Thank you NetGalley for the e-arc of this book!

Now where do I begin...... main characters who have no personality? Characters who have no chemistry? Characters who do not grip me and suck me in as a reader? A very strange and uneasy magic system that has no rules?

I just don't know what to say. I had high hopes for this novel but it just didn't pan out that way I'm afraid. I DNF'd this book as it felt like a chore to read. The story was lacking in emotion, believability, decent main characters and just a good plot.

This was trying to be but not be the hunger games and that's probably one of its downfalls. I wish there was something new about this but it felt all too familiar. I'm sad that this book didn't work out for me.

The body jumping was just strange. I couldn't understand how it was frowned upon yet ever other page someone was doing it? It just seemed incredibly uneasy and a violation of someone's body yet when that person got their body back, it was just kind of glossed over? Like ah cheers thanks for not killing my body see you around.

Also I don't know if anyone else struggled with remembering who was what character? August and Anton were basically the same character in my head.

So good! Not at all what I expected, not that I really know what I expected… My first Chloe Gong but absolutely not my last.

I really enjoyed the setting and the way it was described really brought it to life in my mind, Calla is an awesome protagonist and I can’t wait to see what she gets up to in the sequels! I’m so intrigued to learn more about Anton, August and Otta too.

That twist at the end was mind blowing! I had been guessing for the last couple of chapters that things might not be as they seem but I had no idea that was the direction things were going in!!! A cliffhanger ending is so unfair :(((

It did feel a little YA at times which was then in stark contrast with the more adult themes. I love YA but the mishmash made it feel a little careless!

4 stars

Thank you so much to Hodder and Stoughton & NetGalley for my e-ARC! Xx

The book itself was really interesting and I am a very big fan of the author’s writing style, however the world building seemed complicated and the plot was unraveling too slowly for my liking. The book was still enjoyable and i really loved the characters

I adored every second of this book. Chloe gong is a fantastic author who never misses. The way this book had me gripped from start to finish. She writes such a beautiful story and writes it so addictively. I cannot wait for more from Chloe.

This book truly e­nchanted me with its dazzling tapestry of romance­, fantasy, and history. Set in the vibrant backdrop of 1920s Shanghai, this captivating book se­amlessly weaves together Chinese mythology while hiding, within its page­s, a forbidden love story that will make your heart race! With every sentence painte­d in vivid prose, Chloe Gong effortlessly transports you to Shanghai's de­cadent world of nightlife. Definitely pick this one up if you're up for a journey that will leave you ye­arning for more even after the final page is turned.

I wanted to start saying, the cover is Beautiful!
Now to what really matters.
Im a big fantasy girly and i think i get into fantasy books fast. That unfortunately was not the case.
I had trouble understanding and getting into thed world building since there was so much going on. Also info dumping. I think the author could "manage"it more. so it wasnt all on top of each other.
Characters. I couldnt see the chemistry between them. probably cause i was trying to much enter the world building and trying to understand it. Other than that i quite enjoyed the book. It was fasted pace. Loved the whole games. Lets see what the next bring us.

After reading These Violent Delights and Foul Lady Fortune last year, Chloe Gong quickly became an auto-buy author for me. I love the worlds that she has created and the beautiful writing style that she uses.

However, this book just wasn't it for me. Maybe it was because it was slightly more Sci-Fi than I prefer, or maybe it was because I found the ending a bit predictable and I hate to say it but somewhat boring. I don't know, but either way it just wasn't my favourite read. That being said, this book was written by the one and only Chloe Gong, so it is still beautifully written, had some good banter and her step into adult fiction with that slightly steamy scene with the chair was fantastic.

I probably won't be picking up the second book in this series when it comes out, but I will definitely still be checking out all of Chloe's other work in the future, because if nothing else she's worth trying new things for.

At the beginning I had a hard time understanding the worldbuilding, the magic and the politics at the same time but I was immediately engrossed by Calla's motivations that seemed so naïve to me. How killing the king without a plan for the aftermath will change anything in the politics of the empire??

I'll never understand societies where massacres are considered as nice entertainments. In Hunger Games, at least it was more understandable as the kids killing each other were not from the Capitol where the people enjoyed the games. The districts were not happy to watch their kids being killed. But here, anyone from the city can ask to participate (this, I get. It's dispair that pushes people to want in in the games), the games take place in the city and people like watching that??

The magic system was really fascinating: people can jump from their bodies to another. I didn't really get what the rules were, but it was very interesting to see that people didn't have a strong connection to their bodies because of that. So I have a lot of questions about gender identity, sexual orientation and physical attraction, and how it is all perceived, and I hope we'll see more about that in the sequel. We've already seen that Anton doesn't really care what body he inhabits, but when he is with Calla, he is always in a male body.

And actually, about the relationship between Calla and Anton, which is supposed to be a retelling of Anthony and Cleopatra, it fell a little flat to me because it went from 0 to 10 in a paragraph (and Calla was very emo about it which felt pretty strange to me).

The end of the games left me crying then gasping, and the chapter with the girl in the coma was...wow but it kind of broke the flow of the story.

Rep: saphic couple in the background, genderfluidity?
TW: blood, murders, parenticide, extreme poverty, betrayals, physical violence

Immortal Longings is a mind-blowing fantasy inspired by Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra.

I loved the multiple POVs and the body-jumping concept, but what really sold me was the overall atmosphere full of tension, twists and backstabbing.

Wanna talk about that ending?! I NEED the next book now!

DNF 75%

This book was awful...the characters are boring and one note and there are just obvious plot holes. Everything goes well for the MCs until they randomly need something to go poorly and then some random thing saves the day. Just not engaging at all

3. 75 stars!
Not as breathtaking as her other novels, but Chloe Gong still managed to pull out an immersive and interesting "modern" retelling of a timeless classic.
I guess that by being an adult book now, and not a ya novel, the narrative style has changed for good to convey more this change of "level", and I guess this is what has taken me aback: I LOVED Gong's style in her previous books, it's so fresh and fluid, it's makes reading a wonderful experience. Here we lost a bit of that usual freshness and maybe sense of cheerfulness in order to convey a more "serious" and adult-ish novel, but it wasn't by no means to be considered as a downgrade, I actually personally thinks it shows Gong's ability in adapting to different ways of writing.
The characters were all very interesting and well-defined, and their interactions and relationships made the story flow and caught my interest soon. I'm so glad I had the possibility to read this book in advance thanks to NetGalley!

This was a very unique concept and I was so excited to give Chloe Gong another chance, but this was just not it for me.

I struggled to get into this book, and to feel connected to these characters- it felt like there was too much info dumping unfortunately.

I probably should have DNFed this book, but I really wanted to push through.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a free eARC in exchange for an honest review!

Let me start off by saying how good this book was! The descriptions were rich and it really felt like I was in the city. I loved how claustrophobic the setting felt, as it really added to the atmosphere of the book. I found the plot itself interesting, and the characters just added to it. There were many layers to the plot, with the characters having secrets that added to the story when they were revealed. I loved how it had three perspectives as it really added to my enjoyment, and also allowed the reader to see their differing perspectives. The romance too was great, while it wasn't the main focus of the story, I loved reading it. if you love knife-to-throat romance then this is the one for you! Overall I really enjoyed my time reading this, and need the next book ASAP after that ending!!

*Thank you to NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton, Hodderscape for providing me with this book in exchange for an honest review*

Unfortunately, I had to DNF it at 20%. The story wasn't to my liking. It was a really long book and until the point that I decided to DNF it, nothing was happening. I didn't care for the characters or the world-building. I didn't care. Period. So, yeah, I left it aside.

Be the murderous princess they say you are”

I was really excited about reading Immortal Longings as I really enjoyed Chloe’s YA books but this book was a mess. I was so disappointed by it and it took me forever to get through.

This is supposed to be an adult book but her YA has better worldbuilding and character development than anything in this book.
Calla and Anton have absolutely no personality. I honestly can’t tell you a thing about them except Calla has a cat.
The world is so convoluted for no reason and apparently the poor have no issue with their bodies being used by the contestants or just generally anything about the abysmal living conditions.
Truly so many plot points none were properly explained. But simultaneously absolutely nothing happens until the end of the book.
I was so bored and literally did not care about any of the characters because they were all so flat. So I couldn’t care about what was happening to them at the end.

Also I’m not sold on the whole body jumping and lack of consent especially because they have sex while Anton is in someone else’s body. And they leave the bodies to die and jump into another during their fights in the competition.

Another great read from Chloe Gong! While I didn't love it quite as much as Foul Lady Fortune, I still enjoyed it immensely. It was interesting to explore a new world with new magic. The descriptions of SanEr were so evocative that I could really imagine the close buildings and cramped streets.

The body jumping made it really interesting. While I cringed a little from the different rules of consent, it made it so much darker and more interesting. I almost wish we could have had the viewpoint of one of the characters who had to deal with their body being hijacked and what they would do to protect themselves, because I think that would have been an interesting perspective.

The characters were really strong unusually for me, I actually got quite caught up in the romance. It was an interesting enemies-to-allies-to lovers type romance that was refreshing to read. It was good to get an enemies-to-lovers where the characters weren't of completely opposing viewpoints, because that has become really common lately.

All around this was a great book. Strong plot, strong characters, a strong setting and an ending to make you desperate for the next book. I can't wait.

There were many issues at the core of this book, but the main one was that it tried to tackle too many issues at once, leaving all of them unexplored. It was sad to see the lost potential of both the story and the premise.

First, the characters. Both Calla and Anton had no romantic chemistry whatsoever. I believed they are enemies, but there was nothing there to made me want them to turn into lovers. Both were also absolutely obsessed with themselves. Calla's personality changed 180 degrees after they got together just to justify it.

Second, the plot. Dystopian is a challenging genre, where the core to understand it is to pose a way to question the system. Even after the plot-twist, where we can find out more about Calla's motivation, nothing really justifies her or August actions. I only assume the consequences of seizing the power with the vaguest plan for the future possible will be explored in the next instalment.

The worst thing, as I mentioned, is that the book felt very much like the first draft, and with the right editing it could be pushed into the right direction, and make it a complelling story, exploring poverty and class, and maybe if the main characters didn't come from power, but give voice to the revolt of the people. The smut scenes also had potential, as the writing improved substantially during them, which shows the author's potential to improve her craft. The covers on both editions are beautiful though.

The missing Princess has been found. The adopted Prince needs her to help overrule the throne and kill the King to bring new rule to Talin. People live starving, in poverty, with a little hope given by entering a conquest of 89 people. Last one standing is given a great prize.

The magic of jumping was really interesting especially when there was no consent of the other person and the messy details of nearly dying while in another body. This was quite a bloody book at times but the action scenes were good. There was romance which I think was done well. I think it would have been good to know more about what Calla had been doing while in hiding. The book had some great twists that I didn’t see coming.

What an ending! That’s all to be said really, leaving us all on a cliffhanger/twist and a great one at that.
3.5 stars

Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read this in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed Immortal Longings by Chloe Gong. Having read from this author before this one did not disappoint.
I really enjoyed the authors writing style and found it flowed really nicely.
The world building was refreshing and the pace was a little slow but that was only due to building the story. The second half of book was definitely where the action and more of the story came to life.
There are plenty of twist and turns in this book which is something I really enjoy especially when it surprises me!
I’m really looking forward to the next book.

Thank you to NetGalley and publishers for this eARC

I really enjoyed immortal Longings by Chloe Gong. I thought it was well written and rich in lavish details. The storyline was fast paced and kept me engaged.