The Names They Gave Us by Emery Lord

 

"When it all falls apart, who can you believe in?

Everything is going right for Lucy Hansson, until her mom’s cancer reappears. Just like that, Lucy breaks with all the constants in her life: her do-good boyfriend, her steady faith, even her longtime summer church camp job.

Instead, Lucy lands at a camp for kids who have been through tough times. As a counselor, Lucy is in over her head and longs to be with her parents across the lake. But that’s before she gets to know her coworkers, who are as loving and unafraid as she so desperately wants to be.

It’s not just new friends that Lucy discovers at camp—more than one old secret is revealed along the way. In fact, maybe there’s much more to her family and her faith than Lucy ever realized." - taken from Goodreads.

Even though this book ends abruptly, it did break me at the end. Discovering the reasons why Lucy's mom wanted her to spend the summer working at Camp Daybreak instead of at their church camp while she undergoes cancer treatments, is the heart of the story. Not your typical Emery Lord read.

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All You Desire by Kirsten Miller (Eternal Ones book 2)

SPOILER ALERT! If you haven't read The Eternal Ones yet, Stop! I don't want to ruin a good story for you.

A year has passed since the events in The Eternal Ones and Haven and Iain are making a life for themselves in Rome. On a walk through the city, Haven hears three young girls discuss a past life and mention the name Adam. Haven senses that she and Iain are no longer safe in Rome and that the Ouroboros Society and its diabolical leader, Adam Rosier are aware if their whereabouts. When Iain suggests a trip to Florence to show her something, Haven readily agrees.



While in Florence learning about one of her past lives in which she and her best friend Beau were siblings, Haven’s world begins to fall apart. First, her credit cards are canceled because Iain’s mother is contesting his will. Then Haven’s mother calls to tell her that Beau is missing. He went to New York on the assumption that he would meet his soul mate from a past life just like Haven and Iain. Desperate to locate Beau before something befalls him, against her better judgment, Haven and Iain return to New York.


In New York, Haven and Iain stay with Frances Whitman, a relative of Haven’s from a previous life. On a vision from her friend, Leah Frizell, Haven and Frances go to an exclusive spa to visit Phoebe, a Pythia who can tell Haven about her previous life in Florence in an attempt to gain some insight into who may have a hand in Beau’s disappearance. Unfortunately Haven runs into Adam who claims he had no idea she was back in New York. He tells Haven that Phoebe is a fake. Adam tells her that he is willing to wait for her love and that he would be happy to help in the search for Beau. Frances is frantic when she finally locates Haven.


Haven decides that she needs some time to herself and takes the subway home. A woman beside of her warns her about being followed by one of Adam’s men. She helps Haven lose him and she gets back on the subway. Another woman finds her and insists that Phoebe can help her. She gives Haven directions on where to meet them later that night. Soon Haven and Iain meet the Horae, twelve sisters from ancient Greece who were killed because of Adam. They have made each of their reincarnated lives an opportunity to fight the evil that Adam embodies. He has escaped their imprisonments in the past but with Haven as bait, the Horae believe this time will work.


With Beau missing, Haven decides she would do anything to help find Beau, including being near Adam. Will Haven be able to resist Adam’s charms? Can the Horae finally imprison Adam once and for all? Will Beau be found? And will Haven and Iain survive not only as a couple but come out with their lives?

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The Eternal Ones by Kirsten Miller

"What if Live Refused to Die."
Haven Moore cannot wait to leave behind her small hometown of Snope City, Tennessee and get away from her domineering grandmother. From a young age, Haven has experienced visions that she has come to believe tell of a past life she led. The talk of the town, she has one true friend, Beau Decker, her partner in a fashion design business. When Haven sees a troubled young socialite on TV one night, her visions return with a vengence. Only now, Haven realizes that she may have previously lived as a young woman named Constance who died in a tragic fire, along with her boyfriend Ethan.

With the return of her visions, Haven's grandmother decides that she is too unwell to attend the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City. Her mother, fragile since her father's death, shows her a shoebox that her father kept for her. In it, he wrote everything Haven ever said while having the visions as a child. She realizes that he believed in her and didn't think she was crazy. When she discovers drawings that she did as a child, Haven is even more convinced that she is Constance reincarnated who is searching for her soulmate. But when she learns of her father's affair at the time of his death, she realizes how foolish her mother was to believe in true love and how her world came crashing down. Haven decides she needs to slowly make decisions regarding her visions so that she doesn't nake the same mistake as her mother.

Beau does some investigating to an organization that Haven's father wrote to for help years ago, the Ouroboros Society. The Society aims to help people who think they have led previous lives. When Haven has a vision at school, her life is soon in danger. She is no longer safe in Snope City when her home is burned down. She contacts the Society for help.

Is Haven really Constance reincarnated? Will she discover that Ethan is really Iain Morrow? What were the circumstances surrounding Constance and Ethan's death? Can the Ouroboros Society be trusted? Will history repeat itself or can Haven change its course?

Haven's story continues with book two, All You Desire on August 8, 2011.

Visit The Eternal Ones website.