Friday Book Club: Immortal Beloved and Darkness Falls by Cate Tiernan

Friday Book Club: Immortal Beloved and Darkness Falls by Cate Tiernan

Release Date: Out now

Immortal Beloved and its sequel, Darkness Falls, make up two thirds of Cate Tiernan’s Immortal Beloved trilogy – the third book is due to be released later this year.

The first book introduces the trilogy’s main character, Nastasya – an immortal girl who’s been alive for more than 450 years. During her time on the planet, she’s perfected the art of bad behaviour. She’s veteran party girl, who uses booze and drugs to escape from real life and avoid her immortal fate. One day, though, she decides enough is enough and, eventually, she finds herself seeking refuge at River’s Edge, a home for unruly immortals.

Although the synopsis was promising, the book fell short of my expectations. Its main fault is the characters’ lack of complexity. Nastasya comes across as immature and spoilt, and there’s no depth to her personality.

The good news is, the second book in the trilogy, Darkness Falls, steps things up a gear. The characters come to life a bit more, and there’s enough violence, heartache and disloyalty to keep things interesting.

All in all – and this might sound harsh – this trilogy strikes me as a poor man’s Twilight. Although I’m planning on reading the third and final instalment (I’ve gotten this far and need to know how the story ends!) I don’t think I’ll be knocking down the door of Waterstones the day it hits the shelves.