Customer Reviews

My Immortal (Seven Deadly Sins, Book 1)

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The year is 1790, and the demons are out to play during Louisiana's hot, sticky summer solstice. One such demon, Rosa Francis is making the rounds of the various plantations to partake in the offerings they have left for her. Her first stop is Rosa de Montana, where she expects to be properly admired and feared by the extravagant offerings of the plantation, only to be greeted by silence, and not the gratitude of those who understand the power she can unleash if she is made angry. Instead she finds the cruel and handsome Damien du Bourg, who gives her great pleasure in exchange for eternal life....

Present-day Louisiana: Marley Turner is looking for her free-spirited sister Lizzie, whose last known whereabouts happens to be Rosa de Montana, and is rather dismayed when when she arrives from Ohio and sees the crumbling mansion where Lizzie had supposedly been staying. Here she runs into sinfully gorgeous Damien du Bourg, who makes her a tad bit uncomfortable and suspicious, but he may be the only person who can help her find her missing sister, so she reluctantly agrees to let him help her while trying to deny her overpowering attraction to the enigmatic man. She knows Damien is keeping secrets from her, possibly dangerous ones, but she's desperate enough to ignore all that if it will help her find Lizzie. Damien discovers that Marley has something he wants, a letter about someone from his past, and he has agreed to help her find her sister in exchange. Damien arranges to throw one of his infamous sex parties in the hopes Lizzie will show up and put Marley's fears to rest, and in turn will give him what he wants.

Damien is intrigued by the saintly yet lushly sexy Marley, especially since she's able to resist his overwhelming sexual pull, a fringe benefit to the immortality he eagerly demanded centuries ago. Part of Damien's curse is that he must service women sexually, and he has done so faithfully yet wearily for years, but now he faces a woman who truly attracts him, yet manages to avoid his seductive charms. The more he gets to know this virtuous woman, the more he wants to be with her, until he finds himself wishing for a future he knows he can never have: of happiness with the one woman he loves beyond eternity. Damien du Bourg has been given a curse he gladly asked for, not realizing until it was too late just how cruel a pact with a demon truly is, and Damien has done things, horrible things for which he knows he can never be forgiven, so wishing for happiness is just a foolish wish.

Erin McCarthy has strayed from her usual lighter, humorously hot stories to bring us a darkly sensual tale filled with lust, redemption and the overwhelming power of love. The setting is the earthly and humid location of New Orleans, Louisiana, which invokes a multitude of images saturated with the spicy and flavorful naughtiness and decadence of the bayou. It comes across as the perfect playground for a regretful demon to live out his eternal life while he pays homage to those he answers to, albeit reluctantly. It's also the right setting for Marley to transform from a shy, introverted wallflower into a confident, brave, alluring woman who demands more out of life than to just merely exist. While searching for her sister, Marley learns some things about herself and about what she cannot control, no matter how much she tries, and while it's a bittersweet lesson, it's one she needed to learn in order to go on with her life.

This book haunted me long after I read it and couldn't stop thinking about what it must be like to live with such a curse. The story was rather dark, and the characters really had to go through a lot to earn their HEA. It reminded me how the consequences of our impulsive actions can sometimes cause strong regret when they can't be taken back, ever. Kudos to Erin for delivering an emotional and intense story that made me think, but also made me believe in the strength and courage it takes to face up to what you've done in your own life instead of whining and/or blaming others. This book really resonated with me. I completely fell into the story and couldn't put it down, which just goes to show you what an amazing talent Ms. McCarthy truly is.

Two hundred years ago Damien du Bourg, the rich, gorgeous and arrogant plantation owner, made a deal with a demon. It was a decision he made in haste and regretted soon after, but he was a different person then. He has lived his life doing the bare minimum, just enough to hold up his end if the deal. For the past one hundred years he has denied himself as punishment for how he had lived his life.

When Marley Turner shows up on his doorstep looking for her sister, he knows there is something different about this woman, something that can make him forget his one hundred year old promise to himself.

Erin writes a tale about lust, sex, greed, regret, redemption and forgiveness. Running parallel with the present day story is the story of the past; these two stories wind seamlessly through this book, both completely intriguing.

For you long time Erin McCarthy fans, this book is a lot darker than what we are used to, but it is still fantastic. The sex in this book is plentiful. I am by no means a prude, but in some cases it was a bit shocking. Shocking or not, I completely enjoyed the sex scenes, thought they were extremely well written and enhanced the story.

Erin McCarthy books are automatic buys, for me; I have loved every one of her stories and this one did not disappoint. I read this book in one day; I simply couldn't put down this edgy, sexy, daring book.

My Immortal by Erin McCarthy is the first in a series of (supposedly?) seven books following the Seven Deadly Sins. The first theme shown here is Lust. We learn the history of Damian, a demon servant, through letters left by his first wife and stories told by an elderly neighbor woman. I became completely engrossed in the novel due to these letters. We learn quickly that Damian was made immortal by the demon in exchange for encouraging lust. The more immoral sex going on the better, apparently. The letters are mixed in with the narrative told by Marley, a slightly chunky, straight-arrow woman in search of her missing, trampy sister. This story is extremely well-written and I look forward to reading more novels by this author due to that fact alone. The story so engaging that I found it hard to put away. We see many sides to Damian and Marley, to a lesser extent. (Seeing how he has 200 plus years on her, I guess thats understandable.) My problem with this novel wasn't the explicit sexual content. The book just went on and on about about how immoral sex was. When people were doing each other randomly and in groups and stuff, I could MAYBE stretch my imagination and say 'ok maybe' that could be considered immoral. But when the married woman believes she is becoming more and more immoral because she is having wild sex with her husband, that just seems like Ms.McCarthy was stretching a little bit to make the story fit her theme of Lust being a Deadly Sin. What happens between and man and his wife isn't immoral, its beautiful. Three stars for "My Immoral" for its portrayal of sexuality as always being a sin. This was very distracting to me as a reader. The plotlines were strong, and the story-telling even better, despite that.

I gave this book 2 stars because I actually finished it...not because it was that great. I honestly think it was preachy. I know that sounds odd for a romance, but it seemed that throughout the book there was a clear definition of "good" and "bad". If you liked sex, you were appealing to your baser instincts, thus you were "dirty"; if you felt that sex was a sinful expression of lust, you were "pure". This resulted in the steamy sex scenes having a, kind of, dirty feel to them... I have read tons of romance novels and never felt dirty, but while reading this one, I started feeling guilty for even reading a romance--isn't that nuts??
If you want a REALLY great, guilt-free vampy/immortal romance, try the early Sherrilyn Kenyon and all of JR Ward's Black Dagger Brotherhood--everyone of which have a place on my keeper shelf-they are FANTASTIC!

This is the first in a series of books about demon servants, charged with the task of promoting sin amoung humans for their master's dark purposes. It was darkly fascinating and deeply disturbing.

The bulk of the book is told in two parts--one an account of the past, told either through letters or the characters themselves, and the other in modern times. In New Orleans, circa 1790, we learn that Damian du Bourg is a selfish, cheating, semi-abusive husband to Marie. In addition to this, he makes a deal with a demon that gives him immortality in exchange for his servatude. That is, he shall spend eternaty encouraging the sin of lust amoung all he meets. Even shy, frail Marie succums to his irrisistable lure--to her ultimate doom. In present day, Damien is simply trying to get by, quietly repenting for his sins while doing enough to satisfy his demon master. As it turns out, this means throwing sex parties. Marley, a reserved and moral school teacher, shows up on his doorstep looking for her sister who disapeared after one such party.

I was very suprised that the author managed to redeem Damien as much as she did. I still find his history disturbing in the extreme, but not something I couldn't get past. Marley is fairly easy to relate to, though a little bland. The plot is quiet, no action to speak of, and yet I was never bored.I wish we were given more background on the demons themselves, but the author seemed more intent on character developement. Overall, this was quite a page-turner.

I'd recommend skipping the first 235 pages and just read from page 236 to the end, page 311. Do I give this 1 star for not liking most of the book or 4 or 5 stars for the Alex part? I don't know, so I'll compromise with 2 stars. The main characters did not interest me. For most of the book, I wanted it to be over. I did not like the back-and-forth writing style of two stories, but I liked the plot concerning demons.

The book consisted of two stories, one about Damien and Marie in 1790. The second story was about Damien and Marley around 2007. I would have preferred the author tell the 1790 story completely, and then tell the 2007 story. For the first 236 pages, the author told both stories at the same time, going back and forth. I was annoyed, with a feeling similar to tv commercials interrupting the stories. I wanted each story by itself. I don't think it would have hurt the plot to do it my way. Marley was learning the story over time and took certain actions based on her growing knowledge of the earlier story. I think that still could be accomplished, without the reader learning the past story with interruptions.

I didn't enjoy reading about the main characters: Damien, Marley, Marie, and Rosa. Damien was selfish and unlikeable in his youth. One night, on a whim, he asks Rosa to make him immortal in return for his servitude to her demon father Alex for eternity. Damien had no reason to do this. Then after he becomes immortal, his job is to incite lust in humans, which he does by hosting orgy parties. Then, for reasons unclear to me, he refuses to have sex with women for over 100 years, as his way of defying Alex. Alex probably didn't even care. This made no sense to me.

I had trouble liking Marley. She was the "good girl," single, a teacher with strong moral values and felt responsible for her family. Her sister Lizzie the "bad girl" had bipolar issues and would run off and disappear for long periods of time. Marley learned that Lizzie had been gone for awhile so Marley spends more money than she can afford to travel and stay in a hotel to try to find Lizzie. When she eventually found her, she discovered Lizzie was in love with a man, having a ball, and not thinking about her family being concerned. I had trouble with Marley's "always the martyr" decision to go after Lizzie in the first place. When there is a bad egg in the family, one doesn't break the bank to find and convince them come home when they don't want to come home, especially when this has been a habitual problem.

CAUTION SPOILERS:
I didn't like Marie either. She started out sympathetic because she was married to an abusive man. She was afraid of sex and sickly. After seeing her husband have sex with Rosa, Marie decides she wants to have lustful sex as well. She gains weight, improves her health, and starts having passionate sex with Damien. Then, she becomes haughty, irritable, gossipy, possessive, jealous, etc.

On the other hand, I loved reading about Alex, the demon father. He was the ultimate in wickedness regarding women and sex. I want to be surprised when I read a story. Well, this guy shocked and surprised me! It's almost worth getting the book just to read about him, on pages 247 to 292. Although, the reader might need some of the previous story for context to get the full impact. Alex had a strange and shocking relationship with Lizzie. And even stranger was what he wanted from Marley and then what he did after she told him her decision. Alex is one of those unforgettable characters.

Sexual language: strong. Number of sex scenes: eighteen plus. Setting: 1790 and current day New Orleans area. Copyright: 2007. Genre: fantasy romance.

For a list of my reviews of other Erin McCarthy books, see my 3.5 star review of "Flat-Out Sexy" posted under 3 stars 11/11/08.

This booked seemed more about Damien's (a demon servant of 200 years) relationships with other women over the years than his new love with Marley.
In dealing with the demon and good vs evil, the author submitted so many gray areas. Example: Rosa, the demon's daughter, had a somewhat good side to her, while Marie (Damien's first wife) was consumed with guilt for sinfully enjoying sex with her husband. Huh?
This was a weird little book that I forced myself to finish, but it did have a good ending. ****SPOILER*** Although, I don't understand why Marley would have gone back to LA while pregnant and risk the demon or Rosa killing or tainting her child.

In 1790 in River Road, Louisiana, wicked plantation owner Damien du Bourg makes a devil's bargain with a fallen angel; in exchange for his loyalty, he receives immortal life. Two centuries later, he still lives while bringing converts to his master by spreading lust to anyone who comes in contact with him.

Marley Turner knows her sister vanished somewhere near New Orleans. When she finds Damien's plantation, she is shocked by the lewd decadence of the place. Yet she also sees inside the heart to the soul of the owner to his agonized vulnerability. To his shock, for the first in two hundred plus years of life, Damien wants a woman. However, besides his owner, Damien knows his two plus centuries of sins makes him unworthy of the angelic woman he loves.

Though a well written paranormal romance, MY IMMORTAL goes much deeper as Damien believes he is unworthy although he risks his existence for what he assumes is his only redemption, keeping his beloved safe especially from the owner of his soul. The story line is fast-paced and filled with action as the audience anticipates the confrontation with Damien being pulled by good and evil. His muses on responsibility and accountably for one's actions and paying the price for one's deeds with real sacrifice is a stark contrast to the neo DC of reaping the benefits while someone else is BLED DRY. Erin McCarthy provides a thought provoking fabulous supernatural romance.

Harriet Klausner

I agree with R. Leleux--I definitely got a whiff of judgment from this book.

Oh, don't get me wrong, I enjoyed it for the most part. It's an interesting story, and hot when it needs to be. It's just that it left a bad taste in my mouth afterward. I tend to forget that my values are out of step with the "mainstream," and this book made me remember.

There's a lot of talk of "sin" in _My Immortal_, and maybe the problem is that it's just not clear what the author sees as "sinful." At times it seems like she's saying "sex is good, but it's sinful to let it lead you into selfish acts, such as adultery," and I can get behind that sentiment. However, at other times it seems like she's saying "sex is good, as long as it's monogamous, hetero, vanilla, and leads to children." There are mentions in this novel of swinging parties, open relationships, BDSM, and bisexuality--and the only people who engage in these activities are the "bad guys." I've got a bit of a problem with that. My belief is that consenting adults can do whatever they want as long as they don't hurt anyone else.

I don't know if the author did this on purpose or if it's an accidental lack of clarity. But I felt like my view of "sin" and the author's didn't match very well. Add in a few digs at feminism (REAL liberation comes from hot sex, dont'cha know?), and I was a little miffed when I finished this book.

I did like seeing the heroine develop from a spineless woman with no self-esteem and a martyr complex into a stronger character, and I liked revisiting New Orleans in these pages. It's a decent book, and entertaining, and if you're less obsessed with sexual politics than I am, you may enjoy it very much.

This book gets a 5 star review, HANDS DOWN!!!! I literally could not put it down. The book interweaves the past, present, and future so beautifully that it keeps you on the edge of your seat...and let's not forget to mention it is a steamy hot seat!!! The book is full of love, lust (lots and lots of lust as Damien is the demon of lust), as well as mystery and intrigue!! I would, and have, recommended this book to all of my friends. I am anxiously awaiting the arrival of the next book in the 7 sins line.