A review by booksarethenewblack
Immortal Longings by Chloe Gong

3.5

 

I’m learning that Chloe Gong’s writing style is sometimes a hit or miss with me. I adored her Violent Delights duology. I’ve struggled with Foul Lady Fortune but was ecstatic for Immortal Longings, her adult debut. Although I still struggled with some writing issues, I did end up enjoying this one. One of the cool things about Gong’s stories is her ability to draw from Shakespeare in a new and exciting way!

One of the things that I loved about this story was the characters. We have a great set of characters that have so many backgrounds and all have different agendas. You never really know who you can trust or what someone is going to do. I loved that aspect because it kept me on my toes. Anton and Calla were characters that I cannot wait to read more about. They both had some crazy surprises and I am dying for the next book, just because of these two! There are some really morally grey characters, which I also enjoy.

The pacing of this book was really slow to start. It took me a good 35% to actually get into the book. There are some info dumps too. The last 30% of the book was like whiplash and was really quick. I wanted a little more explored there but I think that’s what book two will do for us. I didn’t think this was really an adult read. I think more New Adult than true Adult. There are a lot of things that just read a lot younger and this could just be the writing style. There were a few things that reminded me of The Hunger Games and it got hard to separate at times.

Overall, I really enjoyed the world and characters that Gong created in this one. Just keep in mind that the pacing is a bit off but keep going because the ending is worth it. It is also a very character-driven book and the plot can lag at times because of this. The characters are absolutely amazing and the setup for book two makes you crave it asap!

Many thanks to Netgalley and Gallery/Saga Press for the e-arc. All thoughts and opinions are my own!