Immortal Longings

O livro possui ilustrações na guarda, essa edição é muito linda! Ainda não li, mas a história promete ser boa

Okay, when I first heard that Chloe Gong was writing her first adult book based on Antony and Cleopatra I'll admit that I was pumped for the former and a little skeptical of the latter. I read Shakespeare's plays many years ago and I'll be honest that one was down pretty far on the list of faves. But I trust Chloe Gong to write honestly anything. And let me tell you this was a ride and a half! Calla was such an interesting heroine, she was sassy, capable, just overall great and this world was fascinating. I can't wait to see where this goes next!

Brilliant!

To be completely honest, I went into Immortal Longings expecting to dislike it and then return it before the 30 day period was over, and I am NOT ashamed of that.I had loved TVD but absolutely despised its unnecessary sequel, OVE, so much so that I couldn't look at the author the same way again.Well, I'm actually glad I went into it with that mentality because I (shockingly) ended up really, really enjoying Chloe Gong's adult debut!And, to add to that, I'll say that she should stick around and write adult books from now on because YA is not her area.Here are the things that stood out to me the most while reading this book:. The (unexplained) magic system was very cool and something I hadn't heard of nor read about in any other book before this one, so it felt very unique, refreshing and frankly disturbing.The fact that people can just jump from one body to the next, consent be damned, and basically take over other people's bodies, sometimes forever, thus killing the original person, was very disturbing and cool and terrifying to me.. I very much enjoyed both of our main characters, which, again, is something I did not expect to say nor feel.Calla was headstrong, bada** and just such a cool and strong character that's multidimensional who just kicked bootay and didn't take prisoners, meanwhile Anton was more... Fascinating, to say the least.Clearly, both of them are neither hero nor villain, sitting comfortably in the gray area side of things, which, yet again, is something I was very surprised to learn that I enjoy in a fantasy setting.Also, August was a surprising character in this book and I wish he had his own little affair with his seemingly queer bodyguard, but we didn't get that now, did we?. The world? Very dystopian but lacking the usual white people dominating the space.I personally imagined a futuristic Hong Kong that's basically in ruins and the imaging really worked for me throughout the story.. THIS COVER?!?!?!?!. The amount of absolutely brutal action and gore throughout this book shocked me and kept me disgustingly entertained.. The reveal concerning the cult was actually shocking, but then it ended up very quickly and I was like well, damn.. The plot twist concerning Calla? Bomb.The plot twist concerning a certain female character who was in a coma but then SOMETHING happened at the end? Yes, please.The final final plot twist before the book faded to black? Wow, that one alone has me itching to get my hands on the sequel.Now, on to the few negatives:. I didn't love the romantic subplot? It just felt very underdeveloped and their attraction basically came out of nowhere and I didn't like it, but the spicy scene was quite good, very Violet and Xaden from Fourth Wing.. The lack of urgency throughout the book had me really confused.Like, both of you are FIGHTING for your lives to get this prize and kill the emperor, but you're taking your sweet, sweet time and doing other stuff?. Why exactly didn't August have a affair with his hot and overly protective bodyguard? Make that make sense to me.That's basically it!Overall, this was a gory pleasant surprise and I do recommend giving it a shot!

I really enjoyed Immortal Longings! The beginning was a bit slow setting up the world, the qi, and the jumping rules. But as it went on I was completely engrossed and building my theories. The ending was fantastic! This was a great entry into adult fantasy for Chloe Gong!