Eighteen-year-old Robbie Myers has difficulty talking to people. Not only is he shy, but he seems to say the wrong thing every time he opens his mouth, especially to the mysterious, handsome stranger who shows up at his supermarket job, defends him from an aggressive colleague and then asks him on a date. He can't believe a hot, worldly badboy like seventeen-year-old Colt Abernathy is actually interested. Yet he can’t deny that the ardor burning in Colt’s dark eyes is just for him. In the space of one breath, Robbie is launched from his plan to attend community college while living at home with his mom and saving up for a car to the tender yet passionate exploration of intense first love. Little does Robbie know…
Brought across during the height of the Civil War, Colt has remained trapped in the body of a lonely seventeen year old. When he spots the slim, blond-haired, blue eyed young man, pushing a line of shopping carts across a parking lot, Colt knows instantly they’re destined for each other. There’s just one major problem: if he survives the impending battle between vampires and the Matarians - an army of brutal vampire slayers - he’s going to live forever. Robbie isn’t…
When the chance to read Forever Young by Jeff Erno came into the clubhouse, I snatched it up - I've read several book by this author and he has an easy style I enjoy, plus vampires. I've not read a vampire novel for ages but it's fair to say I'm a fan of the modern vampires stories, I was really looking forward to this.
I can say, hand on heart, I enjoyed this book. I think Jeff Erno writes lovely characters, characters that truly fall in love. It's not just about a quick fuck in his books, it's about all consuming love. In this book the main couple is Robbie and Colt. To me their relationship had echoes of Edward and Bella, in fact in many places the book echoed Twilight. I don't want that to be mistaken with it being a copy of Twilight, because it certainly isn't. I think it's because this story, like Stephenie Meyer's, does emanate from the relationships involved. The conflict, the fights between humans, vampires and werewolves, the pure bred, older vampires - they're all there, they all form the story's backbone, but truly it is all about relationships. The fight for love against the odds really.
As well as Robbie and Colt we meet Colt's fathers, Richard and Brendan and vampire hunter's Ethan and Issa. Again the relationships of these couples are important to the story. It's a book about making decisions that are hard - to follow your heart or to follow your head? To trust or not to trust. Though many in the book - the extreme elements of each part of this multi-layered society - see things in black and white, wrong or right, kill or be killed, each of the main couples has reason to see the shades of grey - whether they know it or not yet.
So why not four or more hearts? Well as much as I loved the story and Jeff Erno's writing style, at times there were bits that felt rushed.It felt like we were skipping from scene to scene - particularly in the 'action' scenes, almost like the author wanted to get through them so he could write the emotional impact of the scenes, the bit that he does really well. I've never met the author, but I get the impression from his writing that he is one of those people who is filled with sunshine, that he knows the horrible aspects of life, but he chooses to see the good rather than the bad. I think I see this in his writing, the potential good of nearly everyone, if only the right choices were made available.
Also, the beginning felt very tell not show - in fact at odd times throughout I felt things could have been shown instead of told, sometimes just because it was pretty obvious and didn't need explaining. It felt as though it could have had one more read through from a proof reader at times. The grammar etc was fine and the storyline was interesting and, as I mentioned, I loved the characters but there were some bumps that could have been smoothed.
I'm reading the second book next, to be reviewed for tomorrow and I'm really looking forward to it. A lot changed at the end of book one and I can't wait to catch up with the characters in book two.
A copy of this book was given to me by the author in exchange for an honest review.
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