ARC Review--The Forever Song by Julie Kagawa

VENGEANCE WILL BE HERS

Allison Sekemoto once struggled with the question: human or monster?

With the death of her love, Zeke, she has her answer.

MONSTER

Allie will embrace her cold vampire side to hunt down and end Sarren, the psychopathic vampire who murdered Zeke. But the trail is bloody and long, and Sarren has left many surprises for Allie and her companions—her creator, Kanin, and her blood brother, Jackal. The trail is leading straight to the one place they must protect at any cost—the last vampire-free zone on Earth, Eden. And Sarren has one final, brutal shock in store for Allie.

In a ruined world where no life is sacred and former allies can turn on you in one heartbeat, Allie will face her darkest days. And if she succeeds, triumph is short-lived in the face of surviving forever alone.

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


First, a huge thank you goes to Harlequin Teen for approving my request for this one! After read The Eternity Cure as an ARC, I was left screaming at the cliffhanger so I was eager to read this one as early as possible!

Julie Kagawa's The Forever Song concludes the trilogy to her vampire series that she swore she would never write! Just so glad that that changed! Allie's life has definitely changed over the past few months as well since becoming a vampire. She's grown to accept what she is, dealt with her meddling blood brother, Jackal, and has even formed a friendship of sorts with him, found Zeke, a human boy she grew to love, before losing him. Now she's out for revenge on that vampire that took him from her, and to be Sarren at this time would not be a pleasant thing! Allie is hellbent on revenge and doesn't care what it takes to get it.

Allie, Kanin and Jackal are traveling cross country to get to Eden in order to stop Sarren from unleashing his virus on the world. One that will essentially kill everyone, vampire and human alike. This mutated virus is like the Red Plague, the one that set everything into motion years ago, but instead of killing all humans, it kills vampires too. Saving the world, what's left of it, is great and all, but Allie wants to kill Sarren because he has taken the one thing that she cared for most in this world, Zeke.

Julie really knows what's she doing! Character growth always amazes me, especially over such a short period of time. I can barely recall Allie back as a human and how she struggled to survive, now she's a vampire and she has a fierce streak to her. She's brave, courageous and now, vengeful. Which I do not condone her for at all and I was right there with her shouting for Sarren's head. It was only Kanin trying to help her keep her cool. Jackal, apparently approved of the new bloodthirsty Allie!

If you've read The Eternity Cure, you know how it really ended, but you see, Allie doesn't know this. And there was a time for awhile, I was wondering if it even happened that way! But the answer does come along eventually, and really, it wasn't so surprising how it happened. It just added more tension to the story all the more and I loved it!!

Jackal is definitely a character that you grow to love! Pretty much from The Eternity Cure on, he's had a special place in my heart! He's got a wicked sense of humor that always alleviates the tension of nearly every situation. You almost wonder if he does that to take away the tension, because usually what comes out of his mouth are things you don't want to hear! Or for Allie's case at least!

The Forever Song was a well paced read! Really, it was sort of perfect in a way, for our heroes cannot simply find Sarren right away and have at the final battle! There were lots of other challenges in their way and those had to be defeated first. And those were life threatening on their own as well! This one had quite a few surprises thrown in along the way as well. Some I was able to foresee, but there were definitely some shockers thrown in towards the end that left me breathless!

While I am sad to see this amazing trilogy come to an end, I do have to say that I enjoyed the ending that Julie gave us. It was one of those nice ones that leave you feeling content, knowing that the characters are still going to be having more adventures even after the page has ended.


Overall Rating 5/5 stars


The Forever Song releases April 15, 2014