I think I made it about 25 percent of the way through before I just gave up. As much as I wanted to love this, I simply could not get into it and couldn't force myself to keep going. I didn't really care what was happening. I'm sure this book will find its readers when it releases and I hope others love it!

The story centers around Kidan Adane, an orphaned heiress with a heart as fierce as her determination to rescue her missing sister, June. Torn from her childhood innocence and thrust into a shadowy world of vampires and arcane legacies, Kidan’s quest is both personal and perilous. From the outset, Girma deftly constructs a layered backdrop: the elite Uxlay University stands as a beacon of learning for both humans and vampires, embodying the hope for coexistence while concealing deeper, more sinister truths. Kidan's interactions with Susenyos Sagad, the vampire bound to her family, are particularly striking. Their dynamic, laced with tension and electric attraction, propels the narrative forward. Susenyos is not just an antagonist; he represents the dark allure of power, tapping into Kidan's violent tendencies, which complicates her quest for vengeance and justice. This interplay between temptation and the quest for familial love is where Girma's lyrical prose truly shines.
As Kidan learns to navigate Uxlay’s treacherous waters, the tension escalates with the emergence of a murder that parallels June’s disappearance, plunging her deeper into a web of intrigue and danger. The author skillfully merges themes of loyalty, betrayal, and the moral ambiguities of power dynamics within the vampire society, creating a multifaceted protagonist who struggles against her own dark inclinations. Kidan's character arc is particularly compelling as she grapples not only with her love for her sister but also with her own evolving identity—even as those changes are often fraught with peril.
Girma's world-building is commendable, offering rich descriptions that immerse readers in a society that is both alluring and grotesque. The intricacies of family legacies, along with the subtle social commentary on power dynamics and privilege, invite deeper reflections on the nature of human desires and fears.
Tigest Girma invites readers into a world where the line between good and evil dims, revealing the shadows lurking within us all. For fans of dark fantasy and vampire lore, this novel is a compelling addition to the genre—an exploration of the dichotomy of light and darkness. Overall, I highly recommend this book!

This was one of my most anticipated books of the year. However, I struggled with quite a few things. The pace, characters, and prose stopped me from enjoying this one. I wasn't a big fan of either of our main characters. Kian and Susenyos were morally grey, but they did nothing to make me feel connected to their characters. I also have to admit that the majority of this book is super slow.

What I can say was a plus was the representation and that it was truly an enemies to lovers situation.

While this didn't work for me, I hope others pick it up and enjoy it.

Thank you so much to the publisher for that physical ARC. These are my honest thoughts and opinions based on the unfinished advance copy I read!

*ੈ✩‧₊˚༺☆༻*ੈ✩‧₊˚

Holy—

So, I now have a new auto-buy author and her name is Tigest Girma. I hit 50% through and then proceeded to stay up till 2am devouring this book...

...and then proceeded to <i>yeet</i> the book across the couch because <i>THAT CLIFFHANGER</i>.

I don't think there are enough words in the English language to explain how effing good this book is. It's got gorgeous gothic atmospheric writing. It's got an incredible unique take on Vampires and their origins. It's got <i> real </i> enemies-to-lovers, like, these two hate each other so much, others had to get involved to make sure they don't kill the other levels of hate. It was honestly kinda heart racing to read cuz holy sh—.

The pacing of the plot is incredibly well done, especially with considering how much world building exposition there is to be done to understand everything going on. Girma does a phenomenal job knowing exactly how to worldbuild without bogging down the story. She keeps it interesting throughout, even the heart-wrenching bits when characters come out of their shells and their dark truths are revealed.

This is a book is the definition of un-put-down-able.

*ੈ✩‧₊˚༺☆༻*ੈ✩‧₊˚

𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐃 𝐈𝐅 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐋𝐈𝐊𝐄:
☆ Dark Academia
☆ FMC w/ Blood on her hands
☆ African Vampires
☆ Gothic African University
☆ Vampires and Humans Co-existing
☆ SO MUCH Grey Morality
☆ Secret Societies and Hidden Agendas
☆ Houses are sentient (sorta)

Big thank you NetGalley and to the publisher for the chance to review this book pre-release. When I tell you I had to PACE myself because I didn't want to finish this too quickly. Oh my lord was this one good. I'm obsessed with how the characters LEGTIMATELY hated each other at first? I feel like people say "oh they didn't even like each other" when they're just indifferent, but our MC would quite literally end MMC's life in a heartbeat. I really didn't love our MC, but honestly her villainy added so much to the story. I loved her because I hated her. I was yelling at her for all of her dumb choices, but I also saw her perspective to, and felt her desperation to find her sister. I'm utterly obsessed and can't wait to read the next book in the trilogy. A more formal review will be available on my IG/TikTok and Goodreads.

Kidan’s sister disappears and she has to commit multiple heinous acts to get her back. Including fighting a vampire for her family’s home.

I give the book a sold 3.5 stars. I liked the world. Though sometimes the authors story telling or writing style lost me and I would have reread pages to understand. Overall, it was a good story, full of twists and turns. It just didn’t pull at my heart strings or keep up reading late into the night.

It began long before my time, but something has always hunted our family.

Inmortal Dark is by far one of the very best novels I’be encountered in a while. It weaves a luscious and dark web of mystery, action and high stakes while also being incredibly emotional and thought provoking.

Blurb:

Orphaned heiress Kidan Adane grew up far from the arcane society she was born into, where human bloodlines gain power through vampire companionship. When her sister, June, disappears, Kidan is convinced a vampire stole her—the very vampire bound to their family, the cruel yet captivating Susenyos Sagad.

To find June, Kidan must infiltrate the elite Uxlay University—where students study to ensure peaceful coexistence between humans and vampires and inherit their family legacies. Kidan must survive living with Susenyos—even as he does everything he can to drive her away. It doesn’t matter that Susenyos’s wickedness speaks to Kidan’s own violent nature and tempts her to surrender to a life of darkness. She must find her sister and kill Susenyos at all costs.

What I Loved:

The writing - AMAZING *cheff kiss* I literally couldn’t put it down. The pacing was perfect, there was never a moment I was bored, and it build very well to the final chapters and the cliffhanger. The prose was beautiful and evocative, without ever turning to descriptive.

The world building - This was a nuance and original take on vampires that I found truly unique. The lore was perfectly explained and expanded. The rules of the world are well defined and easy to grasp which does a lot to immerse the reader in the story. The university setting was something I personally loved.

The characters- Hands down my favorite part. Kidan and Susenyos were some of the very best characters I’ve ever read, period. They are both multilayered and complex people, flawed but also vulnerable. Kidan, as a main character, is as much of a driving dorce for the story as the plot itself. She is very morally grey, conflicted, stubborn, judgmental and violent. But also incredibly vulnerable, broken and lost. She was so easy to follow and as you progress into the story and come to know her you can’t help to love her and relate to her. Susenyos,
for his part is so much more than a love interest. He is, in his own right, a complex character with motivations and desires of his own. Their relationship can only be defined as true enemies to lovers (this is how you do it right, people) Their dynamic is electrifying, sexy and so deliciously dark.

I finished the book with only one thought: I need book two NOW. This is one that will go down is history as one of my favorites of all times. And I will start to force people to read it as soon as it is available.

I enjoyed this book a lot more than I thought I would given that the world building was difficult to follow at first. It is very well written and engaging despite the violence and the fact that the first thing we learn about the main character is that she murdered someone. There’s found friendship and a very combative possible romance. The only reason I didn’t give it five stars is that the setting is confusing to me. I don’t understand it being a university when they only really need to pass one class. There are other aspects that my brain struggles with also, but I don’t want to give too much away. Still a book I would recommend to students who love vampire books.

Wow, this was a great debut book!! I really liked how the relationship between all the characters were written especially between Kidan and Susenyos. Each relationship felt like it had a purpose and represented something but whatever it was wasn’t not just flat or said. It shown through dialogue and internal reflection. Once I thought I got the idea of a character something they did completely changed my perception. The “love” between each and every character is unique. I gave it 4/5 stars only because it was a little slow to start but once it got moving I in until the end which I audibly gasped at! Can’t wait to read more work from this author in the future.

Thank you Netgalley and Little, Brown Books For Young Readers for access to the book in exchange for an honest review!

Thank you to the Publisher and TBRTours for letting me read this early in exchange for review.


Is it possible to rate a book higher than 5 stars? because this book deserves infinity stars. its that fantastic. If you are unsure about it. just do it.

I've never been so captivated by a story in the first page before, Girma's writing has this way of captivating you from the first word and you just have to keep reading. this story is so well done that i found myself struggling to find similar things that someone who hasn't read this book would make them want to read it. But all I can come up with is dark academia and vampires. This book stands on its own an doesn't need any comparisons. You are introduced to so many different characters who are so fleshed out and well developed that they each have their own voice when they are on the page, as someone who constantly struggles with suicide ideation and depression. It was both comforting and refreshing to read about someone who feels the way I do and see Kidan have someone in her corner like Susenyos. ( without giving too much away.) I loved everything about this story and its definitely one that's going to be staying with me for awhile.

ALSO THAT ENDING? you can't just do that and make me wait!

WHAT A PHENOMENAL BOOK. HOOKED FROM PAGE 1. An addictive dark acadamia fantasy featuring Ethiopian folklore and a true enemies to lovers between a murdering heiress and a bloodthirsty, brooding vampire that will stop at nothing to take her legacy.
Beautiful, seductive prose. Magnificent character arcs. This gave me Ikenna from the Blood Trials and absolutely everything I was looking for and did not find from Jude and Cardan (yes I hated The Cruel Prince). Loved the anxiety, depression, and WONDERFUL synesthesia rep. This gave me the best form of reader anxiety; I finished and felt DIZZY.
My only gripe with this is that vampires as a mythological species have an inherently queer history and not a single character in this was queer. Also, IMO this should not be categorized as a young adult book.

2.5 rounded up

I think my feelings about this book can mainly be summed up by saying: "It's not you, it's me."

I really wanted to like this, but mostly, reading it felt like pulling teeth for me. The story just never grabbed me. The mythology is expansive but at times confusing and unclear, and I felt like it glossed over the really novel ideas (ie: the house as a reflection of your emotional state). I saw another reviewer say something that I completely agree with: it felt like I was dropped into the middle of something, but never given enough explanation to fully understand.

And while I appreciated the cast of characters presented, I wish I could've connected more with them. I will say, the shining aspect of the novel, to me, is Kidan as the main character- I don't often encounter protagonists like her, ones who will do *anything,* who are not concerned with being liked or good. I really appreciated that.

The romance is something I barely want to talk about. I'm almost never a fan of romance, so that's totally on me... but I was not into the *enemies to lovers*.

Despite my issues with this book, I really do think that plenty of readers will love this (we're already seeing plenty of readers love it) and I have no intention of talking them out of their enjoyment. This just really was not for me.

What a beautifully haunting and real story!
Absolutely in love with Uxlay and its residents. What imagination the author has, the actis, the dranaics, their secrets and motivations.
I cannot wait for book 2, the twists and turns of the story had me absolutely enthralled! I was enraged I could not dedicate it more time.
From the worldbuilding, to the characters, their actions and desires, I loved every letter the author put together to create this haunting mirror into the human soul and it's morally grey areas!

Absolutely flawless, not once did I have to think about what was going on or who people were and it’s such a rich and dark world I was instantly hooked.

"The world loves to punish girls who dream in the dark. I plan to worship them."

Okay I mostly never read the synopsis or trope lists because I find myself looking for things as I read rather than experiencing it. I prefer comps and genre: all I needed to know was dark academia, all black cast with vampires, Cruel Prince meets Ninth House, and I was sold.

The way this book caught me off guard with how well Tigest Girma wrote these morally (dark) gray characters, an enemies to lovers I actually believed, and engrossed me so far into the story! The gothic vibes of Uxlay, the sentient house, the African mythology, the meaning of different bite locations on vampires, the unapologetically CRUEL and ruthless nature of the characters, just wow! It did not disappoint.

Thank you Little Brown and NetGalley for the ARC!

Immortal Dark begins as a story about sisterhood. About going into the den of danger to get answers, to search for revenge. But it quickly becomes apparent that getting her revenge is going to be harder than it seems. For Kidan uncovers secrets not only about the night her sister went missing, but about their parents. At Uxlay she has to figure out how to skirt the line between survival and purpose. But Immortal Dark quickly evolves into a story about survival. About the ways we can let what we think is our only purpose, stop us from living, keep us from the moments of everyday.

This was one of my most anticipated reads for the year and I finished it feeling conflicted, but did enjoy it.

To start, the marketing on this is Twilight meets Ninth House and I think it would be more accurate to say Vampire Academy meets Ninth House. The world building, large cast, and political dynamics between houses just make more sense.

I loved a few things about this book. It tackles the intensity of human emotion in comparison to immortal patience in a great way. It's full of African culture and builds an entire world on black and African vampires, which are basically unheard of in the genre. It has beautifully rich descriptions at times that feel immersive.

There were also some things that I feel didn't work. The author created a world that is so massive and full of lore that it felt like I was drowning in details. I will admit that I still don't understand a lot about the magic system, the vampire lore, and so on. If I reread it, I likely would, but it was so full of detail that my head was swimming trying to digest it all. Kidan's rage at times is so overwhelming that it feels like she has no other characteristics until almost the end. There's also just some quirks the author wrote in that felt oddly placed and some overly repetitive lines that are more editing problems. It was also labeled YA, but the romantic tension definitely feels like it was meant to be new adult and the publisher feared it wouldn't sell as many copies. This is an annoying trend of late that I really wish would stop.

This book was a lot. It gives the reader whiplash with raw emotion and reveals. It is full of so much mystery that it's deeply frustrating at times. It has a slow burn romance that is aggravatingly leaning into destined for tragedy. That being said, the dark academia aspects are delicious and it's an intriguing read that's nearly impossible to put down. My final thought is that it's worth reading for the vibes.

When I say I want enemies to lovers, THIS is what I mean. Two absolutely unhinged main characters living in a violent & bloody world, surrounded by morally grey side characters. The world building doesn’t make a huge amount of sense to me—there’s a lot of, “this is how things are” hand waving. A few plot elements start to get a bit out there as the book goes on. But, I don’t really mind it so much. I also think it's possible we will get more information about the background of the school and how the magic works in book 2. I particularly wonder if it might be a situation where the main character has been told one thing, but the truth is something else.

This feels very character-focused; the shape of Kidan and Susenyos start out as blurry & two dimensional but as the book goes on, both slowly come into focus and fill out around the edges. The plot twists are definitely dramatic and I was surprised by a few of them, which I appreciated. I also laughed out loud at a few moments; even though this is NOT a comedy, there are a handful of decent one liners.

This is YA but in the sense that the main character is a teenager and sometimes doesn’t have the best judgment (like a teenager), not in the sense that the writing is simplistic. There is light spice, not overly explicit but more vibey. ends on a bit of a cliffhanger—most of the initial mysteries have been resolved but there are so many more that have been uncovered for book two.

This was absolutely phenomenal. The storyline had me hooked the whole time, the plot twists were unexpected, the characters were so well done and well rounded. & the enemies to lovers slow burn romance was ACTUALLY enemies to lovers & ACTUALLY slow burn!! This book was absolutely scrumptious in every way I could think of. Beautiful world building, rich culture & history, unique storyline. I just absolutely loved this. I connected to nearly all of the characters in some way. I’m just so impressed by this book. Wow. Similar ambience/vibe as Ninth House, so if you liked that, you’ll probably like this too!

I wanted to love this book so badly but unfortunately it wasn't for me :(

Here is what I did like:
- The imagery was gorgeous. I could picture the campus setting and houses vivdly

Here is what didn't work for me:
- The writing was very purple in a way that I did not enjoy
- The plot/character progression as a whole felt like it was missing a "so what". It felt like I was dropped into the middle of something and never given enough context to care about why that something was happening
- On that note, it felt like some larger world-building element was missing. It was too big to be a "small scope" book (which generally needs less world building) but I felt like there was something missing in the cohesion of all of the layers of elements which felt like they were just random pieces stuck together, none of which moved the other parts forward

Because of this, I will not be going on to the next book in the series, but I would revisit a book in a different series (or a standalone) from this author in the future to see if that might work better for me!

Thank you so much to the publisher and NetGalley for the gifted arc!