4.5 stars actually.

I think what I like most about this novel was it wasn't your typical teen fantasy where the main character was immortal and trying to live life as a normal teen. Nastasya, a 450-something year old girl, has lived many different lives in many different places. With her core group of friends, she has no cares in the world. What she didn't realize until one dark evening though, was that maybe she wanted more than then life she was living.

After witnessing one if her best friends committing a heinous act, Nastasya decides to cash in an offer made by a stranger 80 years ago and get her life back on track. Finding herself in a sort of immortal rehab, Nastasya isn't sure she's cut out to be good. Everything in her being is telling her she doesn't belong, but River and the most of the others at River's Edge think differently.

Living healthy life is not easy, and having a Viking god-like man around named Reyn just makes it that much more difficult. As Nastasya immerses herself in this new life, she learns more about who she is and who she wants to be, coming to terms with a very sad and terrifying past. It isn't all kumbaya and happiness though, and as the weeks go by, Nastasya learns more about herself and attempts to come to terms with her past allowing her to have a future.

I wasn't too sure that I was going to enjoy this at first. It took a little bit to wrap my brain around the idea that this wasn't about Nastasya trying to be a teen, but more about her finding herself. It was refreshing. Also, because we weren't focusing on all the high school drama, Tiernan was really able to develop a solid story, one that gets readers set up for the next installment allowing a lot of things to happen for Lilja and Reyn. Can't wait to see what happens next!

August 2024 re-read:
I truly love this book and series so much. A pure comfort read I knocked out in one sitting, like catching up with old friends.


November 2018 re-read:
This is honestly one of those books/series I have such a warm, fuzzy, delightful emotional attachment to that never gets old. I love re-reading it.


April 2015 Re-read:
YEP, STILL LOVE IT.


February 2012:
When I picked this up from the library, I didn't have a real idea of what it involved. I just knew it was an interesting sounding paranormal romance novel, and it's been on my TBR list for a while.

Holy cow, I did not expect to be as enraptured by Immortal Beloved as I was in the last day.

I didn't expect it to be a complete character journey. Sure, Nastasya is an immortal and lot of what she does is learning to control and use magick, and sure, there's a bit of a romance aspect to it, but none of that compares to the journey of self-discovery Nastasya goes through. There could be no paranormal aspects about it at all and I'd still enjoy every single page.

If you were truly immortal, how would it change you? How would the weight of hundreds of years of mistakes, joy, pain and indifference change you? What would you do to change yourself for the better, and would you be strong enough to do it? The work Nastasya does to answer these questions (and many more) and to uncover the emotions she's hidden is so interesting and insightful, and while it felt at times that she went in circles with certain ways of thinking, it all felt true to what she was doing.

This was definitely a delightful surprise, and I'm totally grabbing Darkness Falls (book two which just came out last month) as soon as I possibly can.