I’m starting to think that books about past lives and reincarnation are becoming my thing. I seem to just keep seeking them out, and publishers seem to be finding an emerging market for them. In the last year or so we’ve had My Name is Memory, Falling Under, Wake Unto Me, Timeless and if you think about it, even Beautiful Creatures & Beautiful Darkness dipped their toes into past life regression to an extent. Since I happened to have loved all of these books, it comes as no surprise that I was anxiously awaiting Kirsten Miller’s second installment to the Eternal Ones series, All You Desire.
“Haven Moore and Iain Morrow have been living a blissful life in Rome, an ocean way from the Ouroboros Society and its diabolical leader. But paradise is not to last. The mysterious disappearance of Haven’s best friend, Beau, sends the pair running back to New York, where they encounter the Horae, an underground group of women who have spent centuries scheming to destroy Adam Rosier. Only they can help Haven uncover the secret to Beau’s whereabouts in one of her past lives. But their help comes at a price: Haven must infiltrate the Ouroboros Society, charm Adam Rosier, and lure him into a trap. It’s a plan the Horae believe will save the world-but Haven and Iain fear that it may destroy the happiness they’ve been chasing for two thousand years.”
Miller took her happily ever after characters, Haven and Iain out of there love shack in Rome and threw them back into the heart of danger that comes with digging too deeply into the past. Unsurprisingly, choices made in another life have come back to bite them in the rear, but Miller managed to make it new and refreshing by turning everything we thought to be true upside down. While a complete reversal of plot from the first book is fairly standard in sequels, All You Desire managed to accomplish this in a non-rage inducing fashion.
The heart of the novel dealt with the notion of absolutes. In the beginning Haven and Iain are madly in love in Rome and desperately hoping the big bad Adam Rossier never finds them. Iain is allegedly dead, which has granted Haven one free lifetime without Adam trying to woo her, and if he were to find out otherwise, all bets could be off. And with Haven’s paranoia running high, she begins getting signs that their bubble has burst and she and Iain are no longer safe.
Tension builds even higher as she finds out that her best friend, and brother-from-another-mother, Beau is missing. Her whole world in a tail spin forces her into asituation that makes her choose between saving Beau and protecting Iain, and going directly into the lion’s den- back into the Ourobouros Society. Back in New York, fear and distrust put Iain and Haven’s relationship in a bit of danger, Adam suddenly seems to be good to be true, and the line between allies and enemies blur to dangerous levels.
The pages in this book seem to turn on their own, keeping you desperate to make sure Iain and Haven’s lifetimes of love last yet another, and to try and find out who if anyone is the real good or bad guy. Ultimately it becomes obvious that there are no absolutes, because everything is about balance- between right and wrong, good and evil, and even love and hate. The usual cast is back with a vengeance, though I desperately needed more of Beau and Iain. Beau’s sass and loyalty was needed to lighten the book up at times, and Iain was so distant in the Eternal Ones I had hoped to be able to get to know him better. There’s just something so sweet and loving about the both that you want the to be in every scene. New characters appear, making their own interesting mark on the series, and old ones get a very new look.
All You Desire is a worthy sequel to the Eternal Ones and if the surprise at the end of it was any indication, I think we’ll have another look at the many and fascinating lives of Iain and Haven. Make sure to check it out, and tell me what your favorite past life book has been lately!