Book Review: Immortal Beloved, by Cate Tiernan

Short book reviews come first...

Bloodline, by Richelle Mead
Bloodline is a split off from Vampire Academy series, with Sydney being the main character this time.  I like how Sydney's character is being built in this story, she is smart, determined and independent but she also makes mistakes because of her flaws and limitation, all these make her character realistic to me. I'm also glad that Syney's mistakes are made not because the author needs her to be a dummy all of a sudden so she would make OOC stupid mistake to drive the plot forward. The other characters from VA series, e.g. Ardian and Jill are also endearing, and the final surprise of that character showing up in the last page also makes me looking forward for more drama, drama, drama. But I must admit I don't look forward to Miss Mead pairing Sydney and Ardian up in the following sequels so much.*sighs*

The Gathering, by Kelley Armstrong
I'm lukewarm with The Gathering, first book of the Darkness Raising trilogy, though it isn't a bad book. I like how the story is unwrapped, the supernatural part of the story is finely balanced with the life of teenagers in a small town in the middle of the forest. The heroine is a practical, realistic character; but over all too little things actually happen in the book. Still, I'm so glad that the setting of 'a bad boy who is interesting in the main girl' and 'the boy who's the main girl's childhood friend' doesn't end up creating a typical love triangle=the bad boy loves the girl, but oh! her best friend also loves her secretly for all these years!. I'm glad that the boy who's the main girl's best friend has remained her friend AT LEAST TILL THE END OF THIS BOOK.

Book Review: Immortal Beloved, by Cate Tiernan

Book Description from amazon.com: Nastasya has spent the last century living as a spoiled, drugged-out party girl. She feels nothing and cares for no one. But when she witnesses her best friend, a Dark Immortal, torture a human, she realizes something's got to change. She seeks refuge at a rehab for wayward immortals, where she meets the gorgeous, undeniably sexy Reyn, who seems inexplicably linked to her past.

Nastasya finally begins to deal with life, and even feels safe--until the night she learns that someone wants her dead.

Cate Tiernan, author of the popular Sweep series, returns with an engaging story of a timeless struggle and inescapable romance, the first book in a stunning new fantasy trilogy.

Review: This book is what I would call 'unputdown-able', I read till the middle of night and then started reading it again first thing in the morning till I turned the last page. It has original ideas about immortality and the story as a whole is finely excised.


Some of the ideas in Immortal Beloved isn't entirely original but I like how the author stuffed her story with fine plots and detail. Plus the immortals in this story are built in realistic ways--- and the whole book is 1000% more interesting, effective, purposeful, original and insightful than Alyson Noel's The Immortals series. All right, let me say it here, out loud. By comparison, Immortal Beloved simply put Alyson Noel's novels to shame. At least this time we are not being TOLD characters' have a dark, horrible past but not being given much detail about siad dark past, instead we can follow the immortals to go through their painful memories, which gives weight to their pain and loss, helps to deepen their personalities.

The progantist Nastasya is a likeable character who went through a believable process of character growth throughout the story, she started as a vain, pleasure-seeking person who tried to avoid her painful past, then she became a more mature, thoughtful person who was able to deal with her issues. Her character growth is made believable by the description of the live in River's Edge (a.k.a rehab center for immortals), the work on magick and the process of rehab which are convincing and  practical. Plus the magick in the story also has a welcomed strong New Age/Wiccan undertone which makes it more interesting.

However, the romance between Nastasya and the male lead (let's not mention his name here, it's not like you'll have difficulty figure who he is when you read the book) reminds me too much of Twilight. So the male lead is perfectly handsome, who seems to hate Nastasya at first sight, for no good reason; then it turns out he's in love with her all along! But at least the romance itself is enjoyably written, the conflict between the two is a good one and I like how the two of them eventually deal with their traumatic past.

However, I must admit some of Nastasya and the male lead's behaviors troubled me, for example, from time to time Nastasya don't sound too much like a 400-plus years old person. Then she witnessed her immortal best friend crippled a cab driver and she kept saying she regretted not doing anything to save the driver, still throughout the story I never see her actually doing something, like going for a visit in the hospital or donating money to the man's family, to help the victim in any real sense! As to the male lead, I got that he thought Nastasya was messed-up and she wasn't worthy enough for redemption, still must he be so harsh to her, to a point that he becomes a jerk?

Most of the book is taken up by Nastasya's adjusting to her new life in the River's Edge and her learning progress of dealing with past trauma and controlling her magick. There is a villain but she is too minor, too small minded a character who is no match for neither of the main characters that I doubt I'd be seeing much of her in the sequel. Plus what's really going on with Nastasya's manipulative best friend? There's still no answer for us.

I also wonder why this book is rated as a YA, because the main characters are NOT teenagers --they're immortal ADULTS who are at least 90-plus years old, who outwardly look like teenagers or twenty-something, there are also hot and heavy make-out scenes, also a bloody scene about a ten years old girl witnessing her entire family being slaughtered and beheaded around her. None of these look very YA to me.