Review: Eternal (Sons of Heaven) by Virginia Hust

Eternal

Sons of Heaven #1

by Virginia Hust

Edited by Sarah Maddox

YA Urban Fantasy / Paranormal / Fiction

Published Jan 7, 2013

*Ebook obtained directly from the author in exchange for an honest review*

Synopsis via Goodreads:

Three hundred years of penance, of suffering through an immortal life has left Maura praying for salvation. She joins a group bent on gaining back their souls by awakening The One and after a rather bleak few years in Cairo she thinks they’ve found him. But after a meeting with her sire goes terribly wrong she is trapped in the enemy camp. How far will she go to survive? Gabriel is a normal, if rather jaded private detective living in Seattle Washington, until a beautiful woman shows up at his practice, claiming to be a vampire and asking for his help. Suddenly his life is turned on its head as he is introduced to the underground society of Fallen Angels bent on finding their savior.

Grab Your Copy:

About the Authors:

Virginia Gamsky Hust lives in sunny Florida with her new Husband William Hust and their miniature poodle Apollo. She is pursuing a degree in English Lit and works as a wedding planner in her spare time.

Connect With Virginia on Twitter

Sarah Maddox lives on the white sandy beaches of West Florida. She and Virginia have been friends since freshman year of college and she is the voice of reason in their little group. She is currently working towards her degree in Computer Science while juggling a part time job in a tourist town.

Stop by the official Eternal Website

My Review:

I'm a lover of all things vampire... usually. Now, starting this review with this tone sounds like I'm pacing myself for a rough review. Honestly, it's not that bad but I wasn't completely loving it either.

This novel starts off with a bang - The action starting off immediately. Capturing, torture, running, traveling...I enjoyed the multitude of characters in this novel but I have to be honest and say that I was totally confused by those who had multiple names. I understood that they had a modern name for this day and age plus the name they used years ago... I understood that just fine - it was the use of the names being swapped back and forth, around and around. I had to mentally try and keep up with which character I was reading about. I became exhausted in the beginning trying to keep them straight. 

I enjoyed that this novel was following two separate events at the same time: You have Maura & you have Gabriel. I enjoyed both of their characters. Sometimes I had a little trouble mentally jumping back and forth between the two scenes & settings though because they bounced back and forth often. I had a good feel for some characters and no feel at all for others. You really don't know much about anyone to start with... little bits and pieces of each character are revealed slowly over the course of the entire novel. The novel is told in third person so I wasn't completely engrossed in the characters as I might have been otherwise. 

Oooh the traveling - I really enjoyed the fact that the characters traveled from place to place. I thought that was intriguing. I've never been off the North America continent, so learning more about the places they stopped at could've been fun.

As I neared the 3/4 way through the novel, I was captured in what was happening to the characters. I loved the twists & excitement. I have to admit that the second half of the novel held my attention more than the first half. 

I felt like the novel could've used another run through by the editor because there were a handful of areas that made me want to take out a red pen but it wasn't a deal breaker. I loved the way this novel concluded and look forward to seeing what Virginia Hust does next.

Overall Rating: 3 Stars

Cover Rating: 1 Star

Characters: 3.5 Stars

Plot: 3.5 Stars

Climax: 3.5 Stars

Ending: 4 Stars