My Immortal by Erin McCarthy

In the late 18th century, a spoiled, selfish plantation owner struck an unholy bargain with a fallen angel: an eternity of servitude for the gift of immortality. For over two hundred years, Damien du Bourg has held up his end of the bargain—by inspiring lust in everyone around him…

Stumbling upon Damien’s plantation on the outskirts of New Orleans while searching for her missing sister, Marley Turner enters a world of shocking decadence. Drawn to the tortured man at the center of it all, Marley feels a powerful sensuality stirring inside her. For the first time, it’s Damien who can’t resist the lure of a woman. But his past sins aren’t ready to be forgotten—or forgiven…

So I know I’m being lazy and not writing my own summary of the book, but this book blurb actually is pretty sexy and does a good enough job, so I’m not going to worry about it.

So Damien is a selfish bastard, at least he was way back when. Not happy that his new wife was worshipping the ground he walked on and fell into bed at any hour of the day he makes a choice to be a servant for a demon to inspire lust in everyone around him. Fast foreward to present day and he’s hosting sex parties for the debauched members of the New Orleans community at his ancestral plantation.

Enter Marley, who’s searching for her wayward, stupid slutty sister. The first half of the book Marley sounds rather self-righteous, thinking that she’s there to solve all of her families problems and everyone needs to depend on her to fix things. Dr. Phil would have a field day with her codependency. Especially when it becomes apparent that her sister is more than happy to (pardon the language) fuck her life away rather then be responsible.

Marley gets caught up in the world, but she sees Damien’s tortured soul more than she’s overcome with lust for him. And he’s first to admit he’s acted like a right bastard for most of his life. But as these two grow together and outgrow their fears and insecurities from their past the passion rises and it plays in so well with their journey through the story. After a couple hundred years of living, Damien can read people pretty well, and zeros in on Marley’s issues pretty well, and helps her get past them in a respectful and sexy way.

The thing that detracts from the journey of discovery is first Marley’s insecurities about herself, which of course are unfounded, but are there anyway (think Debra Messing in The Wedding Date). Second is the whole scenario with Damien, Rosa the voodoo spirit who gave him immortality and his demonic superior, and her father the Demon who wants to torture Damien. The elaborate planning and idiotic scheme of the Demon for Marley is just stupid.

But overall, Damien and Marley get their HEA, and grow as characters, which is always a nice thing.

Grade: B-