Customer Reviews

Blue Moon: The Immortals (Immortals (MacMillan Audio))

5 star:		(42)
4 star:		(43)
3 star:		(35)
2 star:		(19)
1 star:		(26)

 

 

I didn't hate it but I didn't love it either. When I was finished reading the book I was left feeling empty handed. I felt that there could have been more romance or positives in Ever and Damen's relationship in this book since it took so much in the last book (not to mention the past six hundred years) for them to get where they are. But no this just went right back to the same struggles of them being torn apart and so on.... it also had so much going on at the end that it kind of built up to not much at all... I started skimming through the pages at the end just trying to get through it to get to the point, and then when I got there I felt disappointed to find the end result.
All and all if you enjoyed Evermore then I do suggest you read Blue Moon, however I do hope that the Author allows Ever and Damen to progress a little more in their current relationship in the next book instead of spending the entire book with them just trying to find a way to be together without actually allowing them be together at all... If that happens again I think I will become bored of the cycle and give up on the series?? But as of now I'm still a fan.

I read Evermore about three weeks ago and was very excited when I learned Blue Moon, the sequel, was being released in early July of 2009. I liked Evermore, despite the obvious plot-related similarities it shared w/ Meyer's Twilight series. However, when compared to Twilight, I think it falls short of the Twilight standard. Having said that, Noel's Immortals series still has a lot of potential, so I am holding out hope that Shadowland's plot will surpass my mediocre expectations.

I gave Evermore 3.5 stars, but unfortunately, can only give Blue Moon 3 stars, awarding it simply because I found Noel's writing style very good.

Having noted the author's obvious talent, I feel this sequel left much to be desired in regard to the overall plot. Here's what I felt was missing:

The storyline was very short-sighted. Two-thirds of the book revolved around one major event - and the "problematic" event became very dull and blase after a while. I found myself speed reading just to finish the book, not really paying much attention to the minimal details, but more so trying to get to the underlying point of it all. Noel writes very well for the most part, but I felt too many sentences began with "And..." which became quite redundant.

Also, Ever's character was under-developed and important details surrounding her psychic abilities left the reader wondering how she managed to do a variety of things. On a handful of other occasions, Ever's thoughts just pop out, without warning, which was odd since the book is written from her perspective (It was written in first-person so the reader should have been privy to everything Ever was thinking). First-person writing is far more revealing - the reader is usually fully disclosed by the narrating character.

<SPOILER> For instance, Ever eventually tells Ava that she thinks Damen is being "poisoned" by way of his elixir of immortality. Was the reader supposed to come to the same conclusion, because Ever never had this thought prior to disclosing the info to Ava. Granted, she knew Roman was somehow involved but this was the first she revealed her true thoughts on how Roman was at fault. I found Ever's sudden disclosure rather odd and under-developed.

Also, much was left completely unanswered.

<SPOILER> The reader was left wondering how Ever managed to transport herself, or jump around at times, particularly after she chose to go back to her "former life" and then instantaneously ended back in the current one after seeing Riley in the backseat of her parents' car. It was a total contradiction to the time continuum that was previously implied; no explanation was given.

EVERYTHING revolved around three main characters - and the characters themselves were under-developed in my opinion. The book was just one constant dilemma, from beginning to end, no alternate and/or related events occurred simultaneously. The storyline was very one-dimensional for me throughout.

Finally, the biggest blunder of all, the one that sealed the deal for me and made me cringe and dislike several aspects of the book altogether, was the frustrating ending. The entire book read like a never-ending soap opera and it ended on the same depressing note!

<SPOILER> The entire book read like a soap opera, where as, the endless dilemmas were merely replaced by more dilemmas, all centering around the two main characters and their struggle to be together! Rather than create an entirely new scenario, possibly uniting the two characters in love, the author decides to continue the current struggle: that Ever & Damen simply cannot be together - at least not in the way they desire. One dilemma was replaced by yet another dilemma - all of which prove to be thorns in Ever & Damen's relationship!!! Books that end on a note of frustration don't end very well in my opinion - it leaves the reader very little to look forward to in a sequel. :(

Here's what would have made the story better for me:

<SPOILER> 1.) Had Damen come in and out of consciousness - had he fought Roman's control and revealed his true self to Ever from time-to-time, and not just in incremental glimpses, I would have enjoyed his character more. The reader realizes Roman was controlling Damen, as well as controlling the rest of the school; however, it just seemed odd that Roman could pull it all off so effortlessly. I thought Roman had too much control given Damen's immortality, not to mention the fact that Damen never saw Roman coming?! That was also odd. This was frustrating to me as a reader. Had Damen been somewhat aware of Roman's motives but struggling to resurface his true self in order to encourage Ever to keep seeking the solution, I would have found the dilemma more interesting. Damen just turned arrogant instantaneously, and that irritated me despite Roman's involvement. It also made the story less realistic, and didn't fully explain Ever's behavior.

<SPOILER> 2.) Riley just up & disappeared. I realize she "crossed over," but the only mention of her was on the brownie & then from Romy & Rayne. Yet, there were no other signs, and Riley was a pivotal character from the onset of the series. I think the story would have been better had Riley been more involved by leaving more written signs here and there.

<SPOILER> 3.) Ever fell for Roman's trickery in the end - despite all he did to her? It seemed odd - even under the urgent life-and-death circumstances - that she would choose to trust him after everything he had done and said.

<SPOILER> 4.) Ava up and disappeared? What? That was unexpected in a negative way - I wanted to see true friendship emerge, as well as trust and loyalty from a handful of characters, not betrayal and distance from everyone. Ava's actions were a huge disappointment. Seems like aside from Ever's deceased sister and a handful of acquaintances in Summerland, she has no one to rely on and trust. Ava's role could have been so much more invaluable and meaningful in the end - Riley could have sent a message through her, for example. I was sad Ava's character fell short of truly positive traits.

<SPOILER> 5.) Finally, I would have preferred a better ending to the first dilemma. I would have preferred that a new dilemma arise after Ever saves Damen, rather than a slightly different continuation of the old; the new dilemma was just another version of the first one: the inability to physically touch one another. A huge part of the enjoyment of the book is the obvious physical connection between the two of them, & now that this is the new dilemma, I actually kind of dread reading the sequel. I hope the problem is resolved early-on b/c I certainly don't want the next book to be all about resisting their physical attraction for one another!!! Not appealing at all. Surely, there is more substance ahead than this. We can only hope for the best, I suppose.

****Some Spoilers****


Well, I think I liked Blue Moon better than Evermore, and that's only marginally. I thought Evermore was too much of a Twilight wannabe and to me, that's not a book you want to emulate (well maybe the books sales and movie deal but that's it). So I was hesitant to get Blue Moon, and then when it started in on all the, "Oh Damen is so perfect..." or "Damen is so beautiful..." I nearly tossed the book out of the window. But then the middle started getting interesting. I liked the parts about manifestations and having the power to bring forth whatever you desire. I believe in that, though not to the extent of instant manifestation, but I think Noel had some pretty deep stuff in there. It made the plot solid and this quest Ever was on more believable.

However...

It seemed to fall short at the end. I felt like the twist with the cure and Ever's blood preventing them from touching at all, was only to ensure a third book. The series could have ended nicely with this book and have them consummate their love and be done with it. I can pretty much tell that the main conflict in book 3 will be finding a way for Ever and Damen to be together in the physical sense.

One of my pet peeves with this book was some of the writing. I didn't think it was as bad as some have said, but I wonder if Noel did a simple ctrl + F to look for all of her repeat phrases. The number one repeated phrase that got on my nerves was "I press my lips together." Ever is constantly doing this and it's SO over done that it stands out like a sore thumb. I noticed it in the first book and thought somehow she would catch it in this one, but alas...it did not happen.

So I'm giving this 2 stars mainly because I thought the beginning was a bit annoying with all the over the top love and gooiness, the middle was good, and the end fell flat. If Amazon allowed, then I'd give it 2 and a half stars.

I sit at the keyboard as I try to think of how to describe this book. Wishing that I could find the words to describe its awfulness. Knowing that there may not be any way to express just how bad it was.

Yes, I know those sentences are not grammatically correct. But guess what? That's what you'll get in Blue Moon, the first novel I've read that was written almost exclusively with sentence fragments. Where the author needed a comma, she continually put a period and then started a new "sentence"... but it wasn't really a full sentence. As a result of this nasty bit of writing on practically every page in the book, I found Blue Moon to be an excruciating read.

I didn't like Evermore, the first book in this series. But since I'd read so many gushing reviews for Blue Moon, I thought I'd give the author a second chance. She's not getting a third. Between the horrendous writing, the ridiculous (and inconsistent) representation of quantum physics and the Law of Attraction, the annoying characters (they're either over-the-top and unbelievable or flat and stereotypical), and the boring, unoriginal plot, I was ready to chuck this book across the room.

Thesaurus use was obvious (a word would appear twice within a couple of pages, and then never show up again), eyeballs performed tricks (the word the author was looking for was "gaze"... I still can't figure out how eyes rake or graze things), major plot points were ripped off (just off the top of my head I can think of Eclipse, True Blood, and Dark Angel), and now Ever's got another thing that she can beat herself up for (until we readers want to beat ourselves senseless) for the next three books.

It saddens me that this is what's popular... and not just because the story isn't that compelling. These books are written very poorly, and yet, because they're published and popular, a lot of people will think that they're good (and written in grammatically correct English). At times while I was reading Blue Moon, I wondered if I could find fan-fiction that was written better. Unfortunately, I suspect that I probably can.

A second chance was all that I'm willing to give this series. I don't really care what happens next... and that doesn't say much about these books, does it?

In my opinion, this book failed to be as good as the first one. It started out good, but then everything just goes downhill from there.
Blue Moon was hugely depressing. I ended up scanning pages because the book was boring at times and just sad. Ever makes some interesting choices in this book and they aren't the best ones. The book ends pretty much where it started; Ever and Damien are still trying to figure out their relationship.
Overall, it was an okay book and as a fan of the series, I'm glad that I read it. I still recommend reading Blue Moon if you read the first one, but don't be surprised when things get a little weird. Hopefully the next book will tie things up and the story will be more developed.

I made the mistake of picking up this book because of it's pretty cover. I read the first book, EVERMORE, and thought it lacking, but hoped that this newer book would rectify some of the mistakes caused by book one. Boy was I wrong!! Not only was the pacing of the novel incoherent, but the story was too bloody boring, the characters one-dimensional (Miles and Haven acting like wanna-be preps?! Damon acting like a zombie jock? Ever's aunt just disappearing in the plot? what?) the new villain under-developed, and I can go ON AND ON. Ava the psychic was a disappointment and joined the one-dimensional gang, and Summerland (cheesy name btw) was so dull I was skipping pages. The main character herself seemed to be a parody of a hapless teen girl without knowing it. Furthermore, the author does not know how to advance the plot and use symbolism correctly. I could write an essay on how bad the structure of the book is, but I'll just warn you, save your money and time. Moreover, the ending is frustrating and made me want to bang my head against the wall for the umpteenth time.

Turns out this nothing more than a mish-mash of various fantasy elements all thrown into a word processor and pulsed into a book-like casserole. Ms. Noel picks a bit of this and a bit of that to keep the story gasping along. You get a quasi-vampire immortal, ghosts, purgatory, witches, psychic abilities, etc. as if she's checking things off on a list. The effort fails to create a coherent world in which her characters function.

The main character, Ever is intriguing enough. She's lived through a tragedy, dealing with survivor's guilt and new found psychic powers which makes her recovery that much more visceral. After that, it's pretty much down hill. Noel populates the rest of the book with the thinnest of cardboard characters. You have the token outsider friends, including a terribly stereotyped gay bestfriend who, no kidding, ends up playing a female lead in a musical! Oy vey.

It only gets worse when the eventual target of Ever's love and devotion is your stock immortal hottie who doesn't seem to embody a single quality worth her emotional energy. In fact, at one point Ever seems to accept as romantic that said immortal hottie intentionally played emotional games with her in order to manipulate her feelings. This is what we want teenagers to accept as 'Ok' in their interpersonal relationships? Hottie goes on to do little to nothing heroic in return for Ever's devotion and yet she remains enraptured by him. But not to worry, Noel will be sure to tell you it's understandable because she repeatedly describes hottie as "so this, so that, so everything." It got to the point that the use of the word "so" in her narrative was just plain comical. One more thing: "immortal juice"? Really?!

Because I liked Ever, I read the second book in the series. Nothing is fixed. Nothing comes together. It's just a mess of a series churned out to take a chunk out of the YA romance/fantasy boon. Pass this one by.

The book is so sad and was very unnecessary. It's depressing and leaves you wishing you hadn't read it to begin with. It was frustrating how so many things go unexplained and no one ever gets to be happy. EVER!

As I noted in my review of Evermore, the parallels between The Immortals series and Twilight are glaring. Unfortunately that holds true in book two and left me feeling more than a little peeved. Please note that I have read all of the Twilight books and was not a big fan (check out my reviews if you'd like to know why) and was a little dismayed to find such strong similarities between these series. At one point I swear I cringed and put my Kindle down when I came across this gem of a line in Blue Moon: "The lions are now lunching with lambs." I mean, really? Can you get more blatant? The notion that this book was not yanked for copyright infringement is mind-boggling. And New Moon - Blue Moon? Draw your own conclusions.

Though Damen does not disappear in Blue Moon as Edward does in New Moon (I can't believe I just wrote that), the parallels are still there as Damen becomes "unavailable" to Ever as he falls under the spell of Roman (the bad guy). It doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand that these are ostensibly the same story arcs. Boy loves girl, girl loves boy, they are bound by some unfathomable connection that is neither explained nor fleshed out, and they are then forced apart. UGH!

The ending is rushed and again Ms. Noel waits until the final pages of the book to dump long-winded, unbelievable narrative on the reader which is designed to "explain" the mystery of why Roman has it in for Damen. Only it doesn't really work. It comes off as forced and contrived, as if the author was struggling for a way in which to reveal the truth and didn't quite know how to do it. It's a cop out and I hate when authors employ this kind of tactic, it's insulting to the reader and ultimately leaves one feeling manipulated.

Another issue I have is that there is no evolution of these characters. Nothing has changed from the first book except the situation. I have no greater understanding of the relationship, I have no sense that Ever is developing, maturing, as a character and I feel as though the author is struggling to build off an already weak framework instead of shoring up the foundation. Book two in most series is usually a perfect opportunity to delve into characters lives'. But that simply doesn't happen here, instead we're thrust into a meandering plot, with little to no character development and another mystery which the author doesn't reveal until the final pages.

Again, if you're interested in a paranormal romance with a strong plot and great characters check out these titles which are both planned trilogies: Nevermore by Kelly Creagh & Ghost and the Goth by Stacey Kade. For a good stand-alone novel try: Bad Girls Don't Die by Katie Alender. Just my two cents.

I'm going on to book three now, as I plan to see this through to its completion. But I'm going in with a clenched jaw and crossed fingers, not a good sign.

I usually try to give a series a chance so even though I didn't have the greatest opinion of Evermore I read Blue Moon in the hopes that, maybe, the series just had a slow, simple start and would come into its own as the books went on.

Nope.


Blue Moon was disappointing at its best moments and absurd at its worst. Every mysterious aspect of the story did nothing to capture my imagination or interest - including the new mysterious guy who was responsible for Damen's new mysterious condition. Ever did what she does best - run around in circles while the readers wish she would do something to validate all the time they spent reading.

The Immortals Series feels like it's trying very hard to be Twilight but it's just not bottling any of the lightning that made that series so memorable or such a success with certain readers. Ever is indecisive and without depth, the only interesting thing about Damen is he's immortal and attractive, and all the high school characters are unkind stereotypes, headcases and sociopaths. The author throws in a ton of New Age tidbits but does nothing to create a firm mythos to her story to make it feel unique or let her readers feel absorbed in the world she's creating. It seems like a lot of potentially good ideas and good characters going to waste.

At least Noel stopped with all the product placement and brand names listed on every page.

One thing that really irks me - how can there be "rogue immortals" if there's no definitive immortal society or ideology they're supposed to adhere to? To go "rogue" one must break away from a system or act in defiance of it - these immortals have no such thing since they all drift around, doing their own thing. Since only 4 have been introduced in the series so far these immortals aren't "going rogue", they're just jerks.

Also, can I say how anti-climatic and just plain silly it is that Ever would choose to believe Roman - a person she has loathed and distrusted since the second he was introduced - over a pair of helpful spirits sent by her younger sister, Riley, to watch after her? I understand Noel needed some avenue to get to her third book and whatever happens next but she couldn't think of a way that was plausible or made her heroine seem like such a dope? That kind of laziness in story-telling doesn't encourage me to read on because I'll likely just get cheated out of any satisfying resolution again and again.

I won't tell anyone else how to spend their money or time but I'm finished with the immortals series and wouldn't recommend it to anybody.