The title I found for this book is completely inaccurate. It made me do flash backs of horrible books like Thirst and Twilight, where girl meets guy and they just need to be together, or a girl who struggles to get past her past, while falling in love with this other human and fighting off the big bad wolf. But it wasn't. Okay so yes she was trying to get past her past, but it was an interesting past. The way she described the parties and all the horrible things she's done, it makes you feel, well not sorry for her, but a certain empathy as she realizes that she wasn't happy. Yes Natasya was quite vapid and shallow, but running full tilt from your past, while trying to not let anyone hurt you, including yourself, would do that to you. And her past was so damn interesting, especially before she knew she was immortal. I loved the viking/icelandic past that she holds, and how she makes her way back to it. The confused past with Reyn is what really makes it better then any of the other immortal type novels I've read before. Instead of constantly mopping over him, and trying to get him, she is constantly pushing him away, but with good reason. Oh, that's not to say that she doesn't like him, but she finds that her physical attraction is more annoying than anything. The internal conflict she was feeling was the worst antagonist, just fighting her past instead of an actual person. Well there is external conflict from Innocencio and Nell, who seem nice at first, just are crazy scary underneath. I ike that she was able to help others during the novel, instead of just herself. 
 River!! I love River and the teachers, but there is just something off about the lot of them, this may be my need to find a devil in everyone, or maybe just the odd Cate Tiernan described some of their reactions, but I feel a bit cautious about them. I hope I'm wrong though. 
 The ending for the book was somewhat anticlimatic, not having the opposing external force being the major thing, but the internal conflict which she finally embraces, and maybe this is just because it isn't exactly a normal ending but I feel it could of been done better, but at least I was able to read through it (something that seems difficult lately) and I'm looking forward to reading the next one.