Review: All You Desire by Kirsten Miller

All You Desire (The Eternal Ones #2)
by Kirsten Miller
August 9, 2011
Borrowed from Library
Goodreads Page
Amazon Page
Grade: C

Synopsis (from Publisher):  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.

---

This book was a pleasant surprise.  I remember little from the The Eternal Ones beyond it being one of the seemingly thousands eternal-love-through-reincarnations books that have appeared in the past few years.  Obviously I was intrigued enough to pick up the sequel, but I don’t remember much else.

Luckily All You Desire managed to catch me up enough (without a Babysitters’ Club style expository chapter) that it was easy to follow the action even without remembering every detail of the first book.  The book also moved from the question of eternal love and the reality of reincarnations to a more political ‘so what happens now?’

What happens now is that there is more than one group of reincarnated souls each with its own agenda.  Only Haven doesn’t have much of an idea what’s going on, but all parties seem to consider her the fulcrum on which everything turns.  On one hand, this didn’t make much sense, but on the other, since she’s both a blank slate unburdened by thousands of years of memories and also a familiar quantity, the other players can attempt to predict the decisions she’ll make. 

I really enjoyed the Horae, the group of twelve ‘sisters’, who’ve been reborn life after life with the sole mission of taking down Adam Rosier.  They definitely weren’t the fairy godmothers they wanted to portray themselves as, but the shades of gray in their purpose and actions were interesting to watch develop.  The other character I absolutely adored was Leah, her snake handling upbringing, visions of the future.  She was so above all the reincarnation insanity that it was absolutely hilarious.

Like I said, the politics and some of the characters intrigued me, but Haven still strikes me as very, very dumb more often than not.  After making her choice between Iain and Adam in the last book and spending a happy year in a serious relationship with Iain, she’s again questioning her choice, seemingly only at the behest of the plot instead of through any real character development on either side.  She seems oblivious to the intrigue swirling around her and basically believes whatever the last person said...right up until someone else comes by with a new story. 

Normally I have a soft spot for the established love interest, but Adam is so much more interesting than Iain - even if his passion for Haven seems inexplicable.  Though he’s thousands of years old and apparently the embodiment of chaos, he continues to change and adapt to his surroundings, making actual choices that affect his future and completely alter the future of the Ouroboros Society which he’s spent the past hundred years running.

The writing in All You Desire is much better than what I remember from the first book as is indicated by Miller’s ability to draw the nearly minuscule details scattered throughout the novel into a cohesive and interesting plot.  I hope, however, that in the inevitable third installment (because the ending makes the intention clear) this will extend to the characterization of Haven and Iain. When the third book comes out, I’ll probably pick it up if I see it at the library, but I’ll mostly be doing it in hopes that the Horae and Leah come back.