~ 3.5 Death Stars ~

Marie Hall is an amazing writer and story teller. I love her Kingdom series and when I saw the cover and read the blurb for Death's Lover I was interested. A Grim Reaper (Death) as a leading man sounded appealing. Death's Lover is book one in Marie Hall's The Eternal Lovers series.

I enjoyed this story, but not as much as I wanted too. I had a hard time getting into the story/plot at first, but once things settled down, the book took off. Marie brings to us a verity of creatures in Death's Lover, but our main focus is the Grim Reaper(s) and their future.

Eve is a witch, who projects powerful magic (emotions). She seams to have no control over projecting her emotions all over the place, but I got the impression that before her husband died she had control. With this aspect we see a vulnerability to Eve we might not have seen. We also see that she is very powerful, but the author does not give us much on this. It would have be nice to have a better understanding of her powers. We see bits and pieces, but only her projection power is understood.

Cian is Death, the Grim Reaper, but he is not the only Grim Reaper. He's haunted by his job, numb to feelings, and feels he will never love. He's been around for a very long time, so some of his old speak seeps in with a little Irish accent. **Sigh** Who doesn't like an accent? Once he lays eyes on Eve things start to change and when he has to take her soul well something happens to change him.

The story is told from several perspectives. The transition between points of view where not always immediately clear, but it was nice to see what was going on in everyone's mind. At the start of the book Eve is married and completely in love, but something happens to change all this. Cian and Eve are both complex characters. Eve's emotions are very real and at times heartbreaking. Cian battles with himself, his desire to protect Eve and the love growing. Both characters emotions and struggles come across to the reader. With the romance Ms. Hall does a great job building up to those moments in the book. We feel the heat just before an all consuming kiss. At the end I really felt for Cian and his plight. The fae especially the Grim Reaper(s) are hated (it's not fully explained why?), and somethings are said between Eve and Cian that hurts his feelings. I wanted to smack Eve at that moment when things where revealed and all she could do was the poor me routine. As for the ending, it wasn't the best.

All and all Death's Lover is a good read. For some reason it did not give me that great Ah moment or fulfillment that I usually get from Ms. Hall, but I am interested to see where the plot is going in The Eternal Lovers series.

*This book may be unsuitable for people under 17 years of age due to its use of sexual content, drug and alcohol use, and/or violence.*

I'm not sure what it is, but there is something about this cover that is making me just stare at it mindlessly. 

Eh. Anyway, review time. 

Although I did enjoy this book, it was very hard for me to get through. I liked the world building, but my brain kept losing focus. 

I had a hard time with the beginning, I really wasn't liking Cian and yes, it was because he was death and I guess I wasn't really grasping the point. Even still, I wasn't sure how I was going to feel about Eve falling in love with someone else after she was so obviously in love with her husband. And even though two years had passed for Eve, it was hard for me to remember that. 

Other than that, it was like it would drag at one point and then rush forward really quickly. Towards the end I was confused by Lise's harshness with Eve. I mean, I get it because it was explained but really, how did she expect Eve to react. For me it was really unclear, almost like no matter what Eve did she was going to be wrong. 

Poor Cian, I think he was just as confused as I was. 

I did like this book and I will probably read the next one. I am curious about Frenzy and where his story will go. I'm also curious about some of the other characters.

I'm not in the habit of reading steamy light paranormal. I found Eternal Lovers interesting with lots of adventure and surprises along the way.

Jennifer is born with some unusual talents which she inherited from the father she never knew. She can read the thoughts and communicate with animals as well as see peoples past lives. The story starts off when she’s a child being raised by her grandparents, but the story fast forwards to the present. Jennifer is twenty four and married to her long term friend Bill by the second chapter. While taking a vacation to see her best friend Alice she becomes increasingly attracted to Gabriel, a dark and mysterious man. By this time the reader knows Gabriel is much more than a man. He is an immortal alien who is over five thousand years old. He and his companions came to Earth to save the human race. When her feelings for Gabriel reach a boiling point, she leaves to return to her husband... being unfaithful is not something she would do. But what she finds shatters her world. The love story between her and Gabriel develops and is steamy to the bitter end.

First let me apology for the long review, as most of you know I try not to write reviews this long, but I really need to explain why I felt the way I did about this book. You also might find a few light spoilers while I am explaining things,but I’m going to try not to spoil anything major.

You know I really hate it when I read a book and end up at the end with conflicting feelings as to why I liked or disliked the book. I know, I know, I’m not making since, huh? LOL. Well, there are a lot of elements in this story I really enjoyed, but there were a lot of things I just didn’t care for. So when you come across something like this, you find yourself conflicted as to which weighs more: the liked or disliked. Then comes the concerns about not wanting to trash a book because you know others might like reading it.

So, let me just list the things I liked and disliked and maybe then I will find out which outweighs the other.

I loved the Native American/Egyptian myth mixed with one of the Immortals mating with a Selkie. I did enjoy reading about all the characters. I feel the author describes each in such detail you really get a good feel for their personalities. The scenes are well written, and you get a great sense of the direction in regards to the plot line of the story. I think the author did a good job in explaining the immortals' background and how they live their lives as vampires. I felt the sex in the story was great. There’s not a whole lot of it, but what’s there is really hot and it works well with the story and characters. I also really liked the idea of Jennifer's grandmother giving her a wolf to help with her loneliness. I felt right away this was no ordinary wolf and that she would end up with something special. I can’t wait to read her story!

I really didn’t care for the love triangle and how it seemed like most of the Immortals were hot to trot after Jennifer. The heroine in the story is already married, she’s just not satisfied with the marriage because of reasons I can’t spoil. She visits her long life friend and finds her friend has a wonderful life with a bunch of hot immortals men, *snickers* well she only mated with one of the Immortals, his name is Mick, but they all live in a huge compound together when they are not on the road with their music.

Now here is where my conflict comes from. I didn’t feel any spark between Gabriel and Jennifer. Why? Because they really never talked that much or had time to get to know each other until after 70 percent of the book. Heck, she was with Raphael just about the whole time, and she even tells him her secret, not Gabriel. When Jennifer first meets Raphael she lets him know she is married, but still he really wants to be with her, so this is the set up for a love triangle. I don’t know if the author really meant for it to read like this, but this is the only way I could see it. After Jennifer finds out her husband has been cheating on her she even tries to hook up with him, but then it takes her father to direct her to Gabriel as her mate. I have never read a romance story where the hero and/or heroine are so apart; in most romance stories they know right away they are meant to be together, they just want to fight that connection. I myself always like for the hero and heroine to be able to communicate with each other throughout the book, not waiting until the last few chapters when they really start to connect. The two do talk, but I just found that she was with Raphael way too much and shared too much of her life with him instead of seeing growth between the hero and heroine. I also felt like I didn’t get to know Gabriel like I wanted. I got to really know Raphael in this book, and I am truly looking forward to reading his book.
I also felt the author retold things too much at times. For example, when Jennifer is in a comatose state the author repeats just about word for word about her secret between a couple of parties. I felt some of that could have been written differently. I also felt like there was just way too much going on at times. You’re getting pulled in a lot of directions between the heroine's life, the immortals' lives, heck, even the butler has a POV. You also have a kidnapping of one of the other mates’ wives, and then you have the conflict between the immortals and their villains. On top of all of this, remember Jennifer is still married so you have to find out what happens there. Oh yeah, there are also all the abilities Jennifer has and the missing father. Oh, I almost forgot, the author does add a few chapters of the immortals' mortal mates’ POVs, so you get to know them better. So be prepared for several POVs.

I just wished the author would have left Bill (Jennifer’s husband) out and wrote the story with more focus on Gabriel and Jennifer and their romance built along with the other Immortals.

So, as you can see my dislikes outweigh my likes, but I felt the story is unusual, and I really connected with all the characters. I believe the next book in the series will be totally different. Sometimes the first book will carry way to much information, and the author will tone it down as they continue with the series, so I don’t want to discourage anyone from really giving this series a try. Just be ready for a complex read.