Thank you to NetGalley for this arc. ♡

Surely there’s a novella with Zhangwei’s pov right? Right?????

What do you call it when you want to reread a book immediately after reading the last sentence? Sue Lynn Tan is the perfect sweet spot for me when it comes to romantic fantasy. Not only does she write my type of romance but she also excels at fantastical world building and political intrigue. While this isn't exactly what I would call enemies to lovers it had some elements. I was able very early on guess why Zhangwei developed an immediate interest in Liyen but even so it did nothing to hinder my enjoyment; maybe I read and watch too much fantasy but I was waiting for the confirmation and when I got it I screamed in satisfaction. I will always love the destined for each other no matter what kind of plot. I live and breathe for that kind of yearning and when I finally get Zhangwei’s pov and witness his anguish firsthand I will be satisfied. (Please please PLEASE)
400 pages of his pain I am praying and my fingers are crossed 🙏🏼

Okay there is no way (I think) I can do this without spoilers.
I will keep the beginning as spoiler free as possible and then have it gradually get worse (and don’t worry I’ll put a warning in front again)

So let’s get this show going…unlike the book, which just…didn’t.

All jokes aside, this book had so much potential to be amazing but unfortunately it just fell flat.

We’ll start with the setting:
Amazing beautiful, ethereal I loved it. The concept of the setting was great, the descriptions vivid and engaging I honestly have nothing to complain.

It starts to get a bit worse when we start talking about the plot:
The book was described as „mortal goes to world of immortals to bargain for her kingdoms safety and freedom and needs to ally with the god she should fear and mistrust the most“
The concept again? Brilliant. The execution? Lacking but not bad.
One of the biggest faults for me was the really weird Pacing. It started of pretty action packed and the god of war’s entrance was *chefs kiss* perfection. And then things slowed down a bit which made sense except they kept slowing down up until almost the end where suddenly things started happening VERY quickly and BAM the end.
We were barely ever in the immortal realm which was a shame and the whole conflict… I wish I could describe it but it just felt like we were MISSING so much of the story! (More about that later too)

Now as for the characters:
I actually quite liked most of them. Chengyin was great and I wish there had been more of him. The Dublin relationship was really well done and their banter was great.
As for our two main characters. What can I say I love a brooding ass and the god if war definitely was brooding.
Meanwhile Liyen had quite the temper which I also enjoyed because often she said things in anger that she didn’t mean and that made for interesting moments.
The banter between these two was also rather entertaining.

However here we come to my biggest issue.
The romance:
It was absolutely 100% insta-love there were no enemies. Not even one sided. Yes Lyien regarded him with some hatred and blamed him for a lot of the things that happened but it was clear from the start she was attracted to him.

And this is where we get spoiler-y (like massive spoiler so please beware):

SPOILER!
I know the whole insta love thing gets explained when it comes out that she is in fact immortal and was his lover, so I get his instant-love and honestly it could have been great. The yearning of someone who’s been looking for her for YEARS desperately wanting to be reunited and then FINALY finding her but naturally she doesn’t recognize him and not being able to tell her urgh it could have caused so much ANGUISH
but we got none of that. We or him lusting after her, being jealous towards anyone and everyone in her vicinity and being downright rude to her whilst also wanting her to trust him 😀. It was painful.
When we finally get fünftens reveal and find out WHY he’s always been in love it also falls flat because of HOW it came out. It was all tell and not show. We get her remembering fragments of her memory and suddenly they’re completely obsessed with each other.
Frankly speaking those little flashbacks? I want THAT story. How they met at the academy and were rivals, the war, the sacrifice from both? Now that sounds like a brilliant story. And maybe if we had gotten that before this book would have worked better (for me at least).
But this way we were just missing so much and then we were just told and it wasn’t the least bit emotional
😭
SPOILER END!


For everyone not wanting the spoiler let me sum it up by saying: It was insta-love which HURTS BECAUSE THERE WAS SO MUCH POTENTIAL!

All in all I did still enjoy this book even though at times it bored me a bit. The world was great and in theory so were the characters. I just feel like it would have really suited being a duology and being the second book.
Also the ending was just wrapped up too quickly and too nearly for my taste. It felt like ultimately there were no real stakes for our main characters.

Also big Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins for this ARC in exchange for a review.

gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous. sue lynn tan's prose is just. truly superior to her current romantasy counterparts. i have a feeling she'd be the biggest in the genre if she wrote about white people

𝗧𝗶𝘁𝗹𝗲: Immortal
𝗔𝘂𝘁𝗵𝗼𝗿: Sue Lynn Tan
𝗙𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝘁 + 𝗣𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗻𝘁: Ebook, 457 pages by HarperVoyager

💌 First of all, I would like to thank @NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ebook in exchange for a honest review. I requested this ebook on NetGalley because I loved Sue Lynn Tan’s The Celestial Kingdom duology and wanted to read more books that she wrote.

📖 Immortal is a young adult romantasy standalone inspired by Chinese mythology in which we follow Liyen as she ascends the throne of her kingdom of Tianxia and is summoned to the Immortal Realm to end her kingdom’s obligations to the immortals.

🌺 I wanted to love this book so, so much. But sadly, this book was not a five-star for me, because of one main reason, being the reading experience.
There is something wrong going on between NetGalley, some publishers, and the download onto the e-reader, which results in some paragraphs being repeated twice, a horrible formatting that cuts sentences in two without any reason, and let’s not talk about the fact that there is no separation between the chapters. All of that made for a bad reading experience where I was not really focused through the reading, and although reading on the NetGalley Shelf app is possible, the file is a PDF and I would have to zoom onto every page to read with an okay-size font.
But I went to Hell and back to read this book until the very last page, so let’s get onto the review and let me tell you what I think, independently of the formatting problem.
The world building was on point (this book is set in the same world as in the Celestial Kingdom, but fear not, you can read it without having to read that duology first as there are no spoilers), and the plot was enjoyable and full of plot twists that I had not seen coming. I struggled to get past the 50% point, but after that, I think I read it in one go because I was hooked and could not put it down. It is quite heavy on politics, which I did not like, but that is just personal preference.
The romance between Liyen and the God of War was very nice, did not feel forced at all, and I was definitely here for the banter! I would have known to learn more about some side characters like Chengyin.
Also, I love this cover soooo much!

SLT demonstrates her skilled world-building and lyrical writing style again in an enjoyable fantasy tale. Whilst I wasn't completely hooked by the plot I nonetheless enjoyed the story and am looking forward to her next book

Thank you for the eARC of Immortal

I absolutely love Sue Lynn Tan's writing, no matter what book it is it always draws you in and it is done beautifully. I loved reading Immortal. The characters are created with such a realism and you form a connection to them. They develop well throughout the storyline and the battles they faced. I really loved the direction this novel went in, I was immersed into the story and world building straight away. From start to finish I thoroughly enjoyed reading Immortal.

As a Cdrama lover, I kind of knew what the vibe of this book would be as I started it. I love premises where there’s a curse, the string of fate, lost memories etc. I really enjoyed this! The world building and premise was interesting enough that I plan to read the author’s other books. Sometimes the FMC was a bit annoying, like she would constantly ready for a fight like relax girl! Her romantic interest, the God of War was kind of weird for the first act of the book. He was just weirdly instantly attracted to and attached to Liyen. Between his instant pining and her aggressive counterattack, I didn’t know where I was going. I would almost have preferred this as just a fantasy without the romance because it felt a bit forced.
I’m not sure if it’s because I was able to pick up on the hints sprinkled throughout or because I’ve seen a lot of C-dramas, but I was able to predict the plot twist. I’m going to rate this four stars because of the reasons above.

I would recommend this book to someone looking for a fantasy filled with immortals, magic, and some love. The fact that this is a standalone is one of the reasons I like this story.

This is exactly what I look for in a romantasy - great world building, beautifully written characters, and a strong romantic plotline! The romance was so well done, with incredible chemistry between the main characters. The story was brimming with tension and yearning, keeping me hooked from start to finish!

I want to say I need more, but at the same time, I’m thrilled that this is a standalone (more standalones, please!). That ending was everything I wanted and more! I can’t wait to see what’s next from Sue Lynn Tan! After this book, I’m afraid she’s earned a permanent spot on my auto buy author list!

<b>Poorly written, no pacing, felt like the novelisation of a cheap xianxia C-Drama</b>

*Received an ARC via NetGalley in return for an honest review*

Considering this came from the same author as the 'Daughter of the Moon Goddess' which was actually fairly enjoyable to read, it is shocking that a piece of such low quality was able to make it to print. This work has never heard of the word pacing.

Despite being marketed as able to be read alone, it did no legwork to explain ANY worldbuilding, and relied heavily on not only the previous works by the author but also the blind acceptance of the reader to ignore a glaring lack of information or development for the world.

The entire citing incident happens over the course of perhaps an hour, and yet even after seeing her grandfather die the FMC seems to have very little emotional connection and is dark bantering with one of the Celestials she believes to be responsible all of six pages later. Talking of the FMC, she has literally no personality. Nothing. She instantly switches between a timid young woman knowingly breaking laws because her grandfather asked her to, to a snappy queen who can see behind her ministers actions immediately. And there is no scenes in between this where we see the change. It just happens. And it is never further explained. She is rude and grumpy with people she got along with mere pages ago only because she is now a ruler and has power, except it's passed off without explanation.

The romance is poor and insta-lovey, and takes no strain upon itself to try and bolster the weak characters development at all.

So very disappointing from an already established author.

Thank you for the ARC of Immortal.

Unfortunately, I didn’t enjoy this book despite hearing great things from others. It did start promisingly, but after getting to 40% I let myself give up.

Everyone felt very childish - including the immortal gods, and particularly the new queen. I’m still not sure if this was a YA book or not.

I also found that the enemies to lovers was much more like a love at first sight, but with no real chemistry, and no real heat in the supposed hatred held for the immortals. I’m not interested enough in finding out what happens to persevere unfortunately.

DNF at 50%

Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book.

I truly cannot fathom how this book has such good reviews, it's the most generic enemies to lovers fantasy novel I've read. From the unlikeable FMC, who flips between 'I refuse to like him' to 'I long for him' in a single breath, to the shallow insta-love that appears from nowhere, this book is so tremendously bland. The pacing is all over the place, the side characters are one-dimensional and the dialogue is boring and repetitive. The only genuine emotion this book roused in me was a desire for it to end. I usually make an effort to finish arcs to give them a comprehensive review but since I found myself skimming 80% of this drivel, it was time to give it up.

The only positive I can glean from this is that the book itself (both the fairyloot and UK cover) is absolutely beautiful. Now I need to decide if it's pretty enough to be a trophy book or if the space on my shelf should go to a better book.

I’m such a huge fan of Sue Lynn Tan’s writing so I suspected this would be a five star read going in and I’m so glad I was right. Her prose is lyrical, the court intrigue and world building engaging, and I loved the fact we got to explore more of the Celestial Kingdom’s map. I particularly enjoyed Chengyin’s witty charm, and thought Liyen and Zhengwei’s chemistry was brilliantly done - especially towards the end, had me smiling at the page! I’m almost sad that this was a stand alone (and wouldn’t say no to a Chengyin spin off!)

A massive thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for the e-ARC.

Another beautifully written novel from Sue Lynn Tan! It was lovely being back in the Celestial Kingdom world, this time with a standalone, which feels refreshing in a genre filled with series. I thought the characters were incredibly well developed and the imagery and scenery so easy to imagine. The slow burn enemies to lovers romance was just perfect and I would thoroughly recommend.

This book is a standalone belonging to the same world as "Daughter of the moon goddess" and I was intrigued by its being a standalone and by the very captivating plot, with at the center the relationship between the protagonist - who certainly knows what she wants and doesn't let herself be distracted in order to redeem herself - and the god of war. Reading, however, actually turned out to be quite disappointing: I found the book very repetitive, especially after the 40% mark - constant dialogues and slightly anti-climactic revelations didn't allow me to enjoy reading. Even the main reveal was actually a disappointment: partly because I can't stand that type of trope, but also due to the fact that at the beginning the relationship between the two seemed a bit fast, but then the male protagonist had redeemed himself, and I thought: "ah, here, a bit of character". Well, nothing, he's the usual good-natured guy, and he only has the name of God. I didn't find it memorable, in fact I found it a copy-paste of the main duology.

An absolutely incredible standalone, it was so nice to be back in the world of the Celestial Kingdom!
Immortal has all of Sue Lynn Tan’s beautiful prose with new, complex characters that are hugely relatable.
Wonderfully written, Tan’s imagination continues to impress. Her work has become my go-to comfort reads that I come back to time and time again.

Immortal is the latest fantasy book from Sue Lynn Tan, author of the Daughter of the Moon Goddess series. In this standalone novel, we follow a young ruler’s struggle to end a war, work with deities and save her kingdom. Just like Daughter of the Moon Goddess, it is a beautifully written story about mortals and immortals.

I really love reading standalone fantasy novels, so I was very excited when I saw that Sue Lynn Tan was writing Immortal. This novel is like a dark fairytale or folktale, and it would be easy to believe that it was a real piece of mythology that had been lost to time.

I love how ambitious the story is, there is so much worldbuilding that brings the kingdom of Tianxia and the Immortal Realm to life. The complex relationship between different nations and their reluctant alliances make for an interesting political landscape. Also, the way that the setting is described was just beautiful. Lynn Tan has a wonderful way of creating ethereal landscapes. I’m just sad that I can’t visit them in reality.

The romance in this book is probably what will attract most readers, and I’m happy to say that they won’t be disappointed. There are high stakes, pining and a rivals/enemies to lovers dynamic. I also appreciated that, despite the clear power imbalance, Liyen holds her own against the powerful God. She is a capable and intelligent main character who is dedicated to her country. Together, they have great banter and throughout the book they also seem to gain a greater understanding of each other.

I would recommend going into this book with little to no information so that you can enjoy all of the plots twists yourself. Whilst the start may be a little slow, let yourself get swept into the world and enjoy all of the political intrigue and romantic tension.

Thank you to NetGalley and the author for providing me with a copy of Immortal. I absolutely loved reading this book and would 100% recommend it. I loved the story and the twists throughout that I wasn't expecting. The characters were excellent and there was so much effort put into each character that they felt like real people and were all so distinct. I loved the unravelling layers that the plot has and the worldbuilding which was beautifully written. If you read Daughter of the Moon Goddess by this author you should definitely pick this one up as well. This has been one of my favourites so far this year.

Another riveting story from Tan. We follow Liyen as she has recently come into power and is vying for the freedom of her people. She must navigate court politics in both the immortal & mortal realms to get the best outcome for her people.

Zhangwei, The God of War, watches over her before she can swear fealty to Queen Caihong (or negotiate her people's freedom). Tension brews between the two and there might be more to the God of War than Liyen initially thought.

The world is full of vivid imagery and amazing writing as Tan's previous duology. Certain chapters and locations really stick out and provide amazing visuals due to her fantastic writing style. The story is full of quite a few twists, some of which I definitely didn't expect, it's sure to keep readers immersed.

Our two main characters relationship is further complicated by trust issues which is written well compared to other novels that deal with these themes. Without going into spoiler territory, the conflicts between the two are well written and have a believable resolution.

I really enjoyed this one and it further cements Tan as a talent to watch out for.

Thanks to Netgalley & Harpercollins for this arc.

First of all a big thank you to Harper-Collins, Harper Fiction for letting me review one of the most anticipated books .

When i had read Daughter Of The Moon Goddess i fell back in love with fantasy books all over again so you can Imagine i was very excited
to get to review immortal.

I was not expecting so much romance from me being a huge romance lover this is what kept my eyes drawn to the pages of the book there was so much suspense around every character and OH MY GOSH !! The plot twists were crazy and I loved them so much . the book had my jaw dropping so much .

I thought that Sue Writing was beautifully, flowed so well, she really made me feel like I was in the book on this wild adventure .
The slow burn romance was chef kisses as the youngsters say . perfect enemies to lovers . i fell in love with the mythology you can tell sue done her work on this .

I know this is a very hyped book for this year so i am not giving anything away as i know so many will want to enjoy this adventure .

do you need to ask 5 giant stars

3.5⭐️

This was a really easy read for me.

The world-building was simple yet beautifully crafted. While it wasn’t overly complicated, the author did a fantastic job of creating a vivid and immersive setting that allowed me to easily visualise the world without feeling overwhelmed by excessive detail.

One of the most exciting aspects of the book for me was the plot. The twists and turns were all unexpected, keeping me on the edge of my seat throughout the story. I found myself continually surprised by the directions the plot took, which kept the momentum going.

Another thing I loved about Immortal was that it was a standalone. In a genre that often leads to long-running series, it was so refreshing to have a complete and satisfying story within just one book. It allowed the plot to feel self-contained, and everything was wrapped up nicely by the end. I didn’t feel the need for any more, and the conclusion was both satisfying and well-earned. There was a sense of closure that I really appreciated, and it left me feeling content with the story without needing to anticipate a sequel.

Overall, Immortal was a quick, enjoyable, and satisfying read. The blend of simple yet effective world-building, rich character development, and unexpected plot twists made it an enjoyable fantasy novel. And the fact that it’s a standalone with a neatly tied-up ending was the cherry on top. While it wasn’t perfect, I thoroughly enjoyed it and would recommend it to anyone looking for a complete, satisfying fantasy read.