Title: Life Eternal by Yvonne Woon
Author: Yvonne Woon
Series: (Dead Beautiful #2)
Expected publication: February 24th 2012 by Disney-Hyperion
 

I received an eARC from Disney-Hyperion via Netgalley. Thank you.

I really like Dead Beautiful, so guess what my reaction was when I saw this on netgalley. I’m so ecstatic, thrilled beyond words. I hit the request button and the next thing I knew, it was on my homepage waiting for me download and read it. And for the verdict? It was great, better than the prequel.

There are a lot of things I liked about this book. For starters, Renee, out resident heroine was brought back from the dead courtesy of her undead boyfriend, Dante. If you already read Dead Beautiful you should already know that Dante and Renee are soulmates. No, not the romantic type metaphor (although that is applicable too), they share one soul. Undead are like zombies (actually they are zombies), they’re soulless and they have 21 years to search for their souls. Too bad for Dante though that his soul is now housing inside the girl he loves. What an unfortunate dilemma, you say? But that’s made it interesting to me. I was really eager to know how he and Renee will work things out. So enter the legend of the nine sisters. I was really fascinated about it. Although I kind of miss the Latin part which was very apparent in the first book. But as Renee digs deeper about these nine sisters, I was also in the same page as her. So that part I liked.

I really don’t have much complaints on Renee. Yes, she wasn’t strong but she’s more acceptable than most heroines I’ve encountered. Maybe I’m getting used to it already unless it is really annoyingly whiny, which thank goodness she wasn’t. So I just enjoyed the ride, she’s a good storyteller. But personality/character wise, she’s tad plain… but good enough. As for the Dante, he was ok too. I don’t have much to say about him. I felt sorry for him though (most of the time actually), especially when I found about the decaying part (as they near their twenty first year (as an undead) their flesh are starting to rot). I was shocked about the whole almost blind thing. Plus, the revelation about Renee’s parents and Dante’s connection to their deaths. I was empathetic to him. I do admire Renee because she wasn’t completely oblivious to her boyfriend, but I realized Dante has no one but her… so that’s a bit sad. I don’t know, maybe that’s just me, maybe I have soft spot with the misunderstood type (enigmatic by circumstances—b’coz he can’t tell (yet) the truth, but actually doing good stuff behind).

I was reading this book by chunk, so I might have overlooked it or I was spaced out or something. The details about their situation weren’t detailed yet, so that sort of irked me a bit. I mean, that’s what I’m eager to know and it left me hanging. I know, I know, that’s crucial to the story and this whole save-the-best-for-last plot device. But I hope there’s a bit of explanation. Anyway, as for the story and the information, I think it was revealed enough (especially the part about the monitors), although I’m seeking some more.

I think I like Gottfried more than St. Clement, or maybe the students there are more interesting. I like Anya, Clementine (for the bitch she was, she’s actually ok) and Noah. Oh poor Noah… did he? Is it…? But he can’t? I read the part twice… but I still hope for a miracle. Pretty please! I like him, and I’m going to be really sad if he truly ended that way.

Like the others, I so didn’t like the ending. It was rushed. I was surprised when I pressed the next button and it was the acknowledgement page. Shocked was an understatement, I even startled my sister when I gasped loudly. Seriously? Cliffhanger, people! Cliffhanger!!! And you know what cliffhanger does, it draws the impatient reader in me. So with that folks, I’m ending this review with – I can’t wait for the next book! 🙂