Book Review: Eternal Hearts by Jennifer Turner

Eternal Hearts
Author: Jennifer Turner
Series: Darkness Within, book 2
Publisher: Dark Dreams Press
ISBN-10: 0982432119
ISBN-13: 978-0982432112
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For more information visit Jennifer Turner's website


The most important rule among the vampires is not to break the Veil that keeps humans from knowing about their existence. Even though Toni Tutoro had every right to want revenge against one of the people who was responsible for her family's murder, she jeopardized the Veil by killing humans publicly and was banned from Chicago. Now three years later, she is back and is given one chance to redeem herself and be allowed to come home. Christian, the Lord of Chicago, wants her to find out why there are werewolves in his city and what they're after. Failure is not an option. Toni is able to get back into the city with help from powerful friends who are willing to risk Christian's anger to help her and after getting to know Toni, I can understand why. She's fiercely loyal to those she loves and doesn't play into vampire politics. She's part of the strong warrior line of vampires yet she has no problem crying in front of others when her emotions get the best of her. She's a fantastic mix of fighter, lover and survivor that I really enjoyed. This mix is what also draws Drake to her.

Drake Black still carries the scars from a female vampire he dared to love years before. After being betrayed by her, Drake swore he'd never give his heart to another, especially a vampire. When given the assignment to protect Toni, he tells himself he'll keep his distance. But it doesn't take long for him to fall for Toni's unique personality. Drake is a deadly combination of supernatural creatures and his job as an assassin helps keep his beast at bay. His job does take an emotional toll on him and at times makes him feel like a monster. Though he does have a darker side that will always be part of him, Toni is able to look past his heritage and job to see the man he really is. I loved Drake's character from the start because he doesn't play into the games others do. He just wants to do his job and go home to have some pizza and beer. Simple sounding but enough to make me wish I was relaxing right next to him.

Toni's investigation into the werewolves leads her back to the woman who's partly responsible for her exile three years earlier. Instead of running to Christian and putting all the blame on her, Toni does the right thing and conducts an investigation and looks for actual proof. Toni does receive some help along the way from some good friends and I understand why they were put into the story but it felt like there were too many characters. Some would just say how they missed Toni and others would stop in to say a few words to Drake and then disappear from the book. I felt it was supporting character overkill and it took page time away that could have been spent on getting to know Drake and Toni more.

While I do think that Eternal Seduction was better, Eternal hearts is still a really good read. Toni and Drake are wonderful characters and I wish more time would have been dedicated to getting to know more about them and watching them interact with each other. The investigation wasn't so much a 'who done it' because you already know that from the beginning, it was about Toni redeeming herself while maturing as a vampire. There's a grittiness to the story and characters that I just couldn't get enough of. Jennifer Turner is great at writing remarkable, unapologetic characters that makes a story you may have heard before into someone all her own. The next book with feature Oktober as the hero (I'm not sure if hero and Oktober is allowed to be used in the same sentence) and I look forward to finding out if he is truly as evil as he appears to be.
My Rating:


Reviews for other books in the series:
Eternal Seduction