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

This was a really interesting story. I love how it played with history and created it's own vampire mythos. I also enjoyed learning more about Malinalli's story; she was a fascinating character with a truly unique voice. Castro's writing style is just as unique as Malinalli herself, with a beautiful cadence that kept me turning pages and reminded me a bit of Silvia Moreno-Garcia. Alexander's backstory was also very interesting and a fun twist, especially in it being another example of how history can be twisted to fit a specific narrative, much like Malinalli's own story was. The villain of the story was well-crafted and wonderfully wrought, especially in that the author didn't try to really humanize or make the reader empathize with him; he was just a cruel, horrible person who the reader couldn't wait to see taken down. My only complaint is that the final fight felt a bit rushed and anti-climatic, especially given how much the villain was built up beforehand. Maybe I'm just a weirdo, but I definitely expected and wanted a little more violence to his end.
If you enjoy horror with a bit or romance or vice versa, definitely check this book out.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me early access to this book in exchange for an honest review.

I was fortunate to come across this book on NetGalley, the cover immediately grabbed my attention. I quickly scanned the blurb and knew I had to read it.
This was my first introduction to V. Castro and I can say it won't be my last time reading one of her books.
Immortal Pleasures had me from the first page to the last.
The descriptive writing, the sex scenes, the battle scenes are all written like poetry! I found myself rereading passages and getting lost in the mental images they created.
The story of Malinalli, a vampire of Nahua ethnicity, is written in present and past tense. I love that we get to learn about her life before becoming a vampire!
Immortal Pleasures also gives us a history lesson in the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire from the point of view of a Nahua female.
V. Castro did an amazing job relaying the raw emotions that they must have felt and the torment their people endured.

This story has treasure hunting, revenge, gore, a strong female main character, a beautiful love story, an evil villain, a side of the Spanish conquest we don't always get to hear about, and it does not end with a cliff hanger.
🌶🌶🌶

Immortal pleasures by V Castro was an intriguing premise that missed in a few areas for me.

I was really excited for a in-depth look at some Mexican/Myan mythology mixed with my favorite trope ever of vampires. And while there was some mythology to be had, it wasn't well explained or very accessible. You kind of had to already know who the big players were in order to grasp the mythology aspect. The vampires were also extremely human like, and didn't have too many "vampire like" attributes. Other than the drinking of blood, I would never have known they weren't just regular people. The romances within the book were a little cringey and both just too much "Insta love" for me. Our FMC was immediately head over heels for both love interests within seconds of meeting them. She was instantly seeing long-term futures, talking about love, just having spotted them across the room. And many of the ways in which the sex was described, really took me out of the story, and actually were making me laugh. At one point, one of the love interests "members" was described as an eel. I literally laughed out loud for that one.

What I did like, was the intricate mystery surrounding the plot line. It turned from a very smutty story to more like a murder/mystery almost detective, like plotline, and I really enjoyed that plot line. Honestly, we could've removed the whole first love interest completely and just gotten right into the thriller type plot line and I would've been so much happier with the book.

It pains me to not have liked the story as much as I wanted to. V Castro is an amazing author, and this just wasn't a highlight book for me.

An interesting read! The story does a good job in holding your attention with plenty of suspense and action. The narration of the story in going back in time fills in the characters and makes the story even better, I found it hard to put down this book.

Thank you to #NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

First of all, thank you to Del Ray and NetGalley for the ARC!
The concept of this book is really amazing. I love vampires, stories fighting against colonization, and spice so what could go wrong? Unfortunately, the writing style of this book just wasn't for me. I DNFed at 58%.
The first chapter contained a large info dump of information on the FMC, but a lot of that information is restated again throughout the book so it feels repetitive. I felt like there was a lot of telling and not showing when it came to the personalities of different characters. There wasn't a strong build-up to the spice and the analogies used in the spicy scenes were off-putting and took me out of the story.
I do think if there were some significant edits, this would be a 4-5 star read for me.

Immortal Pleasures expertly blends ancient history with the supernatural leading to a novel that explores the life of one Aztec vampire.

La Malinche was a slave to the Spanish Inquisitors — translating and as their middle woman. Due to this she’s ultimately seen as somebody who’d betrayed her own people, while others simply believe she was trying to simply survive.

Now reborn as Malinalli, she finds herself traveling seeking love and vengeance, while also seeking out and returning stolen artifacts. Even finding two drastically different men who she shares her time with.

The spice does not disappoint, and the rich amount of history infused within the pages is wonderful and kept my attention from the very beginning until the last bittersweet page. I wasn’t ready for the book to end.

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All reviews will be live 1-2 weeks prior on IG, Goodreads and Bookbub — and b&n if applicable.

Amazon review posted upon release.

I'm always drawn to read vampire books that feature strong female characters. The feminist perspective is evident as well as the history of her descent into vampirism. The characters are rich, well drawn out and there are hints of romance and deluges of history intertwined in this story. I look forward to reading more by this author. Thanks Netgalley.