Ok but do yall remember that movie “Queen of the Damned” this is that but with a Spanish flare. I absolutely loved this from the MC being a seductress and owning her energy, to the magical world and how detailed it all is. This book was a home run I loved it so much and the cover is gorgeous. I’m definitely buying a copy for myself when this is published.

Round up to 2.5

Thank you for an arc of this! I was genuinely excited for this because the idea of dealing with colonialism in a vampiric story was extremely appealing. However, the execution of this book did not go well as I had hoped and it left much to be desired. The writing was just okay as well. There really isn’t anything memorable about this book unfortunately.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Ballatine for this opportunity to read rate and review this arc which will be available April 16,2024!

What an incredibly sumptuous lush vampire novel. Again I was sucked so deep into the story it would not let me go. The story interwoven with the bloody history of the reality of the Nahua peoples was perfection.

I have always loved V. Castro and her work. Immortal Pleasures is no exception! I’ve never seen an author combine history, folklore, and contemporary social issues so well. I feel like I know who V. Castro is as a person and how much she values her culture when I read these stories.

Immortal Pleasures by V. Castro is a wild ride. Basically it’s La Malinche vs. Hernan Cortés only they are vampires who reencounter each in the modern day. I kind of love this concept and reclaiming the narrative of Malintzin’s story.

Having loved Goddess of Filth I was super excited to dive into this world. This will probably be a bit polarizing for readers and as much as I enjoyed it there were times the story veered into unintentional(?) absurdity especially earlier on in the novel. I’m looking at you butter lube scene. Look, I didn’t hate it but it didn’t really fit the rest of the tone of the story. The strength of the story for me was in Malinalli’s past and the vampire lore and world building. The characters were really interesting and complex, excluding the milquetoast Collin and over the top Hernan Cortés. The relationship between Malinalli and Chantico was a high point and the characters of Cuahtémoc and Alex were really intriguing, I also wish we could have followed Catherine more and dived deeper into her story.

Despite the inconsistency in the tone this was a fun and wild ride and I wouldn’t mind exploring the characters and world more should the author choose to continue with it. This would be a great read for those looking for a fresh take on vampires and their lore.

I received an advance review copy, and I am leaving this review voluntarily. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this book.

I've read books by this author before and absolutely loved them. This is one I wouldn't include in the "love" category. More often then not, this book read like a History textbook which isn't really something I enjoy. If you like reading historical fiction, I think this book would be right up your alley. The erotic horror scenes were good and I do like the idea of a strong FMC who does everything in her power to not be oppressed by men. It was a powerful message, but it just seemed to get lost in the context. I also didn't enjoy how flat the last 2 chapters fell, I wanted a lot more from this ending.

I really enjoyed the Latinx flair of this story, and the light it shone on colonialism. I love the idea of this story...but, that was about it.

I had a hard time with the dual time narrative. I typically really enjoy when it's split like this, but had a hard time transitioning between them in this story for some reason. Additionally, the descriptions of many of the spicy scenes are simply laughably bad, like the most terrible sea creature metaphors bad.

Overall, loved the idea of this story, struggled with the execution.

Spicy erotic horror. I liked this one a lot. The derail was truly amazing. I'll be keeping my eye out for you V. Castro

I think that this is simply not the type of horror and sexuality that I enjoy in terms of vampires, and the self-introspection was not worded as well as I would have liked it to be. However, this is mainly personal taste, and not so much something that can be blamed on the author, so I am going to share my thoughts, although take them with a grain of salt because I did not finish the book. Overall I think one of my main problems is that it was too heterosexual for me as someone who is a strong believer in the inherent queerness of vampires, and the way that the sexuality of vampires is treated is different through that lens.

First I would like to thank Netgalley for the arc of this book! It is one of my most anticipated 2024 reads!
Secondly, I want to emphasize the beauty in Castros writing. It is flowery, poetic and some phrases are so gorgeous my heart ached.

For me, it was the writing that made this book all it was. Though, the premise is enough to hook anyone in, the execution felt a little underwhelming and that is due to its shortness. I personally would have loved more lore, more exploration.

My favorite bits were the moments we got of Mali’s past and her travels. As a main character, she was fierce. However, the one thing I despised was the insta love and the premature connections.

I loved the sexy elements. It was horrific at its bloodiest and then salacious at its sexiest. If the relationships were fully explored and less rushed, I would have enjoyed this alot more.

I really wanted to love this one; the concept sounded so interesting. The writing style just really took me out of it, unfortunately, so this one just wasn’t for me.

I will say, I tend toward high fantasy in a way that makes me very quickly turned off by super colloquial language. I think fans of Kresley Kole may really enjoy this!

Another amazing read by this author! Her books are rich in lore & cultural background which I love. The MC was another strong female that takes no sh*t as she conquers her goals. Great pacing, great plot, and vividly described throughout!

The cover of this book is gorgeous..the plot sounds amazing..it’s a modern vampire story..couldn’t wait to begin. Then I began.

This book is the biggest mess. Hernan Cortes and John Hawkins? A conquistador and a naval commander? They are now partners for a skincare brand and antiquities collectors. This story shaped up to be like Tomb Raider with a vampire, except our vampire got waylaid by a cute boy and lost her sense of direction. You’ve been searching for these crystal skulls forever and now it’s okay to just postpone that for sex?

And let’s talk about sex. With sex scenes I can usually take it or leave it. These sex scenes get BEYOND ridiculous. It sounds like someone read a bunch of romance novels years ago and decided to try their hand at it now. Call me crazy, but I honestly don’t think comparing your vagina to a honeycomb full of bees, or your ass to a sea anemone trying to catch prey, is really my thing. The sex scene writing is beyond juvenile. For example:

“His cock is like an electric eel bringing me to Bride of Frankenstein life”

And the scene involving her shoving a bunch of butter up her butt for lube? Vomit.

The flashbacks to her earlier life and turning are much more interesting, but not enough to save this one. This is my second Castro novel, and probably my last. The premise of both was so promising, the execution was just a fail.

Thanks to V. Castro, Random House and NetGalley for the advance copy to check out.

Spicy and thrilling joyride. True erotic horror. The light and dark of vampires. Chasing after history only for it to be chasing you. Loved this book. V. Castro is a beautiful voice of the genre.

A hauntingly dark tale filled with lust, desire and anger.
I enjoyed the history elements woven within the story and the main character. The steamy scenes were intense.
But my favorite aspect of this book was the authors writing style, it read so smooth and was very descriptive.
Looking forward to more from this author.

DNF after just a few chapters.

I was initially so excited for the this -- the concept of an Aztec vampire exploring the modern world to reclaim stolen artefacts and find love has so much potential.

I was hoping for something a bit more atmospheric, but unfortunately this book read like a diary. It was entirely told instead of shown. The entire first chapter was just one big info dump, with the main character directly telling us her name, her backstory, her issues, and her goals. Nothing happened in the first chapter at all, there was no sense of plot. All of this could have been revealed more creatively or stylistically in the course of an actual story.

Another issue I had was that it didn't feel like I was in the head of a several-hundred-year-old vampire. She just felt like a young 20-something with no worldly experience, which was disappointing.

It wasn't for me. But you might like it if you don't mind that kind of writing style and are more interested in the concept/character.

Thanks to Netgalley and Del Rey for the ARC.

Malinalli, an immortal, millennia old, has somehow not evolved or matured in the many long years since her change from human, La Malinche, forced companion of Hernan Cortes (who is, and what a coincidence - a vampire as well. M is an antiquities dealer with a reputation but tells us everything in this story like a massively insecure young woman in her early 20's.

After reading the synopsis for this and being intrigued, I gratefully received an early copy to read and please believe me when I write that I wanted to love this. I was so ready to. But.
Alas, I did not. I truly truly did not.


(I write the following with an odd, near fondness.)

The writing was cringingly awful, to the point that I was laughing at many of the passages. I continued reading for the unintentional hilarity of it, and for the cringe/roll your eyes so hard they feel sprained/laugh out loud utterly ridiculous, and shockingly badly written sex scenes alone, I'm rating this up to 2 stars.



Thank you to Ballantine and NetGalley for the DRC

Historical retelling of La Malinche who, after being immortal, has spent the centuries getting back the stolen heritage of her people. A little uneven at times, but I enjoyed reading this.

I just reviewed Immortal Pleasures by V. Castro. #ImmortalPleasures #NetGalley

DNF @ 15% - The idea of La Malinche (Malinalli) as a vampire who travels the world retrieving stolen artifacts is deeply compelling. Unfortunately, this book is just deeply pretentious and gross. I knew that this was not the book for me almost immediately because the story is "told" rather than "shown" most of the time, which makes it very difficult to connect with Malinalli. Next, the author's treatment of colonization is crude. I absolutely agree that the Spanish conquest of Mexico was horrific and a woman who lived through it would be traumatized, but the way this history is presented here is often factually inaccurate and trivialized with nonsense like Malinalli refusing to eat tabasco sauce because it's from the region where she was once enslaved. The final straw for me were the bizarre and explicit descriptions of sex; for example, Malinalli says "Being this close to him makes my pussy feel like it's full of bees, their buzzing causing sticky sweet honey to leak from the honeycomb. I like watching men bathe in that honey as it coats their mouths and chins." I don't even know what to do with that other than to put down the book and walk away.

Grabbed this one because I liked her possession book, Goddess of Filth.

This one isn't as good. Main character was a tad annoying, and really didn't sympathize with any character.

Just boring