snugglemint

Immortal Beloved: Book 1 of 3 by Cate Tiernan

catetiernan.org/immortal-beloved/

Inside Cover:

I've let someone borrow this book, so unfortunately, I can't tell you what the inside cover reads, but when I get it back, I'll be sure to post it up here.

Personal Review:

I love Cate Tiernan, I had the pleasure of already being acquainted with her work through her Sweep Series which I enjoyed. So when the beginning of this book started slightly rocky, I held through knowing that Cate Tiernan would deliver. And deliver she did. I was engaged in the world that she built around an Immortal named Nastasya. (It should be mentioned that while she is immortal, she is also human and CAN be killed.)

Nastasya is a carefree immortal who has taken to living her exceedingly long life through partying and general mayhem, but when one of her friends uses magic in a jarring way, Nastasya finds herself unable to cope with how things are and instead flees, trying to distance herself from the people she knew and the person she found herself to be.

That's how she finds herself at River's Edge, a unique establishment that mimics the idea of rehab for the wayward immortal. When she arrives though, she isn't met with the most warming welcome. One immortal seems to take issue with her and Nastasya can't seem to figure out what his deal is.

There's a lot to learn at River's Edge where the main idea is to refocus the time frame an immortal experiences. Instead of letting the decades slip through their fingers and seem more like a bad yesterday than a bad era, they encourage the immortals to feel every minute, to recognize it and put their efforts forth into something productive. "Lucky" for Nastasya it's in the form of grunt work, be it pulling weeds from the garden or being on kitchen clean up duty.

Learning how to peel potatoes or how to get around the angry momma hen with a hunger for pecking isn't the only thing that waits to be discovered though. It's a ride to self discovery, a path to learning more about her house mates, and the wider understanding of magic that goes against the grain of the norm.

(Immortals are capable of magic, but it is the age old principle that something cannot come from nothing. Something must be taken in order to make something else. A perfect example is when they draw from nature, the end result brings forth magic, but it is through the sucking (and killing) of its life force.)

Pros:

- The writing is well done.

- There is a wealth of characters to draw from and each have their own, strong image.

- The book is part of a new trilogy, so there are two more books to look forward to.

- This, for me, was a "can't-put-it-down" book.

Cons:

- As an Immortal, it is important to reinvent yourself every few decades to not draw attention to yourself. As such not only does the appearance of an immortal change, but so do their names. And this has given way to some... different name choices. Nastasya (who goes by the nickname Nasty, which I find unappetizing and a missed attempt to connect with a younger crowd,) River, Reyn, and Innocencio to name a few. - I think the hardest for me to swallow is the last one.

- The next book doesn't come out til September (2011)