In short: Though The Eternity Cure wasn't as strong as its predecessor, it was still a welcome return to Julie Kagawa's brutal and elaborate dystopian world. 
 The Immortal Rules proved to be an exciting and elaborate paranormal dystopian when I read it last year and so I was eager to return to the grim world of Allison Sekemoto in the sequel, The Eternity Cure. Though I can't say I liked The Eternity Cure as much as its predecessor, I did appreciate getting the chance to return to the characters, the darkly atmospheric setting, and the involved action scenes that I remembered from The Immortal Rules. 
 Admittedly, the first 100 pages or so of The Eternity Cure were rough. The plot is meandering and tedious and I found I had a hard time re-engaging with the characters and the storyline. The one thing that I did like about the beginning, however, was Julie Kagawa's recapping skills. She does a fantastic job of rehashing the forgotten events of The Immortal Rules in a subtle and proficient manner. And after this beginning lull, the action does start to pick up thankfully and reading became less of a chore from that point on. Julie Kagawa raises the bar for gore and violence in The Eternity Cure and the resulting blood bath was an entertaining and welcome change (as morbid as that sounds...). 
 I do still like Allison for the most part, though her constant internal wrestling with her conflicting feelings about her humanity does get a bit irksome. I get it, it's hard being a vampire and struggling to maintain your humanity. I don't need to hear it again and again. I was hoping that we might finally get to see some development in Allison's character and finally, at the very end of the book, we do and it's absolutely welcome. By far the most interesting character though is the cocky and silver-tongued Jackal, who I admit I don't even remember from The Immortal Rules, but he definitely leaves an impression in The Eternity Cure. 
 Overall, though The Eternity Cure wasn't as gripping as its predecessor, it was still a strong sequel and a welcome return to Julie Kagawa's involved and brutal dystopian world. The ending was especially high-impact and exciting and I am definitely looking forward to the next book in the Blood of Eden series now.