This was interesting! The scenes described were intriguing, and the way the story unfolds is unique and provocative. That cover is STUNNING and is what drew me into the book. Looking forward to reading the author's backlist after this.

This was one of my most anticipated reads of the year so I am bummed that I didn’t enjoy it. There were some aspects that were good but overall I just never connected to the main character, the time jumps were hard to follow and the sex scenes felt so awkward. I have read several books by this author and this is the only one I haven’t loved so I’m hoping the next book will be better!

I am so appreciative of the opportunity to read and review this book ahead of its release. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Malinalli has been a vampire for many centuries and wants to feel a connection with someone. Malinalli goes to Ireland first and meets Colin, who, is an author. They seem to have a great connection. Someone from Malinalli's past is now hunting her but who could it be. Will Malinalli learn the truth? Can Colin and Malinalli make a relationship work? Find out in Immortal Pleasures.

I received this ARC from Del Rey via Netgalley for an honest review.

DNF. For whatever reason, I couldn't get into it. The writing style was something that I wasn't expecting and it made me feel like I was already playing catch up with the story.

(1 star because NetGalley doesn't allow for a no-star review.)

As a latinx/mexican-american, I really liked this. I loved the connection between my culture and fantasy. Overall this is a romance book and not really a historical book like I thought. Not a bad thing in my opinion as I often go for romance than historical fiction.

. It was sexy, dark, and a bit sad at times. The author did a great job in describing Mallini's pain, anger and insatiable lust! Give me all the spice!

Honestly if I was Malinalli, an immortal, sexy vampire, I too would be having a great amount of sex!

This book was good and kept me entertained. I have only two criticisms for it. Firstly, the ending felt very rushed like we'd run out of time and needed to wrap it up quickly. Second, many times I felt preached at about the evil of being white rather than educated on the deeds of men long dead. All in all, I would read another book about Malinalli if she writes one.

I really wanted to like this one, based on the description. I think my Goodreads status update just sums it up: "I don't know if I'm enjoying this or not? It's not *good* but I read a third of it in one sitting. Christopher Pike's 'Last Vampire' vibes, with almost purple prose explicit scenes. In the first person." It didn't get any better. Two stars because I did keep reading, whether I really should have or not.
Thank you very much to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC!

My first read of V. Castro and I enjoyed it.
There were a few scenes that were great but the ending was too much for me. In overall, Immortal Pleasures was an interesting read.
I would recommend it to fans of vampire fiction looking for a new twist on the genre.

Thank you to Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine and Netgalley for providing me with this arc for my honest review.

This book is ridiculous. I almost admire the unique approach but I certainly did not enjoy it. The parts of the story that relate to Malinalli's history as La Malinche and her quest for vengeance show a lot of promise. But the story takes such a deranged direction that it completely distracts from anything about the book that I might have liked. The writing is so, so bad, the character relationships are hollow, and the story lacks purpose and direction. I almost want to believe that this is satire, that is how ridiculous it was, but the story is trying to be serious. The abundance of sex scenes filled with cringe, absurd writing overpower the rest of the book. I am genuinely scarred after reading some of those lines.

I can confidently say I will never read anything like this again. Or at least I sincerely hope I never do.

I want to start by saying I absolutely love V. Castro’s work. Goddess of Filth and The Haunting of Alejandra are two of my favorites from her.
Unfortunately, Immortal Pleasures wasn’t for me. In my experience, there was telling vs showing, and it maybe felt too info dumpy because of that. It was also a little more contemporary vampire than Aztec vampire if that makes sense. I will continue to read anything by V. Castro because she is a queen.

I want to thank Random House Publishing Group Ballantine for sending me an advanced copy of this book. I was intrigued at this story. I feel like I didn't get a lot of show and I got more tell with this story. I found the main character interesting and what the story had to offer, but not as much as I wanted to. Even though I didn't completely love this book doesn't mean someone else wouldn't if they wanted to give it a chance and was looking for a different take on the vampire legend.

Immortal Pleasures by V. Castro is a deliciously dark historical fantasy, transfused with passionate romance and righteous retribution. In the pages of history, La Malinche was a woman who translated for the terrible and blood thirsty Hernan Cortes, a conquistador who brutally conquered the native people and mercilessly bled dry natural resources in the Latin Americas. Natives were considered savages, less than human, and violated in the worst ways humanly possible. La Malinche was sold into slavery by her own mother, and she faced horrific atrocities at the hands of her Spanish captors. Viewed as a traitor by her own Nahua people, she focused on putting one foot in front of the other to secure her survival in a new, hostile world. Her transformation from La Malinche to Malinalli, an immortal Aztec warrior, is a powerfully symbolic one. Malinalli is forged from the hellish infernos of pain and blood and suffering and loss. Once she is free from her humanity and the shackles forced upon her for committing the crime of being a native woman, she becomes the living embodiment of death and vengeance, a true champion for her people. In the current day, Malinalli is an ancient Aztec vampire who deals in antiquities from the ancient world. She collects wayward relics and artifacts far from home and restores them to their rightful places back with her own people. This business has been very lucrative for her, and she has been very satisfied with her purpose in the world thus far; however, she can no longer deny the very human urge to have companionship and fill a persistently lonely void in her ceaseless existence. Her business eventually takes her to Dublin, Ireland where Malinalli serendipitously meets two men---one human and the other a vampire---who both ignite an insatiable, burning hunger inside her. To complicate things even worse, a devil from her past has returned to haunt her, hunt her, and maybe kill her before she has a chance to figure out her newly discovered lust for life. Her past and present stories will cross to create a violent reaction of inexorable events, resulting in a bloody stream of pleasure, love, murder, and betrayal.

Sigh…I really loved the idea of an avenging Aztec vampire, but honestly the delivery just fell short for me in many ways; however, Castro is a gifted writer, and she did many things well! The author did such an awesome job at providing intricate historical context to characters, and it really made all the difference for me with how totally connected I was in their stories, especially Malinalli. I really enjoyed reading about Malinalli’s past and having that background provides the reader with such a deeper understanding of who she is and why she makes the choices she makes. There were moments in Malinalli’s past where the writing was so heart-rending, I had to pause in my reading. I honestly found myself wishing we had stayed in her past instead of following a present day story line. Frustratingly, there were many things I just couldn’t get past. First, like I said before, I really liked the historical backgrounds these characters had but some of them seemed random. Most of them made sense and added to the depth of the story but there were some that did not make sense at all, namely Alexander’s identity. I liked the spicy scenes, though at times they seemed a bit too frequent and unbelievable. More specifically, they were often too detailed and word choice was just downright strange. Additionally, I know this is a fictional story, but the human lover just took things wayyy too well at every turn! She’s a vampire with commitment and genuine intimacy issues he can handle, but after one vampire showdown he realizes her world may not be for him, and there is suddenly a new vampire love interest that he can bestow his blessings to before making a shockingly reasonable but understandably hasty exit??? Finally, Malinalli falling head over heels in love more than once when she has historically been super zipped up and unwilling to be vulnerable is hard to believe. It’s all a bit too ideal and feels pushed. Overall, this was a very creative story, but it disappointed most of my expectations. There were many times where it failed to capture and hold my attention, and I was sort of relieved to reach the ending, despite feeling unsatisfied with how things ended.

Thank you NetGalley and Random House & Ballentine, Del Rey for the ARC and the opportunity to share what I think. All opinions are my own.

I have posted this review to my Goodreads account and my Facebook group page, The Book Banquet. I will be posting to retail sites on the day of publication.

More books like this, please.

I say please, as it costs nothing to be polite, and I do try.

But still.

What I really want to say is MORE BOOKS LIKE THIS, all caps, full stop.

Immortal Pleasures is on fire, and it brings the heat of all the fires over all the centuries.

This is why we read, books like this. We open the cover and turn the pages. And then, like magic, we’re not really here anymore. We’re somewhere else. Somewhen else. We live and breath stories and histories. Never getting enough. As the vampire feeds, so do we. All us readers.

This book is a neutron bomb orgasm of the most fantastical. Every chapter, every word, every single little bit of it hits so, so right.

Thank You, NetGalley, for this copy of Immortal Pleasure by V. Castro.

V. Castro is one of my favorite authors so I was extremely excited to receive this ebook. I enjoyed it. Vampires are one of my favorites! Sexy, scary, thrilling! Yes please!

V. Castro’s newest novel, Immortal Pleasures, follows Malinalli—better known as La Malinche. This historical figure has a controversial reputation and Castro does not shy from that. Liberties are taken with her story, though. Namely (as far as I know) the real life La Malinche was not a vampire. Malinalli has lived a long time, and she’s ready to tell her story. You can hear it yourself starting April 16, 2024 when it arrives from Del Ray.

Okay, I’m going to start with the good. I think the heart of this novel is really strong. Malinalli is striving to reclaim the artifacts of her people. It has been her mission for centuries by the time this novel begins. In this, Immortal Pleasures is deeply anti-colonialist. The pride she has in her culture and her people is a strong thread through the story. And it is made more poignant by the woman Castro chose to reimagine for this tale.

La Malinche’s history is explored throughout the novel, so if you don’t remember (or never learned) this particular lesson, you won’t be missing context. For better or worse, Castro makes sure her point is driven home. And that point is largely that the things you are forced to do to survive are not who you are. Yes, La Malinche is famous for being a traitor to her people due to her forced role as translator. But Malinalli—the woman behind the infamy—was a woman in bondage. Another special touch: Castro did not use the name the Spanish gave her.

So yes, at its core, Immortal Pleasures is a powerful story. My problems with it reside in what is around that center. This book is a romance. A very explicit one. And some of those descriptions… I really could not take them seriously. The vulgarity, I am sure, will feel empowering to other readers. I am simply not that reader. And the more.. aquatic imagery was a choice. A choice that took me by such surprise I won’t forget those particular sentences for some time. So in that way, it was pretty effective.

Outside of that, though, the romance arc was not one I particularly vibed with. This is not really a spoiler, as it is in the description, but there are two love interests. I wouldn’t classify this as a love triangle, though. I believe I see the personal growth arc that I assume was the intent. But the execution of it felt rushed and made it seem a little cheap. They just don’t play off each other well. I think an arc like this could work in romance, but only if the first relationship was already in the past. That would create less of a repetitive feeling, and at least to me, not cause the value to be lost based on the direct comparison to what comes after.

The last thing I want to address circles back to the historical aspect of this novel. Malinalli is not the only real life figure re-imagined for this tale. Unsurprisingly, Hernán Cortés is present in these pages. He is pivotal in our heroine’s story, after all. And as established earlier, so is her culture. Certain heroes and deities from the Aztec Empire also make an appearance. And so do a few other recognizable names. One in particular really caught me off guard. Again, I do see why. I just was not a fan of the execution or the inclusion. It was an interesting turn of events, to say the least.

This book may not have been for me, but it might be for you! If you have enjoyed V. Castro’s work before, I definitely recommend you check it out. This book does have a lot to say, and Malinalli’s history is not one to forget.

I had mixed feelings about Immortal Pleasures by V Castro. On one hand, I enjoyed the unique premise of a vampire world ruled by powerful matriarchs. The world-building was well-crafted and the diverse characters added depth to the story.

However, I found the pacing to be a bit slow at times and struggled to fully connect with the characters. Additionally, I felt that the plot could have been more engaging and there were moments where the story felt predictable.

Overall, Immortal Pleasures was an interesting read, but it didn't quite meet my expectations. I would recommend it to fans of vampire fiction looking for a new twist on the genre.

The best thing about Immortal Pleasures is the themes. It is ultimately a story about a vampire trying to right the wrongs of colonialism and finally getting vengeance on a perpetrator of great violence against her and her people. It's a powerful message and even includes a sub-plot of her working to return stolen artifacts from museums to their original homelands. When the book focuses on these themes, it shines. Unfortunately, the rest of the aspects of the story don't measure up. There's a heavy focus on the main character looking for love throughout the book and, while I find the idea of loneliness in eternal life compelling, neither romance ever felt interesting or had any depth. Both romances felt like "instalove" and derailed the (far more interesting) plot.

There are aspects of this novel that I really liked. For instance, I thought it was great the the vampire, Malinalli, collects artifacts with the motivation of returning them to the rightful cultures they belonged to. It was unique to see historical fiction woven into the story.

The inclusion of the trauma that colonization caused her was interesting to read about through the POV of someone immortal who has had so long to process and think about what she's been through. I don't think I've ever read a vampire story quite like this one and was hooked.

However, parts of the book were also very horny and cheesy and not quite my reading preference and removed me from the plot. I don't mind spicy books, but this was pretty interesting at times, and I felt like giggling at some of the descriptions which didn't do well for the horror aspect. For instance, there is a scene where she is hooking up with someone and she mentions wanting to use his precum as lipgloss...and I was like "Ew!" *Jimmy Fallon voice* This vampire has some kinky things you going on, so just be warned of that element if it's not something you like to read.

Overall, I think the writing has some really well done prose and was creative with the writing. I ended up DNFing it around 43% because I personally couldn't take anymore of those type of sex scenes.

As someone who eagerly anticipated diving into “Immortal Pleasures,” I must admit my disappointment with the overall experience. While the premise promised an engaging new take on the vampire love story, the execution fell short of my expectations. Despite its potential, the novel struggled to rise above clichés and relied heavily on predictable genre tropes. Although the backdrop and cast offered a semblance of freshness, the heavy-handed historical references felt forced and inorganic, detracting from the immersion in the narrative. While there were moments of enjoyment scattered throughout, they were overshadowed by the pervasive sense of absurdism. In the end, “Immortal Pleasures” left me wishing for a more memorable and compelling read.

Please note, I do not publish negative reviews of ARCs on Romance & Co. Thank you for providing an early copy, and I hope to read more works in the future.

I'm sorry to say that I'm giving up at 40%. I may try again later, but right now this is just feeling very slow. The writing is beautiful, but it's so difficult to get into the story. The time jumps have been irritating. The very descriptive sex scenes are distracting me. I feel like I've been wading through too much description to try and find the story somewhere.