immortal beloved

immortal beloved
immortal beloved series #1
cate tiernan
ya/romance/supernatural
little, brown books for young readers
published 2010

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.

I read this book almost exactly 2 years ago, finishing it on February 27, 2011 and I loved it.  Reading it the second time I love it still though I can't put my finger on exactly why I love it.

There's no sweeping love story, no action packed fight scene.  No government conspiracies, no Hogwarts or Forks.  No vampires, no werewolves, no fairies, no CIA spooks, no mustered out soldiers or ghosts.  Yet somehow, there is a great story here.

Nasty is just another teenage girl, except that she's about 450 years over being a teenager.  She's an immortal and knows no rhyme of reason why her kind exists.  She only knows that the years have gone on and on and on and she's tired of being a drunken party girl.

The story is simply reminiscent of a substance abuser getting clean.  She's trying to find a way to a life that is worth living.  That hurts no one, especially not herself.  She's looking for a way back to caring and it's not easy.  She can tell that there are those who don't want her at River's Crossing, but she's not there for them.  She still acts like a spoiled teenager sometimes, but she's also figuring out how she can be better person.

Then there's the underlying threat of her 'friends' from her other life.  She feels like she needs to hide from them though she's not sure why.  We only know that they're now actively looking for her but Tiernan is saving that juicy part of the story for the next installment.

There's not many books that I can read more than once and not get bored with.  Surprisingly, this is one of them.  I don't even really know why!  I just really love it.  I feel bad that it's taken me this long to get to the next book!  When I saw I still had some B&N credit I bought all three in eBook form so now I have no excuses!