It is with a heavy heart that I finished this book. Why was it heavy, you ask? Because it made me realize that I've got about a full year until the next book in the series is supposed to be released. For once I'm reading one of Tiernan's series & not had the luxury of having all of it finished by the time I started reading it. 
 The Immortal Beloved trilogy follows the character of Nastasya (aka "Nasty"), an immortal being who has spent much of the last century drunk or otherwise incapacitated. It's easier for her to go through life not being aware of any of it than it is to face the darkness in her past. When one of her friends cripples a human over a perceived insult & treats it like a joke, Nasty knows that she's got to get out. She was once offered a safe haven years ago by a fellow immortal at a place called River's Edge, so that is where Nasty heads off to. She doesn't know if the person is still there or if the invitation is still open, but it is the only place left open to her. What she discovers there is a harder truth than she might be willing to bear. 
 Once I started reading this book, it was incredibly hard to put down. Like Tiernan's other works, this is very much an addicting read. The characters are all beautifully flawed, which makes them not only people you can root for but also makes them believable. This book is much larger than her other series, but I'm chalking that up to her being with a different publisher, one that is willing to allow her to write a larger book. (The original publishing house for the Sweep series limited her to a certain number of pages per book, among other things they tried to control.) 
 This is a fabulous book, but I have to warn potential readers- there's a lot in here that is very, very familiar. Many of the themes & elements have been used in Tiernan's other works & at times many of her characters showed marked similarities to characters from the Sweep & Balefire series. This wasn't a bad thing, mind you. With any other author it might be, but somehow Tiernan manages to take these similar elements & weave them into something so readable & fun that by the end of the book I wouldn't have cared if she'd suddenly made everything a carbon copy of her other books. The book is just that good. 
 The bottom line is that if you've loved Tiernan's other books, this is guaranteed to be something you'll love. I love seeing Tiernan write with a little more freedom & I'm excited to read the other two books in the trilogy. I'm not sure if this will replace Sweep as my favorite of her works, but so far it's pretty darn good.