Book Review — Immortal Pleasures by V. Castro

• Genre: Sci-Fi Fantasy, Romance, Romantasy, Gothic Horror, Historical Fiction
• Published by: Random House Publishing Group – Ballantine | Del Rey
• Publish date: April 16, 2024
• Number of pages: 304 pages
• Author’s website: https://vcastrostories.com/
• Support local! Buy the book on BookShop!

An ancient Aztec vampire roams the modern world in search of vengeance and love in this seductive dark fantasy from the author of The Haunting of Alejandra.

Hundreds of years ago, she was known as La Malinche: a Nahua woman who translated for the conquistador Cortés. In the centuries since, her name has gone down in infamy as a traitor. But no one ever found out what happened to La Malinche after Cortés destroyed her people.

In the ashes of the empire, she was reborn as Malinalli, an immortal vampire. And she has become an avenger of conquered peoples, traveling the world to reclaim their stolen artifacts and return them to their homelands.

But she has also been in search of something more, for this ancient vampire still has deeply human longings for pleasure and for love.

When she arrives in Dublin in search of a pair of Aztec skulls—artifacts intimately connected to her own dark history—she finds something else: two men who satisfy her cravings in very different ways.

For the first time she meets a mortal man—a horror novelist—who is not repelled by her strange condition but attracted by it. But there is also another man, an immortal like herself, who shares the darkness in her heart.

Now Malinalli is on the most perilous adventure of all: a journey into her own desires.

Rating: 3/5

This book has so many things I love– a strong and badass main character, a vendetta, and spice. Unfortunately, the grammatical errors, typos, and lack of organization really hurt the flow and readability of this novel. The plot point of the two male love interests felt like two different stories jammed together and some of the one-liners tried to come across as zingers but when they were executed during a sex or fight scene they just seemed to fall flat or even make me cringe or laugh. All these issues constantly took me out of the story and the world V. Castro was building. I don’t want to harp on this point and I’m sure many of the errors have been resolved before publication!

I would still recommend this book, especially for those who love open-door/explicit sex scenes and vampires! This book is sexy. Malinalli is headstrong and so easy to support — you want her to succeed in both love and revenge. The two love interests are hot, hot, HOT and the villains are despicable and truly horrific. Castro has also created some spectacular side character vampires that Malinali has encountered throughout her travels. Personally, I would love to see this in a movie or TV form, especially the epic final battle. With this book and The Haunting of Alejandra, I’m a lifelong fan of V. Castro and can’t wait to see what she writes next.

Have you read this book? What are your thoughts? I’d love to know!

I received an Advanced Reader Copy (ARC) of this book from Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group – Ballantine | Del Rey. This has not impacted my rating and this review is voluntary.