Wednesday, June 25, 2014

*Gizmos Book Reviews* Love Reborn (Dead Beautiful # 3) by Yvonne Woon

*Genre* Young Adult Paranormal
*Rating* 3.0

*My Thoughts*

Love Reborn is the swan song for the Dead Beautiful trilogy. The story picks up TEN days after the ending of Life Eternal which left readers with a major question as to the fate of Renee Winter's traveling companion Noah, a student from the Monitor school at St. Clement, and perhaps someone she could have cared about for were it not for her connection and obsession with Dante Berlin who shares her soul.

Renee's journey for answers to Descartes riddle about whether or not their really is an answer to the age old question of immortality and a second chance, takes her and Dante from the Northeastern US where we the story left off in Life Eternal, to France, and onward to the Netherlands.

Along the way, Renee and Dante accept help from fellow St. Clement student Anya Pinsky who deals with tarot card magic, and monitor Theo Healy who is as slippery as a downhill slope. Both have plenty of reasons for helping Renee on her journey which I shall not spoil, but they are important nonetheless. The arrival of the mysterious Monsieur, who apparently has his fingers in every single piece of the puzzle, along with his insights into the Nine Sisters, leads Renee & group on a race against the Liberum (brotherhood of the dead) and her own grandfather who heads the Monitors, a group dedicated to ending the undead.

Since Love Reborn is the last book of the trilogy, Woon tosses in a few new characters and surprises just to make things interesting. This includes the return of Clementine Laguerre who was Renee's nemesis at St. Clement, as well as a group calling themselves the Keepers. I think readers would have enjoyed a deeper personal connection between them and Renee's group, but that wasn't to be. After all, they had a whole lot invested in protecting the Netherworld from outside interference.

I will say this, I think the ending was a bit inconsequential after everything that has happened over the course of this trilogy. I think Renee isn't all that impressive as a lead character, and would have loved to see her a bit more like Clementine, or even Anya. Sure, she has talents, she can more than handle herself against a few undead. But, she's supposed to be this magnificent Monitor that her grandfather uses to do his bidding, and therefore I expected a whole lot more. I expected to stand up more for herself, instead of cowering like a little child who just got yelled at. It seemed to me that the other characters like Theo, Noah, and even the reemergence of Eleanor, Renee's friend at Gottfried Academy, ended up carrying the stories load while Renee was putzing along.

Author - Yvonne Moon
Title - Love Reborn (Dead Beautiful # 3)
Published by Disney-Hyperion
Released: January 7, 2014
Genre: Young Adult Paranormal
Format: Library book 368 pages




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