The Eternal Rose [Bargain Price] [Paperback]

Gail Dayton (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 3, 2007

Kallista, now Reinine of all Adara, still has demons to seek out. She and her family journey south to her mate Obed's homeland in pursuit of the demon who absconded six years previously with Kallista's temple-bound ilian, Merinda, and her child. But when one of the godmarked dies, Kallista is devastated and her mates must cope without her. A trial by combat is needed to regain custody of a child and a new ninth godmarked must be located in order to make the magic whole again and powerful enough to defeat a truly formidable demon. But Kallista needs more than magic to heal her.

Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Juno Books (October 3, 2007)
• ISBN-10: 080957165X
• ASIN: B0025VL9JS
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,390,881 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Gail Dayton began telling stories when she was five, when Bambi came home with her from the movies, but she didn't write any of them down until she was in fourth grade--a story about a cat. She discovered fairy tales not long after that, and her horizons expanded.

A RITA finalist for Best First Book in 2002 with Hide-and-Sheikh, a contemporary series romance from Silhouette Desire, Gail won the Aspen Gold award for Her Convenient Millionaire (another Desire), and was a Prism Award finalist for The Compass Rose. She won the Best Fantasy Prism Award the next two years, for The Barbed Rose and The Eternal Rose.

Gail lives with her husband, youngest son, and granddog Dolly the Princess Pitbull, on the Texas Gulf Coast, two blocks from the beach. The problem with living at the beach is that you have to LIVE at the beach. You still have laundry and housework and such, only with sand. However, the beach makes up for it.

She's a voracious reader, devouring more than 200 books a year, in most genres, especially of romance. She's a big wimp, so she doesn't read suspense/thrillers/really scary books, or horror--although if it's fantasy or science fiction, it doesn't bother her so much, because obviously, it's not real. And she finds a lot of literary fiction boring.

Whatever she reads, she writes, which means she's written contemporary romance, historical romance, "straight" historical, epic fantasy, fantasy romance and a number of other genres, because she loves it all. Admittedly, science fiction and fantasy are old favorites--she started reading those back when she still thought kissing was icky...

Visit her at http://www.gaildayton.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A Big Let down, December 16, 2007

By 

HHK "Fantasy/History Fan" (Plano, TX) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Eternal Rose (Paperback)

I eagerly preordered this book because I enjoyed the previous two in the series. The first book, the Compass Rose, caught my attention. The "open marriage" concept with group magical sex took a little while for me to accept, but the story was engaging. In the second book there was a little decline in my interest level but still it was readable. This book however is totally unreadable.There is little if any character development. The core group of characters has gotten so large it is hard to keep track of all of them and it is difficult to feel sympathetic to anyone one character. The story just seem to fizzle out. I wish I had saved my money, and pre-read a little at the bookstore before buying this book.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good finally., October 21, 2008

By 

Romantic Realist "I like to read." (Tulare, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Eternal Rose (Paperback)

I really enjoyed this book. Unlike other reviewers, I read them back-to-back and so was able to stay with the story line. I appreciated that although this is a 'final' book, it still has a story all it's own with a new setting and new characters. Again, very enjoyable.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Finally!, April 13, 2008

By 

Deena Fisher (Cleveland, OH USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Eternal Rose (Paperback)

I had been waiting for what felt like forever for this, the third in the Compass Rose series, to come out and I am really glad the author found the right publisher for it.

It's a solid, well-told story. I'm not sure anything could live up to my expectations after waiting so long, but I didn't love it as much as I did the first two. The author juggles a large cast of characters who were introduced over the course of the last two books, and if I'd been able to read it soon after the first two I probably wouldn't have gotten lost, but, having waited, I think I'd forgotten some of the individual quirks that made me care about each of the characters. They felt more two-dimensional in this story. That the issues of one character in particular were repeated without any attempt by the protagonist to address them was frustrating. I think that was intended to demonstrate the protagonist's state of mind, but, for me, it made me wonder why the author was hurrying. It didn't feel true to the character to dismiss the issues over and over.

Too, our protagonist is older, settled, and though this story once again unsettles her, it doesn't completely rearrange everything she knows about who she is and her role in life. For some reason it just didn't feel like the stakes were as high, though listing them for myself while writing this review, I think it's that they just didn't carry the depth of emotional impact of the previous two books. They didn't seem as important to the protagonist.

I do recommend this book highly. There are a lot of very successful, sometimes highly dramatic moments and the twist is nicely done, though a bit overly ambitious in its execution. That doesn't say much, but I don't want to spoil anyone.

My recommendation would be to read the first two over again before starting this one. I think that would have improved my enjoyment a great deal.

Gail Dayton is on my list of "must read" authors, and though this book alone wouldn't put her there, the series as a whole definitely does. I am eagerly looking forward to her next book.