Eternal Life by Kara Leigh Miller

This was such a bittersweet read, the last and final of six books in the magical The Cursed series. It was both so exciting to reach the end of the story and so sad that it was time to say goodbye to Chloe, Trent and Jax and all the other characters I’ve come to love during these six books.

This series has been such a joyful, nostalgic (hello old Twihard me!) guilty pleasure, giving me that same kind of feverish feeling I remember from the first time I read series like Twilight and The Vampire Diaries. The Cursed series actually is something of an homage to Twilight, or rather Twilight meets The Covenant movie in a cute, fast-paced and addictive story full of magic, vampires and a coven of witches on the hunt for revenge.

This final book started off right after the cliffhanger in book five, with the abrupt end to Chloe’s and Trent’s honeymoon when Trent got kidnapped by a sadistic vampire and his psychopathic queen, and Chloe returning home husband-less with Jax. After that initial chocking event though, nothing really exciting happened for a long time, since we were stuck with Chloe waiting for the search hunt to find and bring Trent back to her. I would so much have preferred the narrative to also tell the story of Trent in the captivity and of Jax, Colt and Wyatt searching for him, making it more action-filled than just focusing on the rather slow part with Chloe waiting around and redecorating the house.

When Trent finally did return though, the torture and mind games he’d endured in captivity had made him insecure, possessive and needy. And with Chloe’s pregnancy hormones taking her on an emotional rollercoaster, and the threat of a full-on war against both the Zoya Coven and an army of vampires, life as a newly-wed is not as lovey-dovey as Chloe had hoped for.

“I was Trent’s and I always would be. But between whatever mind games Yolanda had played on him to make him so insecure and my raging pregnancy hormones, it was going to be a long few months. I only hoped we all survived unscathed.”

I really sympathized with Chloe, feeling sorry that she never got to be completely happy. It seemed like every time she and Trent were having a great day, something terrible had to happen to destroy it. Like the pregnancy problems on top of everything... But even though my heart ached for Chloe, it all made the story a bit too slow when we were forced to spend the last months of pregnancy in complete stillness with her. I would have liked for a shift of focus to some of the other characters or to take a leap in time for the action to begin.

But when the action did begin… wow! The last third of the book was just nonstop action with epic endgame battles, full-on supernatural fights between good and evil, and between fathers and sons and brothers, topped with heroic sacrifices, love, grief, heartbreak, family reunions and blissful happiness. The last part of the book had it all! And the ending was so satisfactory, but also so so so heartbreakingly sad. One of the things that happened at the end truly shocked me, I never thought that the author would do that to one of her characters, it really broke my heart! I also would have loved to get more of a HEA for Jax as well, but maybe there is a possibility for a companion book with Jax as the main character? One can always hope!

Even though parts of this book were a bit too slow, it was overall a satisfying and bittersweet conclusion to a wonderful, magical, addictive and thrilling series! I really recommend The Cursed Series to all fans of Twilight and The Vampire Diaries. If you loved those series, you will definitely love this one too!

Thank you to the author Kara Leigh Miller for providing me with an ebook copy! All opinions are my own and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Rating:
3.5 epic stars rounding up to 4

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​Author info:
Kara Leigh Miller