Book: The Forever Song, Julie Kagawa

Series: Blood of Eden series #3

Publisher: Harlequin Teen

Release Date: May 1^st, 2014

Rating: 5 stars

Anyone who read the first two books of this series should know what Julie Kagawa’s stories are like, and anyone who has never read her books should be warned that you are about to be taken on an uphill rollercoaster of feels with a huge drop down.

When we left Allie, Kanin and Jackal, Allie had just received devastating news about her beloved Zeke. After losing the only human she had ever opened her heart to, Allie takes a 180 turn and decides to close off her heart for good. She begins acting like the monster she always refused to be, and it broke my heart. All she can think about is making Sarren suffer for his evilness and inhumanity and cruelty and she will go to any lengths to end him. Even Kanin and Jackal are getting worried about her behaviour, and as Jackal always puts himself first, that’s really saying something. But it made for some great reading and I really couldn’t get enough!

Allie continues to be an amazing protagonist, always trying to do what’s best and tame the monster within her who always tries to escape, and you can’t help but cheer when she beats the beast. She often refers to what she would’ve done as a human, but to be quite honest I can barely remember her as a human; her vampire status completely overshadows her humanity, and in the best way. While the characters always seem to talk about vampirism as a curse, sometimes it can lead to some people finding their purpose in life as they discover what it is they’re supposed to do.

She and Zeke continue to make each other stronger and always pulled each other up when they were close to falling into a dark, bottomless pit of despair. While not my absolutely most favourite couple ever, I still really enjoyed them and will miss them. Hell, I’ll miss all the characters in this series!

I think my favourite character definitely has to be Jackal. He completely surprised me by having me love him so much and I really couldn’t get enough. He always put on this impenetrable shield so that it appeared that he only cared about himself, but I think everyone could see right through it. You could see he cared a great deal about Allie and Kanin, as he stuck by them despite his whingeing and even asked Allie to go with him once everything was over a few times. I would love to see a spin-off series with Jackal as the protagonist as I'm not ready to say goodbye to him just yet!

Kanin continues to shine as a wise and powerful sire and teacher, and everyone looked to him for advice and help. I loved his and Allie’s relationship; she saw him as a father figure and looked up to him for help whenever she was unsure, and he saw her through a proud father’s eyes whose daughter exceeded all his expectations.

It’s really hard to review this book because I don’t want to spoil it for anyone. There are some major shocks that I was not expecting and at first I didn’t think would work, but Julie totally surprised me by making the book even more spectacular and awesome. There’s some great character development, brilliant fight scenes and some parts where you’re just crying your eyes out and will cause you to ask random strangers on the street for hugs.

Definitely give this series a read if you’re into badass vampire warriors and funny, well-developed characters. You won’t regret it!