IMMORTAL BELOVED by Cate Tiernan-REVIEW #4

Nastasya (Nasty to her friends) is an Immortal. She is over 400-years-old and has lived every type of life imaginable. For the last century she has been living the life of luxury and partying every night - numbing herself so there isn't any chance for her to remember some of the terrible things she has done or lived through.


Nastasya's perspective on life changes drastically when she witnesses her best friend, another Immortal, torture a human using powerful and dark magic. She is frightened by what he can do with magic and has an unexplainable feeling for the need to escape. Nastasya wakes up the morning after the incident and packs whatever she can grab the fastest into a suitcase and leaves her apartment. She tells her doorman she is going to Paris to shop, but instead heads for America using an identity her friends don't know about. She doesn't want them to be able to track her down.

Nastasya is headed to a remote cabin owned by an Immortal named River. She met River in the 1920's after a terrible car accident. River could tell Nastasya and her friends were wasting their lives and invited her to visit her home so Nastasya could learn a new way to live. A way that would draw on "good" magic and give back to society rather than just taking taking taking.

River's Edge is a haven for Immortals who are in the need to rejuvenation and education. While they take classes on different aspects of Immortal life, they share the load of chores around the organic farm. Kitchen duty, gardening, and tending animals, are the chores everyone takes turns doing. Nastasya can tell as soon as she arrives, this isn't the place for her. She hasn't done manual labor in 100 years and doesn't want to start now, but when she does attempt to leave she gets a terrible feeling of fright and danger and is forced to return to make the best of it.

Nastasya's life becomes even more complicated when she meets the gorgeous and sexy Reyn. She is drawn to him more than she has ever been drawn to any other man in her life. He crowds her thoughts no matter what she is doing on the farm, but she can't shake the feeling that she knows him from sometime in her past and that makes her nervous. It also doesn't help that another Immortal staying at the farm has her sights on Reyn and considers Nastasya a major threat. Soon she doesn't even know if she is going to be safe at River's Edge.

IMMORTAL BELOVED was a joy to listen to. The narrator made getting to know Nastasya a delight. It is the first in a series - Book 2 - IMMORTAL DARKNESS is set to be released in 2011 and Book 3 - IMMORTAL LIGHT is set for 2012. I can't wait to see what happens because there is a lot still to resolve. This book would be appropriate for high school because there are several scenes dealing with sex and other adult situations.