I am a long time Chloe Gong fan and have adored each of her books, but even I have to admit that this just... wasn't the best. It was advertised as being Hunger Games so of course I was even more excited to read it and another shakespeare retelling!! But sadly, it didn't meet my expectations and was instead extremely underwhelming.

I felt nothing towards the characters and this is marketed as adult, yet the characters felt extremely juvenile and flat. I was hoping for more and I know Chloe can write amazing characters, however, it feels like most of her characters in her books act pretty much the same? This is just my thoughts, but I was really hoping to love Calla and Anton and sadly that wasn't the case.

Characters are what make a book for me, however, in the case the author lacks in that area I always hope the story will make up for it--but instead we get info-dumping and a story that felt long and dragged out where I found myself very bored :/ I'm not sure I will continue the series, but who knows maybe my mind might change!

This book was very well written.. The ideas were very Hunger Games. If you liked the Hunger Games you will probably like this book. It may have been a little less authentic because of that though.

If you could switch bodies and pretend to be someone else for a while, would you? What are your thoughts on murdering just a couple of people in order to make a lot of money and meet a king? And would you be okay if somebody needed to invade your body to escape a situation, but it's okay because maybe they will return it? Let's be real here, good God no. I may like money, but I'm not interested in murder, dying, switching bodies, or essentially being possessed.

Immortal Longings is a crazy good book following an enemies to lovers trope in a world where people can jump in and invade one another's bodies, with a major competition to the death. Jumping bodies isn't necessarily well liked, but it can come in handy for those who choose to do so and especially in this murderous game.

I loved this book. It was amazing and incredible and had so many good lines. I loved collecting quotes and organizing them based on what I was thinking at the moment. I had two separate romance categories, foreshadowing, and brilliant lines. Hilariously enough though I could not keep the colours organized to save my life but in my defense this was my first time annotating through the app and I was too busy vibing with everything and trying to remember which colour was for which couple and which was foreshadowing versus brilliant lines (news flash it was almost always one of three colours and the meaning kept changing but that's not important). I had lots of fun reading the book and selecting my favourite lines for so many different reasons. I also loved tagging a bunch of them with my immediate reaction, especially near the end when I had so many thoughts on everything.

The concept was so cool and I was living for it from the first time I read the synopsis. I loved the idea of the games and the jumping and enjoyed seeing it all being executed. Books that have wild concepts are always so much fun to read with the world being built up to support it all and you being thrusted into the midst of it all.

I had some problems with the book, some of them including spoilers, but they weren't major enough to really impact how I felt about the book as a whole. I was enjoying the book too much, especially towards the end, to find the problems to be anything big.

I loved the cast. Every character had something compelling about them that made you want to know more about them. Even some of the smaller characters had me wanting to know everything about them. They also all had great chemistry and I loved seeing even the smallest romance or tension build between different characters. I was constantly rereading moments to see if I saw the dots connecting or if it was wishful thinking. The angst, banter, and every heartfelt moment was so worth it.

I desperately need the sequel since the ending was so amazing and I have so many questions for so many characters. I love when the end of a book leaves you needing to know more and creating a million theories for every one moment.

If I were to rate this book, I would give it a 5. It's probably one of my top 3 favourite books of the year and it was just so thrilling the entire time. I have a hard time rating books but I can confidently say that I loved the book and was entirely giddy after finishing the book and buzzing with excitement over everything I had read.

I was able to read this e-arc thanks to Simon And Schuster Canada and Netgalley so a big thank you to them. It was my first time reading Chloe Gong after collecting her previous series and never actually starting those books since I was hoarding the collection before finally starting them. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it.

My first Chloe Gong read and definitely not my last! I enjoyed this book despite taking longer than anticipated to get through it. Like with any SFF, you will need to do some legwork to understand the workings of this world, but as a fan of THG and other competition-esque novels in this genre, I enjoyed this one.

This book had a unique premise with the magic of body switching combined with the hunger games style war games. I enjoyed the fast paced action and imagery of the city. I also found that the magic system and world were well explained and I didn’t feel like there was too much information dumping. I like the characters but I felt like their relationships lacked depth. Their intimacy seemed to go from distrust to allies to quickly and I didn’t really believe it. Otherwise I really enjoyed the story and after the cliff hanger ending I would definitely pick up book 2!

4.5
I really enjoyed this novel. I feel like it was a perfect mix of contemporary and fantasy. I also loved that there was romance but that it was only a subplot instead of it being a full romantasy novel. I really liked the chemistry between the two love interests and their banter. This book was Chloe Gong's debut adult novel but it felt as if she had been writing in the adult fantasy genre for her entire career.

This novel proves that writing is a skill that can be improved. Having not been the biggest fan of Gong's first novel, her first foray into Adult Fantasy completely changed my mind. While this definitely is a much looser adaptation of its source material than her debut duology, this Antony and Cleopatra retelling brings dystopian lit back into the mainstream with an intricate magic system that toes the line between fantasy and sci-fi. I look forward to continuing this series, especially after all those twists!

I am a sucker for a good retelling/re-imagining. It is always amazing to see what Gong manages to do with Shakespeare's works. Fantastic as usual!

🍂Characters:
I absolutely LOVED the characters in this novel. Although the novel wasn’t long, Gong manages to make them in-depth and relatable, with faults that you’re able to love. The dynamic between the characters is also *chefs kiss* but I don’t want to spoil too much.

🍂The Good:
The book kept me GUESSING. Firstly, the magic system is so creative and something I wasn’t expecting. I really hope there’s a sequel so we can explore that more. The pacing was great and the plot was also good but something that I would love to see developed more in other novels. The PLOT TWISTS were also so omg I didn’t see them coming but I absolutely loved them. The world building is great and Gong is able to create such strong images and a feel that matches the book as you’re reading.

🍂The Bad:
Nothing really jumps out at me.

🍂Overall:
Overall I think this is a novel that almost everyone can enjoy, especially if you like action, fantasy, and romance. I WILL say that this novel seems to be between YA and NA, so keep this in mind depending on what you’re looking for.

Immortal Longings was okay. I needed to make it a long ways before I understood the world building. It felt rushed and not that great. Maybe this just wasn't for me

What a disappointment. I had high hopes for this book, given the intriguing premise, the beautiful cover and the buzz around the novel. It quickly became apparent that the hype wouldn't live up to the story. It felt like a hunger games retelling that was done poorly. The entire book was full of long-winded descriptions and flat characters. Not sure if this is because it's supposed to set the stage for the trilogy or because the author rushed through this novel. There's also supposed to be a romance element between two characters, but that wasn't done as well as I would have liked to the point where I kept doubting the romance element of the novel.

This is one of my favourite books I read this year! I went into Immortal Longings with relatively low expectations as I was neutral about These Violent Delights and was pleasantly surprised how much I enjoyed this book.

The plot is captivating, the characters are crazy and delightful and the ending made me regret getting an advanced copy of this book because I feel like I have to wait even longer for the sequel. I cannot recommend this book enough and will be raving about it to everyone who will listen.

Honestly I tried to get into this book but it was just so info dumping that I really couldn't care less.

I also learned all her books are like this, so considering just unhauling them all. But, maybe another book by her might be better, who knows.

I can definitely seeing some of my students get into this. I got bored (sorry), but it's not my preferred genre and it reminded me of other books that I enjoyed more. Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

As posted to GoodReads

San-Er, the twin cities.San, ruled by a cruel king, with his adoptive son ready to take the throne.
Er, without a ruler since Princess Calla Tuoleimi killed her royal parents and disappeared.
Now a deadly tournament will bring Princess Calla out in the open with a plan to kill King Kasa of San and end the monarchy once and for all.

This book had me from first page to final word.
This ending was amazing, the kind of ending that you read, put the book down, take a couple deep breaths, then read again.

I Love fantasy, I love world building, and character description, I love being able to close my eyes and see the world I have entered. I had a hard time doing that with this book.
In my mind the setting flipflopped between an almost Elizabethan time period, to an ultra modern metropolis, this made it at time frustrating for me as a reader, not being able to see the story in my mind.
Further to this there was very little character description so I could not properly put a face to the characters, I realize this is not important to every reader, but it is for me and this is the only reason this book was not 5 stars for me.

The story felt like a fresh mix of Hunger Games and The Shades of Magic Series. I can not wait to read the second book.

Read if you like: female protagonists, retellings
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Inspired by Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra, Calla and Anton both enter a set of games where there is only one winner left alive, but for different reasons. They find allies with each other and they work together to stay alive and make it to the end of the competition.
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I loved this book. The action, the fast-paced plot, and Shakespeare's inspiration. For Gong's first adult fantasy, this was very well done!

Immortal Longings is Antony & Cleopatra meets Hunger Games but make it set in Hong Kong.

Now, my biggest problem was that the Hunger Games inspo was strong. The people are incredibly poor and suffering, the monarchy won’t do anything about it, a blood sport games for entertainment, and the two main characters who should be fighting against each other but fall in love. The only thing that was different was the jumping aspect, which is where your spirit can jump into a different body. Which made it somewhat interesting but didn’t really add a whole lot.

I liked the characters, but it sort of felt like the relationship between Calla and Anton was a bit forced, and just happened like a switch flipping. I would have liked to see more of August and Galipei. Hopefully that comes in a later book.

Overall yes, I did enjoy it. But it just felt like I had been here before. I will definitely be getting the next book though, because that last moment in the book had my brain spinning.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster Canada for this ARC in exchange for an honest review! I loved Chloe Gong's YA works so to get a chance to read her adult debut was incredibly exciting. Following suit on her Shakespearean twists, Immortal Longings follows "Antony and Cleopatra" through Anton and Calla in a brutal web of games and toxic love.

I really liked the idea of this! Chloe definitely knows how to have you hooked with her ideas, but unfortunately in this case, the execution fell incredibly short. The characters were very enjoyable, and probably my favorites of her entire cast, but the plot and writing felt clunky, and there was just very little actual exposition or allure, with the plot trying to take root but never really succeeding.

Overall, I'm invested enough to read books 2 and 3, and there are a lot of plot holes that need to be patched up, even if they were put there intentionally for intrigue.

i don’t fully know how i feel about this book.

i sprinted to request the arc when i saw that people were comparing it to ‘the hunger games’, but i honestly was a bit disappointed with the overall story.

i do need to let everyone know that adult fantasy is NOT my genre! give me YA fantasy any day of the week and i’ll eat it up. adult fantasy on the other hand takes me so much time/energy to focus on and understand that i don’t bother with it most times.

i feel like the setting was over explained and i couldn’t fully wrap my head around the “jumping” concept and when i finally did… it was too far in.

I’ve heard rave reviews surrounding the ‘these violent delights’ duology so i might try those down the road, but for now i think i need a break from fantasy in general.

thank you to netgalley and Simon & Schuster Canada for an e-arc of this book!

3.5 stars
This book offers an intriguing concept, though it admittedly took me a while to fully immerse myself in the story. The abundance of information dumped at the beginning, with the multiple third-person perspectives, left me feeling overwhelmed. Consequently, the first thirty percent of the book was a struggle to get through.

Thankfully, the second half of the book was a smooth and enjoyable read. As the pieces fell into place, I found myself following along easier and getting wrapped up in the story. The exciting ending left me eagerly anticipating the next installment, making the journey through the initial confusion all the more worthwhile.

This is my first Chloe Gong novel. I was excited since her previous work has always held high praise but this fell a little flat for me. But I have high hopes for the rest of the trilogy and I'm excited to see what comes next!

Thank you to Netgalley, the author and Simon & Schuster for the arc in exchange for an honest review