The Eternal Onesby Kirsten Miller

What if love refused to die?Haven Moore can’t control her visions of a past with a boy called Ethan, and a life in New York that ended in fiery tragedy. In our present, she designs beautiful dresses for her classmates with her best friend Beau. Dressmaking keeps her sane, since she lives with her widowed and heartbroken mother in her tyrannical grandmother’s house in Snope City, a tiny town in Tennessee. Then an impossible group of coincidences conspire to force her to flee to New York, to discover who she is, and who she was.In New York, Haven meets Iain Morrow and is swept into an epic love affair that feels both deeply fated and terribly dangerous. Iain is suspected of murdering a rock star and Haven wonders, could he have murdered her in a past life? She visits the Ouroboros Society and discovers a murky world of reincarnation that stretches across millennia. Haven must discover the secrets hidden in her past lives, and loves¸ before all is lost and the cycle begins again. (goodreads.com)

I am delighted to say that this book has nothing to do with vampires! Woohoo! I actually thought it did, so it was certainly a thrill to me when I realized there wouldn't be a one!Since I was expecting something completely different from this book I was captivatingly surprised by the story. I had my doubts because of character names like Haven and Beau, but this wasn't one of those "oddly named protagonists who is the best and most powerful at everything" deals. In fact I had to laugh at one point in the story when Haven is questioned about her name, "Haven, what kind of name is that?" she replies with "Hillbilly". Heh.There was an interesting Southern Ways theme that was very old fashioned vs. present time in Snope City that I truly enjoyed. Haven's grandmother, a harsh, Christian woman, who liked to tell Haven that her visions and fainting spells were proof that a demon possessed her, was so unlikeable that I LIKED her. I got where the grandmother was coming from, she wasn't mean just to be mean (although it comes across like that more often than  not) but she had depth that you could sort of see beyond that there was something more to her cruel ways.I was suspicious of EVERYONE through this entire book. I had no idea who was committing the murders, or stalking Haven and trying to kill her or why her visions were telling Haven to go to New York. The entire story I was guessing and each time Haven rationalized "Well, this person must be safe, so I'll just tell them everything and go along with them" I was like, "HELL, NO! What the hell are you doing, girl? EVERYONE is out to get you!" I wanted to smack her, but then again I was the reader and I knew something was going to happen, just not what. I've read a lot of reviews that claimed they found Haven made some stupid decisions and they couldn't see why. I do agree that she made some stupid decisions but I totally feel that when she made them she thought she was taking the right path. Obviously she was trying to find one person who wasn't suspicious. When you don't know who the players are, it's easy to trust someone you shouldn't because you don't know anything about them!I didn't like Ian Morrow from the start. Celebrity, playboy guy. I think he did care for Haven deep down but I think his lifestyle in this life was a little too much of an influence on who he was by the time he and Haven meet up.This book was excitingly suspicious, with a realistic main character who  has faults, makes bad decisions but thinks they are right at the time. She learns from her mistakes as she goes it alone in New York City. Kirsten Miller does a great job weaving this story and keeping you guessing until the end.Note: I didn't feel like categorizing this as paranormal because it doesn't really fit in that category in my mind. It's more like a mystery/suspense/fiction romp through reincarnation and murder. I have to say it was certainly very refreshing to not come across any sort of supernatural being during the story!PS - thanks big time to Penguin Group Canada for this book! I was so happy when I got the email saying they had limited copies available. I emailed back the second I read that line. Ha!