Book Review: Immortal Beloved by Cate Tiernan

Pages: 416

Genre: YA Fantasy

Pub. Date: September 7, 2010

My Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Goodreads says, "New name, new town, new life. Nastasya has done it too often to count. And there’s no end in sight. Nothing ever really ends... when you’re immortal. But this time is different: Nastasya knows that this new town must hold her salvation—or her death.  Nastasya was born into darkness, and has embraced it her whole life. Four hundred years ago, a tragedy robbed her of her birthright, and she’s been living a lie ever since. Now, four centuries of exploring the depths and limits of dark power has left Nastasya feeling sickened unto death. If she continues down this road, she will end up as a very dark, twisted, evil thing—with unthinkable power. Or she can begin the long, painful road toward light, and reclaim the destiny that others tried to destroy.  They’re rare. You may have never met one, never sat next to one on a plane, never eaten in the same restaurant at the same time. But the Immortals are there. Have always been there. Will always be there. Moving among humans, playing out their own cursed fate. Sometimes subtly, sometimes with huge, sweeping implications for mankind. But no one will ever know. Except you."

Natasya has spend that last several hundred years partying and living the good life with her friends.  After all, why not? She's an immortal.  But after some dark events, she decides to start over at a "rehab" for immortals in a new town run by an acquaintance she encountered many years ago.  Just when she tries to start anew, her past comes back to haunt her.  Cate Tiernan's Immortal Beloved is the start of a new paranormal series that proved to be a new and unique take immortals.  


At first, I had a hard time getting into this novel as I feel it has a slow first half, but once the plot got going, I was hooked.  Natasya is the heroine that I love to root for.  She's independent, strong, and definitely not the type of woman who relies on a man.  Her love interest, Reyn, was captivating as their story isn't a simple one.  It was amazing how Tiernan somehow made me feel revolted one minute about their possible love and the next minute extremely intrigued.  And a little side note: As I was reading, I decided that Reyn is Eric Northman's doppelganger, which I thoroughly enjoyed. ;)


Tiernan incorporates many flashbacks which are used to fill us in on Nastasya's life.  I thought these flashbacks were done really well and were extremely interesting as many of them focused on events from hundreds of years ago.  The flashbacks never sounded contrived or forced; in fact, I felt they spiced up the novel and added to the mystery.  This is also partly due to Tiernan's writing style, which I found to be captivating once I got hooked.  As I admitted before, some parts were slow, but I think it made the story more realistic, because I often complain how authors move things along too quickly in young adult literature and that was not the case here.


I am not sure I will be picking up the second book in the series, Everlasting Dark, which unfortunately doesn't come out until 2012 along with the third book called Everlasting War. I don't know about you, but 2012 seems so far away!  Although I am absolutely looking forward to seeing where Tiernan is going to take us next as there were some interesting twists and turns at the end of Immortal Beloved. I highly recommend this novel to fans of the paranormal genre; you won't be disappointed as Nastasya's story is truly one of a kind. 

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