New name, new town, new life. Nastasya has done it too often to count. And there’s no end in sight. Nothing ever really ends …when you’re immortal. But now, after centuries of feeding from the lives of the innocents around her, of living with little care for others, Nastasya is ready to turn towards the light.

‘After some of the events I’ve witnessed I felt like I was a shell with nothing alive left in me. I hadn’t been going around killing people, but people were hurt — the memories just kept trickling in like rivulets of fresh acid dripping into my brain until I wanted to scream. It was in my blood, I knew. A darkness. The darkness. I had inherited it, along with my immortality and my black eyes.’ Captivating, intense and with an incredible and original voice, EVERLASTING LIFE is a haunting story of friendship, love and secrets, tragedy and loss. Sometimes life is eternal…

Characters: The main character, Nastasya, is fantastic. She’s a typical teenager, complete party animal, sarcastic as hell and feeling very lost. Only thing is, shes immortal and much older than a teenager – 459 years old. Nasty has been through a lot in her long life, the ins and outs of which are revealed throughout this book, her character reflects this and she’s very easy to relate to – we’ve all been through this stage! There are a lot of other fantastic characters, River, Reyn, Innocencio, Boz, Katy – all of whom are from different background and are therefore very different, but fantastic characters.

Originality: Although this is a book about immortals, its not your typical vampire story – in fact theres not a vampire in sight! I thought this was fantastic, its great to see that Tiernan is breaking out of the vampire theme that a lot of authors are following just now (not that I have a problem with vampire books!)

Plot: Nastasya’s life is one constant party but when she sees a dark side to her friend that shes known for over a centuary, Nastasya decides that she wants more from her immortal life. She seeks the help of another immortal, River, who runs a rehab centre for lost immortals known as River’s Edge. Here Nastasya is forced to live a life completely opposite to the one she left and as a result is forced to face memories she’s been attempting to erase with huge amounts of alcohol. Tiernan has obviously put huge amounts of thought into the plot – when thinking back over the book I realised that not a lot actually happens, the whole book focuses on Nastasya coming to terms with her past and trying to find herself. However, this was not a negative, Tiernan makes sure the reader is still hugely entertained.

Writing: Tiernan chose a narrative style of writing, obviously following Nastasya. This was very well done, to me it felt as though Nastasya was a friend, catching me up in everything that has happened since we last spoke. It was almost like a conversation with Nastasya responding to your thoughts while she describes the situation. I love how much thought Tiernan put into this and her characters, clearly analysing how events in their lives would shape them as people and how these events would cause them to react in situations – it was very consistent.

Natasha’s Rating: I really enjoyed this book, I loved how it focused on the development of the character, rather than trying to cram loads of action into the first book – I think this will make a real difference in the next book when the action starts. It’s one of those easy to read books, really enjoyable but with a real message in it! It’s also very well paced which makes you want to keep reading to find out what Nastasya is actually running from!

½