I'm starting off by saying that I am very intrigued. The world that Ms. Williams has made here is new and different. This is no vampire or werewolf paranormal. Which is great, because I'm getting kinda tired of those. Bryn is an odd character. I'm not certain whether I like her or not. She sure has had some hard knocks in life, and it's about time something goes right for her. It's just too bad that the first good thing to happen to her (William) also brings its own set of problemsWilliam is, of course, to DIE for. He's a great broody, mysterious hero. Even after you find out what he is, he still retains the allure of the unknown. His family is wonderful, especially his brother Patrick. They are one of the big reasons that I want to continue with the series. Those are my positive thoughts. Here is my big source of hair pulling...I can't understand how someone could find the constant professions of undying, forever together, gush gush gush kind of love anything but eye rolling. I mean, I'm a HUGE romance fan. I rarely read a book that doesn't include a healthy amount of the mushy stuff. But I think in Eternal Eden, Bryn falls way to fast and way too hard...and for no apparent reason. Other than the fact that these two are apparently star crossed lovers, they didn't actually build a relationship until the last couple of chapters of the book, in my opinion. There were so many cheesy lines and 'meant to be' moments that it just came across as a high school romance. Which is okay for YA, but there was enough sexual innuendo that I don't think this is geared specifically for that age group. Another thing that came across as high school-ish is the DRAMA. This girl is a drama queen. There were some times while reading that she would freak out on William or go diva during a scene and I would feel like "surely I missed something. What just happened?" It made the situation awkward and just felt like drama for drama's sake. I really think the author could have cut out a good seventy five pages of inner 'I love him, he's the only one for me' dialogue, and edited out some of Bryn's contrived emotions and this would have been a much better book.I will for sure be moving on to the next book, and am actually looking forward to it. I feel like Bryn and William now have a basis to go to the extremes found in this book, and their romance will be a lot more believable.
 - Nicole Williams)
