Origin by Jessica Khoury

I've had this book sitting on my TBR pile for quite awhile now.  I picked it up off the table where my bookstore puts ARCs for us to look at and read.  I haven't received as many ARCs from the bookstore anymore due to one of the Children's leads now reading them and taking them.  :-(  Oh well.  I finally got around to this when I saw a sequel available as an e-galley on Edelweiss.
I'd seen many reviews of this, one even talking about a kitten being killed, and that almost made me not want to read it.  I'm not a huge cat fan, allergies, so I'm more of a dog fan.  But I can't stand to see animals get hurt.  But I went ahead and read the book, knowing that would be happening.
If you haven't read this yet, it was a quick read.  Definitely one that caught my attention and kept the pages turning.  The main character of the book is Pia.  She is immortal, and "perfect" according to all the people at the lab where she lives in the middle of a rainforest.  Pia has been educated about just about everything.  She can walk past plants and animals and tell you everything about them, clear from Kingdom all the way to genus and species.  One thing she knows nothing about though is the rest of the world.  She's never been outside of what they call Little Cam.  She has been taught only what she needs to know to join the scientists and the Immortis team.  And now she is being tested to see if she can be one of them.  The tests are some horrible things at times, like the test with the kitten.  Her mother does live there, but has never really been motherly to her.  Her father is there, but because of how things work there, she calls him Uncle.  She calls everyone there either Aunt or Uncle.  She was made through 5 generations of the Immoris serum being given in small amounts.  Any more than was given and it would be deadly.  What she wants more than anything is to have more people like herself.  And so Pia's goal is to get on the team and discover a quicker way to create more immortals, so that she doesn't have to wait 5 generations for a mate or others like herself.  All of this comes from a very rare flower that is impossible to move and replant anywhere other than where it grows.  Which is nearby and why the lab is where it is.  Pia begins to get a bit more curious about the outside world, especially as her birthday approaches.  The whole compound has chosen to celebrate with a party like she has begged for.  And right about this same time, a new female scientist shows up.  She gives Pia a map of the world, and talks about things that she's not supposed to, which also leads to Pia becoming more interested about the outside world and all that she doesn't know.  When a storm goes through, and leaves a hole in the fence, Pia takes the chance and sneaks out.  She finds a boy named Eio, and through him, a small tribe, and learns more about both herself, and the studies going on at her lab.
A lot of interesting twists in the story, and with the way it ended, I'm not quite sure how there will be a sequel, other than how we were told about the main corporation that sponsored the lab having secret labs like this all over the world.  I can't wait to read on, and the kitten killing part is sad, but not anything that I think was done in a way that made it more than an important point in the story.

Darkness Falls (Immortal Beloved #2) by Cate Tiernan

The first book in this series was one that I just loved.  It was the kind that picked me up and hooked me right away.  In fact, you can read my review of Immortal Beloved HERE.  This book was similar, in that once I picked it up, it was hard to put it down.  In fact at work today, I really didn't want to go back from my lunch break until I finished it. But, alas, work must come first in order for me to have the money to continue to read and live, and etc.  While I had purchased the first one when Borders went out of business, I ended up checking this one out from the library.  Part of the reason is because I have the 3rd one as an ARC that I got from BEA in the summer of 2012.  Which, on that note, I bought my plane ticket to go to BEA next summer!  Can't wait!  Okay, okay, back to my review of the book.
We of course left off with Nastasya at River's farm, which is kind of like a rehab place for immortals.  While there she's learned that the really hot viking guy named Reyn, is actually part of the family that killed all of her family.  She is trying to come to terms with this, as well as her attraction to him.  But along with that, she is still dealing with learning just how selfish she had been in her past. Things she is just now starting to see that where once she told the story about the miracle of her survival, now she realizes all the people or animals that died when she could probably have saved them.  On New Year's Eve they have a circle, and each Immortal releases something into the fire that they want to work on being done with.  Nastasya decides to release her darkness into the fire.  When she does, the fire grows to immense proportions before it dies back down, and she is afraid that she didn't get rid of it, but actually released it into the world.  While she is learning about how most all of the Immortals had a bad start or past, as more and more things go wrong, eventually she decides she is the cause of it, and runs away.  Fortunately it seems, Innocencio just happens to be driving by and he finds her.  Now all this time she'd been having horrible nightmares about him, that he'd gone evil, sparked by when he'd killed the cab driver in the first book.  And in her dreams she also sees all their friends dead, killed by Incy.  But it turns out she was just dreaming.  Incy has been worried about her this whole time, he says he was unable to find her, and then today he was driving around, and he felt a strange pull, that she was going to be where he found her.  So Nastasya goes back to her friends, and a life of luxury.  But things aren't quite the same now, now that she really knows right from wrong, thanks to River.  And she must decide where she really fits in, what life she really is meant for, who are really her friends, before the wrong person decides to steal her power.
Still a good book for all the same reasons as the last one.  But, I was not happy that she ran away and went back to her old friends so quickly, and slipped back into that life style.  That's my only complaint I guess though.  Now I have to figure out when to fit in the 3rd one.  Maybe after I finish my next e-galley?

Immortal Beloved by Cate Tiernan

Immortal Beloved by Cate Tiernan

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I remember when I first saw this book, I believe it was around the same time as when The Eternal Ones came out, and at first I thought this was another reincarnation novel, and I was intrigued. But I picked it up and read that it was about "immortals" as you might guess from the title. I thought, oh no, another vampire book, and set it back down. When the Borders store closest to me was getting ready to close this past spring, I ran in and found this hardcover book there for like $4, and so I grabbed it and brought it home. I picked it up to read 2 days ago, and I was hooked!



The main character is Nastaya, or Nasty for short. (Which, I kinda hate that nickname, sorry.) But that's not her real name, she is about 460 years old, and has had many name changes because of the times changing, as well as many different passports when needed. We begin the story with her as she's lived for a long time, with her gang of immortal friends, out being crazy, drinking, partying, etc. She does this to keep her mind from remembering all the bad things that have happened in her life. Well, this night, her best friend Innocencio, or Incy for short, uses magick to hurt a cab driver, hurt really bad. Nastaya has never been a fan of magick as it always makes her sick afterwards, and she's really not a fan of using it for dark purposes like this. The next morning she wakes up still freaked out and decides she has to get away and figure out what she wants. She remembers another immortal she met years ago who told her she didn't have to live that way and if she ever wanted help, told her where she lived so she could come get help. And that's where she goes. But part of it is trying to get away from her friends for a break from them. And so she tells her doorman somewhere else, and then she goes to America to see this immortal named River. River's place is a small farm that actually is pretty old fashioned. Along with classes, they do manual labor and all share chores. Their classes consist of learning to use magick and their powers. When Nastaya gets there, of course she at first doesn't think she'll stay, as she's used to a life of excess. And there is a REALLY hot guy there, who is also really a jerk to her. While there she starts having visions, and realizes that there are some reminders she must face from the beginning of her life.



Okay, enough summary. More of my opinion. I seriously LOVED this book. Did I already say that? I love what these immortals "are". I love the new story. These immortals aren't vampires, they're just humans who live a really, really, really long time. They can be killed, but it is really hard to do. They are only born to two immortals. And when they reach their teen years, their "aging" slows down, and they tend to stay teens to 20 year old looking for a long time. And so I guess because they look like this might be why this was considered a teen book. BUT! I actually didn't feel at all as if I was reading a teen book, not that teen books are bad, as you know if you follow me, I read a LOT of them. But I really feel as if this was an adult science fiction book. Yeah, she looks like a teen, BUT, she's lived a LONG time. And all of them have, and their conversations and what they do are totally people who are adults. Again, not that teens can't read adult fiction, but just not sure why this is classified as it is. I don't care where they put it in the bookstore though, I just can't wait for part two to come out, and I think I have to wait till 2012! Yikes!



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