Review: Love Reborn by Yvonne Woon

I have to admit that I was not anticipating this book. I had bought the first one a few years ago when the cover caught my eye and read the second one after I saw it in the library, as I did with this book. However, having said that, I really liked this book! I would have to re-read the previous two, but if they are to the same standards as this one, then I'm left questioning why I didn't anticipate this one because with each new word I was more and more eager to find out what the ending would be for my beloved characters.

This book started at a high pace and continued that way. We were thrown straight into the action with Renée and Dante being on the run and that meant that from the first page I was chest deep in the action and ready to not put the book down to leave it for fear that if I left them, something terrible would happen to them.

I have to admit that I was surprised that Woon introduced such an influential main character in the final book of the trilogy, but I'm sure glad she did. Theo was instantly painted as this bad boy character with a hidden past and I am a total sucker for characters like that. Also, even though some of his traits were less favourable, they did come in handy at key points in the novel and hinting at factors within a character that will later become useful is a really good thing to have in a book for me.

Characters reappearing from previous novels really helps to draw me deeper into a book because they are a point that I can focus on and they bring things into perspective from the story outside the novel. Anya is someone that I found to be weird, yet quirky in 'Life Eternal', but I really liked having her back in this book and it was so nice to see Eleanor again because it reminded me of how far Renée had come. (Also, how can I not love a character that I share a name with?)

The storyline itself was intriguing. Having the novel written from Renée's perspective meant that we only saw things as she saw them, but this book was part of something much bigger than the ones prior to it. I have a soft spot for crime thrillers and I liked how this book drew on that when they had to figure out different clues and follow them until they reached their end goal. As well as that, losing the senses was something that I found scary in a way. We go by day by day only knowing how everything looks, hears, feels, tastes and smells to us and the idea of all of those being stripped back is odd to think about. Having us travelling through Renée's memories as each one was taken away was another thing that I liked. It meant  that I could look back over the previous books in the series without getting so in depth that it was drawing away from the book I was reading at that moment.

I feel like I cannot talk about this book without talking about couples. Personally, I am more a fan of Noah than of Dante. I find Dante to be overwhelming and overpowering, whereas Noah, at least when he was alive, was like a cool breeze on a summer's day. I think that in order to get the pairing of Renée and Dante at the end of the book, Woon had to try and bring down Noah's character, which I was not for. I just completely want to write out the scenes in the church because to me, they do not fit with the character of Noah and who he is. Anyway, as Renée has not chosen him, it leaves me free to pick up the pieces of his broken heart ... oh wait. This is why I don't like that some characters are fictional.

My other reason for not giving this book a five star rating is because I feel that Anya's heart disease was not  introduced right. I believe that it would have been more realistic to have more hints in the previous book, so that it built up more steadily, rather than making it blatantly obvious to me as the reader that something was wrong with her and she was on the trip to save her own life in this book. Having said that, I think that Theo's reasons were revealed in a way that pulled at my heartstrings and really made me feel pity for him; that is how it should be done.

Overall, I absolutely loved this book and I will definitely be looking out for more books by Yvonne Woon in the future.  

(Goodreads parallel)