Continuing
in the paranormal romance trend, this week we’ve got The Forever Girl, by Rebecca Hamilton. Witches, vampires, and
shapeshifters all mix together in this well-told tale. Full of magic, history,
and mystery, The Forever Girl is a
perfect read for fans of Deborah Harkness’ A
Discovery of Witches. It builds a clear-cut and well-defined world,
featuring sexy inhuman men and heroines with secret powers. While the tone and
pacing were excellent, The Forever Girl can
be, at times, a little sterile and low-tension. If you like paranormal romance,
this is the book for you. If you don’t, then you probably won’t like it at all.
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| This book has a lot of subtitles |
We begin by
meeting Sophia Parsons, a young waitress who hears mysterious voices in her
head. Don’t be confused—this isn’t a Sookie Stackhouse novel. Sophia’s a
Wiccan. She’s been hearing these static-y voices for a long time now, but has
finally decided it’s time to do something about them. Sophia decides to use a
magical ritual to cleanse herself of negative energy, but her ritual is
interrupted by a group of mysterious people walking up and down her street.
Surprise, surprise, the voices go nowhere. So she turns to an old trunk of her
great-grandfather’s medical research . . . and discovers an old court record prompting
her to think her ‘curse’ might have something to do with her ancestor’s
witchcraft trial.
Sophia sets
out to learn more about her ancestors and the possibility of a family curse,
but is interrupted by her friend Ivory, who wants to take her to the mysterious
Club Flesh. It’s there she meets the overly sexy, magically talented Charles—a
man described in terms of ‘the perfect symmetry of his face’ and ‘this gorgeous
specimen sitting before me’. When a bunch of Cruor—this story’s equivalent of
vampires—attack Sophia outside the club, Charles comes to her rescue. She
learns he’s a Strigoi—a shapeshifting creature who’ll live forever unless he
stops shifting. When the inevitable romance blooms between them, this causes
major problems for Sophia, who is determined to find a way to convince Charles
to give up his immortality to grow old with her. As Sophia and Charles search
together for information on her ancestor’s curse, they find themselves plunged
into a world of supernatural intrigue.
The Forever Girl is a good paranormal
romance, but it did feel sterile at times. I had trouble connecting to Sophia’s
character. Going back to the Sookie Stackhouse books, there’s a great example
of creating a character with voice—a small-town girl who’s not afraid to fight
a little dirty and gets exited when she realizes a vampire has come to town.
Sophia’s a somber character. She can be brave, determined, and fierce, but she
doesn’t really have the small quirks that make characters interesting. Her
flaws include a tendency to get irritated, but that was never enough to make
her feel human to me.
The issue
of Charles immortality aside, this romance is very clean cut and simple. I’m
not a fan of romances that constantly force the potential lovers to oppose each
other—it can be ridiculous when two people who spend so much time hating the
other’s guts suddenly decide to be in love—but I’d wished there’d been more
tension between them. Charles is such a perfect guy. He’s brave, loyal, and
devoted. His parents absolutely love Sophia, despite the fact she’s trying to
convince Charles to give up his immortality to be with her. Come on, this woman
is trying to convince your son to die for her! There’s no way any parent would
be one-hundred percent okay with that! A little less perfection in their
relationship would have gone a long way to making it feel believable.
Highs:
World building. Hamilton
creates a world with clear rules and easy-to-understand divisions. Tone. The
book is polished and well-paced. Creepiness. There’s one scene involving a
ghost that sent shivers down my spine. Story-telling. The book is well-written
and tells an engaging, if simple, story. Side characters. Ivory’s tragic and
twisted backstory is one of the real emotional high points in the story.
Lows: Jumping
to conclusions. Based on one document telling Sophia her ancestor was executed
in Salem , she
automatically decides that her hearing voices must be a family curse and the
only way to rectify it might be to learn what happened to her ancestor’s body.
This is a big logical leap. Repetition. Sophia repeats the line about not being
able to be with Charles because he’s immortal over and over, but the audience
really doesn’t need to be reminded of this on every single page.
Did I like this story? Yes. Would I
read it again? No. Would I recommend it to people who like paranormal romance? Of
course. My rating? As a paranormal romance, five stars out of five. As a novel,
three and a half stars.
--Liz Ellor, O43
You can buy The Forever Girl here
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