Immortal Beloved: Immortal Beloved, #1 -- Cate Tiernan
Due to an horrific incident outside of a nightclub, Nastasya has realized that she's scared of the people she's surrounded herself with for the last hundred years. And after a century of partying, three centuries of hardscrabble existence before that, and a half-century of tragedy and pain before THAT, she realizes that she's ready to make a change. So she heads to River's Edge, an idyllic farm for immortals to, in a manner of speaking, reclaim their humanity.
There, amid a distinct lack of dishwasher and high fashion, she encounters the crabby, ridiculously attractive—and somehow, strangely familiar—Reyn. She begins to drop her guard and her act, as well as to revisit her own past—which may allow her to reclaim her birthright, and with it, power she never knew she had.
So... Immortal Beloved. I enjoyed this one quite a bit more than I expected I would. That sounds like faint praise, but it isn't: I REALLY didn't expect to enjoy it as much as I did. The pace was strong: The story moved right along, there was a good amount of tension due to Nastasya's new surroundings as well as the worry that her friends—or should that be "friends"?—will find her before she's ready to be found, due to the secret past she's been trying to forget for centuries, due to the passive aggressive infighting at the farmhouse, AND OF COURSE due to the sparks that fly between her and the VG (Viking God).
I found Nastasya more likeable than I expected—I liked her for being unable to restrain herself from needling the AWFUL Nell, as well as being unrepentant about it. I liked seeing her slowly appreciate the rhythm of River's Edge, and in doing so, appreciate the rhythm of regular, everyday life, rather than endlessly seeking That Next High. (Although there isn't a substance addiction storyline in the book, it's a pretty easy connection to make.)
What surprised me was my ability to let go of the fact that Nastasya was 450+ years old and STILL, especially at the beginning of the book, acting like an idiot. That she hadn't (to use a somewhat inappropriate phrase, as she's an immortal) seen the light and matured a bit over her very long lifetime. But as her past history unfolded, her reactions and her behavior began to make more and more sense. Even though she's centuries old, the book is about her coming into her own and figuring out who she is—and so it totally works as a YA novel.
Also, there's a precedent for a completely immature immortal: Cassidy from Preacher. This is how I see it (and, as usual, it's possible that I've thought about this WAY TOO MUCH): if your actions have no consequences—and if you're immortal, almost impossible to permanently injure, and tend to leave town whenever things get remotely uncomfortable, they pretty much don't, at least in terms of how YOU are affected—you never learn anything, and thus, you never mature. Cassidy and Nastasya both do their damnedest to avoid feeling uncomfortable, but it all ends up catching up with them. (In Cassidy's case, it's his own actions that catch up with him—in Nastasya's case, it's the Stuff She Needs To Work Out.)
So, Immortal Beloved = Fun Stuff with a Little Bit to Ponder. It'll work well for the paranormal romance crew, and it sneaks some thoughtful... thoughts... in there with the snarky narration, angsty angst and New Age-y magic system. Also, the romance? WAY more complicated than it first appears to be, to the point where I'm still not quite sure how I feel about it.
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Amazon | Indiebound.
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Book source: Review copy from publisher.