  Now the wounds look like an animal or a human even attacked him.  And Archer is kind of secretive about what has happened to them, and why he is so paranoid about telling Kylie and the other workers that they need to leave, that it isn't safe there, especially at night.  When his friend dies, the different symptoms he had begin spreading to the other patients, and Kylie learns what may have really caused the Red Lung virus.  And now she is left with just Archer to trust and try to survive against a new creature, part vampire, part zombie it seems.  I loved it!  Can't wait to read the first book!
The second story is by Ann Aguirre, who is the author of the Razorland series, a series I've heard was good, but again, it wasn't at the top of my TBR list.  Now, it is.  I don't see anywhere that this story is related in any way to that series, but I did like the characters and writing, so I know I'll be sure to move it up on my list!  This story is called Thistle and Thorn.  In this futuristic world some kind of chemical disaster has led to all the land being basically unlivable, unless you are one of the rich, powerful people, who build fortress cities to contain their family and friends, and keep their food and such safe.  Outside of the fortresses are places like The Red Zone, where our main character, Mari Thistle lives.  Mari must take care of her younger brother and sister.  And to do this, like her father she is a thief.  Partly because she is very small and agile.  We start the story with her being about to fail her first job ever.  But it almost seems as if she has been set up to fail by the boss of the zone she lives in.  Once in the fortress, she is unable to find her way to her object she is supposed to be stealing, she's been given old plans of the city.  Fortunately someone seems to want to help her, a guy named Thorne Goodman, who is one of the thugs that works for the boss.  But seems Thorne has a grudge he wants to settle, and saving Mari can help him do what he feels needs to be done.  Mari soon grows to somewhat trust Thorne, and hopes that maybe she's inspired him to make some changes if he is ever in a position that he could be in charge of the zones.  Another good story, which likable characters, and moves the books up my TBR list!  Well, once I get copies of them that is.
And the 3rd and final story, Sun Storm, is by Karen Duvall.  I've not heard of her before, and while this story was okay, don't know that I'll necessarily search out to read her other books, from the list of them on Goodreads anyway.  I definitely liked the "science" aspect of this future world.  The sun has basically begun having solar flares and storms bigger than any in the history of the Earth.  So bad they've basically destroyed the atmosphere of Earth.  Millions of people have died from a sun fever, a few who have been exposed to the flares survive, and develop powers, like our main character Sarah.  Sarah can now predict when a nearby storm is going to occur and she can go and warn those towns to try to save lives.  She was unable to save her mother who died, or her father who is still in the hospital where Sarah lives and works helping the doctors when she is not out warning of storms.  The interesting thing about Sarah's family is that they actually used to be storm chasers before all this happened, and so she has in a way continued that with her advance notice.  One day she meets a guy named Ian Matthews at the hospital, and soon learns that he too has a power.  He is able to control the weather.  He can cause the wind to blow, he can take water from a source like underground, lake, etc., and cause rain.  But he is a bit different and secretive.  Turns out there was a federal agent that had tried to "capture" him and use his power.  There was some story saying that they needed one more after him in order to stop the solar storms and even save the world.  And Sarah has a strange attraction to Ian.  More than just being interested in someone like her, it is an actual physical pull.  She can get power and energy from him.  And together, they can actually do more.  But now they must run to try to get away from this bad agent, and try to discover if there really is some way that together they can save the world.  This was a good story, took a bit for me to get into it, but once I did, I enjoyed it.  I just don't know if any of this author's other books sound like ones I want to read.  I'd love to see more like this from her.
Definitely pick up this book and read it if you like futuristic, apocalyptic types of stories.  I definitely recommend all three stories!  And now, I'm off to read The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa and enjoy my snow day!