ARC Review--The Eternity Cure by Julie Kagawa

In Allison Sekemoto's world, there is one rule left: 

Blood calls to blood

She has done the unthinkable: died so that she might continue to live. Cast out of Eden and separated from the boy she dared to love, Allie will follow the call of blood to save her creator, Kanin, from the psychotic vampire Sarren. But when the trail leads to Allie's birthplace in New Covington, what Allie finds there will change the world forever-and possibly end human and vampire existence.

There's a new plague on the rise, a strain of the Red Lung virus that wiped out most of humanity generations ago-and this strain is deadly to humans and vampires alike. The only hope for a cure lies in the secrets Kanin carries, if Allie can get to him in time.

Allison thought that immortality was forever. But now, with eternity itself hanging in the balance, the lines between human and monster will blur even further, and Allie must face another choice she could never have imagined having to make.

I received this e-ARC from the publishers via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review, I was in no way compensated for this review.


Julie Kagawa totally blew me away with The Eternity Cure! She slams surprise after surprise at every turn! I couldn't believe how many jaw-dropping-oh-my-god moments there were in this book! It was truly freaking incredible!

A short time has passed since Allison had led Zeke and the others to Eden, then setting out on her own journey to find Kanin, her Master, who is in terrible trouble. And one of the first surprises she encounters is running into Jackal, when she thought she was following Kanin's trail. Jackal quickly explains that it's because he's her blood brother and since they share the same blood, she was able to find him. As he wanted. As it turns out, Jackal wants to help Kanin too, but doesn't really make his intent clear as to why.

The journey begins with Allie and Jackal traveling the across the states as they are led to where it all began; New Covington. But there are more surprises than Kanin awaiting there. The city has been ravaged by a disease, one that affects humans and vampires, effectively killing them in a slow death. The humans are crazed beings and there are hardly survivors left since the Prince has closed off the inner city.

While trekking through the city and trying to get a bead on Kanin's location, Allie encounters a group of surviving humans, led by an all too familiar face. Care to hazard a guess as to who? It was yet another surprise to see this returning character, although I didn't think Julie would leave this character out of the story.

Once again, Allie must deal with the incredibly insane vampire, Sarren. She must put an end to his maddeningly crazy plan on destroying humanity and vampires with the virus that effects them all. Funny thing though is that he never mentions offing himself. Yet instead of wanting to take over the world, he wants to end it. Allie and Kanin must work quickly to find the cure or else all is lost.

I felt like this book had a faster pace than the last one, which was well paced if I recall. A LOT happened in that one as we were getting introduced to a new world. Now we know the world, we know the characters, so we didn't have to go through the introductory phase as is warranted in the first book of a series.

The Eternity Cure was simply incredible! I was amazed with how far the characters had come. Allie has developed into a very strong vampire--in a sense--and yet she is still able to be in tune with her human side. She's balanced. Jackal too me by surprise several times throughout the book. Gone was the crazed king--and it's been sooo long since I read the book, I couldn't really remember everything that had already happened--and in his place is a somewhat normal vamp. Yeah, he's a little bit of a mix of the typical vamp. He can be deadly scary and fierce one moment, then the next he's sarcastic and making wisecracks--which were totally funny! He's a pretty complex character in some ways. He's the guy you can't trust, but willingly trust...yeah, I struggle to put into words his complexity!

As I said, this book was full of surprises. And just as things were winding down, and a somewhat HEA was just on the horizon, with more to come...Julie slams the breaks and hits us with the most killer ending ever!! OMG, I was totally blown away. I won't get into it all, but it became quite an ordeal. Although, I pretty much guessed outright what the conclusion was in the very last paragraph or so of the epilogue! And now, I must begin the agonizing wait of a year to come to read the next book! And I know that one will be a read worth waiting for!

The Blood of Eden series is a remarkable series that differs highly from her The Iron Fey Chronicles. Here we have a dark setting of a future riddled with vampires and the only way to survive is to succumb to their whims. Allie is a fierce heroine, who while vampire, doesn't play by the rules of the Princes. She is out to make a life of her own and be the kind of girl she wants to be. I have thoroughly enjoyed watching her grow and cannot wait to see her kick some ass in the next book! Bring it on!


Overall rating 5/5 stars


The Eternity Cure releases April 30, 2013