Friday, August 19, 2011

BOOK REVIEW - IMMORTAL BELOVED by CATE TIERNAN - IMMORTAL BELOVED # 1

By: Cate Tiernan
Published By : Hodder & Stoughton
Released : Available Now
Details : Paperback from library, 407 Pages

RATING : 4.5 REGRETFUL REYN STARS!!

Book Blurb : Taken From Goodreads

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 now, after centuries of feeding from the lives of the innocents around her, of living with little care for others, Nastasya is ready to turn towards the light. 'After some of the events I've witnessed I felt like I was a shell with nothing alive left in me. I hadn't been going around killing people, but people were hurt -- the memories just kept trickling in like rivulets of fresh acid dripping into my brain until I wanted to scream. It was in my blood, I knew. A darkness. The darkness. I had inherited it, along with my immortality and my black eyes.' Captivating, intense and with an incredible and original voice, EVERLASTING LIFE is a haunting story of friendship, love and secrets, tragedy and loss. Sometimes life is eternal.....

BOOK REVIEW:

"The good thing about being immortal is that you can't literally drink yourself to death, as frat boys can. The bad thing about being immortal is that you can't literally drink yourself to death, so you wake up the next morning , or maybe the day after that, and you feel everything you would be spared feeling if only you'd been lucky enough to die........... Last night my whole world came tumbling down. Now I'm running scared"  Nastasya

Immortal Beloved, by Cate Tiernan, was brought to my attention when I received Darkness Falls, book 2 in the Immortal Beloved series, from the publisher. I high tailed it to my local library and reserved Immortal Beloved. Not the most original title, but an AWESOME read which to me was quite original. This is my first read by Cate Tiernan. I am looking forward to reading more of her books.


I really loved this book. It is my first immortal characters book without being anything other than people who are immortal and can work magick. I can’t wait to start Darkness Falls  , I need to read more about Reyn , he is an awesome male lead character who has so much restraint and so much darkness under his 21st century skin and so much pain. He is trying to survive , day by day his very dark and regretful past.


Nastasya ( currently named) , and her friends, Boz, Katy, Cicely and Innocencio are pretentious, heavy partying, rich, obnoxious and dangerous to those they choose to play with. Nastasya gets a wakeup call when Incy does a violent, tragic, uncalled for act, which jolts her into dissing her friends and taking some time out for herself, her self medicating, sex fuelled , partying days are coming to a screeching halt....they have to.


A prior encounter with a lady named River many years beforehand sets Nastasya on a path of personal discovery. All the things she has blocked from her very long life will come back to fill her with pain and a horrible , shocking truth.

As the reader you learn why Nastasya has ended up in such a pile of shit, her life a careless waste of time. Her designer clothes in tatters, not caring about her physical appearance her attitude all snarky.... but somebody does care....


The dangerously dark, violent, Innocencio, is not a happy camper without his Nastasya. He needs her back and he is out to find her. Nastasya is staying under the radar , she doesn’t need Incy and his destructive ways to corrupt her healing process. We don’t learn a lot about why Innocencio needs Nastasya around him in Immortal Beloved. I am sure that will all come into play in Darkness Falls.


This book is about Nastasya having her true self revealed, her past will come back to haunt her , making for a very emotional read. I like the way Nastasya talks to the reader sometimes.


The thing I absolutely loved about this book was it wasn’t driven by action , ( which I do normally enjoy) , this book captivated me with the memories of being 459 years old. At some stage of our lives we have all thought, ‘what would it be like to be immortal, how cool to live forever’. ‘Twilight’ by Stephenie Meyer had females all over the globe wanting to be changed, be eternal with the man you love.


In this book you really get to understand the consequences of being immortal. It really made me think that it could almost be a curse. It takes two immortals to make an immortal, but if you are married off to a human, then a human you will give birth to. The past had different rules to the present. It takes a very strong person to be able to cope with being immortal. It is a very tough road to travel when you watch your husband die, your children die, you have to keep changing your name and everything about yourself to fit in with society, to go unnoticed. I think you lose yourself along the way as you have so many selves. What am I living for? To make friends is hard, they die, they notice you aren't ageing, relationships, jobs , emotional attachments are very difficult. How long can you be friends with a mortal?

Being born in the 1500's in Europe was a brutal existence.  To have been a bad person and changed over the centuries , to keep that darkness at bay for eternity is a very tough thing. To live with what you did to people back then, and face those you have brutally hurt, unforgiveable... or is it?


Everybody needs a ‘River’, in their life. She is a most wonderful caring character who lets Nastasya find her own path, without the nagging . It’s all about making the first move, not being told to change, getting back to the basics, leaving the empty , destructive life she was leading behind her and leaning towards a healthier existence. If you have immortality, it is a gift and a curse. Magick can be used for darkness and it can be learned and used for good. River can teach Nastasya and the others who come to her for help . River is very old , she chose to use her life to help immortals deal with their past so that they can survive their future.


Nastasya has a secret she is only beginning to understand. Once the truth is revealed, will she be able to forgive. Can she be in the now and not the then? Are those memories too painful?

FAVE QUOTES:

"I really do think you should leave. We've got a good life here, with our lessons and work, and we don't need some screwed-up tornado whipping through here, tearing it to pieces."

This is why I go to great lengths to numb all emotion.
Because it hurts.

In the last ten minutes, she had unraveled my very persona, split my chest open and laid bare the rotting corpse inside me. I was completely freaking out........Oh , God, oh God, she knew me. She knew me.

"It's okay" , she said.  "Some roads are longer and harder than others."
I nodded mutely, thinking that some roads seemed to lead straight to hell.

"It's hard," Reyn said.  " It's the hardest thing I've ever done. It's a constant battle. It's life or death."

"By all means, let him drive, Nell. He has a weenie. It makes a huge difference."

"Uh ----" Oh, crap, it was going to be one of those days, chock-full of personal growth.

You're coming, then?" River smiled and held her hand out to me. If I weren't so emotionally retarded, I would have taken it, like a friend, and appreciated the warmth and camaraderie. Since I'm me, I ignored it and tucked my scarf tighter around my neck.

Michelle

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