Immortality is not what Celeste thought that she was going to have to deal with but decides that it might not be a bad idea especially since the powers that come along with her being a vampire will also help with her life as a detective.

I loved the idea that she was mentored by the likes of Socrates, Leonardo da Vinci and Nostradamus but the story fell a little short for me. The powers that she received because of being a vampire helped Celeste to work on her cases but I did miss out on the wow factor that I was looking for. There were quite a few amusing moments because of the banter especially between Celeste and her nanny but this was just okay for me overall


I received this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

I loved this audiobook. The story, the reader (Lisa Larsen) has an amazingly captivating story telling voice and perfectly captures each characters individuality. A very good voice actress.
The story is alluring, fun, adventurous, and magical. The story sucked me in from the beginning to the end. Very exciting.
The story had a decent flow, but did seem overly wordy at times, but generally was pretty good. Each character stands out with their own personality and seem to be pretty well rounded, making them feel more real.
I think this author may become a new favorite.

Really enjoyed this audiobook. The story is a unique vampire tale with a well developed plot outside of vampires. The narrator was great!

Thank you to @netgalley for the chance to review The Immortal Detective by D.B. Woodling. The book started abruptly with Celeste waking up as a vampire. She is being trained by the Elders in the art of invisibility and shapeshifting, but still faced challenges of her appetite as a new vampire. I loved the people that she met along the way and I really enjoyed the relationship between Celeste and her lover Tristan.

I loved the twists and turns and despite being able to typically catch on to the surprise, I missed this one! Excellent narration by Lisa Larsen.

This book is about a detective who turns immortal, her life as she adjusts to it, and a case she is working on.

The storyline was ok. It was really hard to follow in the beginning, but eventually became more clear and somewhat enjoyable. Some of the tangents were unnecessary though. Definitely had a lot of stereotypical vampire stuff and them some really off the wall stuff. I felt the main character was just magically impervious to not wanting to eat everyone. She can just go to work and not have any issue?

I "read" this as an audio book. The narrator has a very pleasant voice, is distinctive enough between characters and did a great job.

Thank you Netgalley for my copy.

This book was fine. Woodling obviously knew quite a bit about American police procedure which made that part believable. The vampire side as good too and I particularly enjoyed parts with Socretes and Leonardo in.

Despite a sex scene and the themes, it still felt very YA to me. The only thing I could pinpoint was that the main character seemed angry and argumentative a bit like an angry teenager.

Overall, a solid read if you like vampire lore being brought up to date.

"The Immortal Detective" by D.B, Woodling, is not the first book in the series, and the description should have included that information. I felt confused at the beginning, and disappointed by the abrupt ending, because this is definitely not a stand-alone. The author could definitely do their audience more service by perhaps adding additional backstory, and the cover design should definitely included which book in the series this was. Despite the drawbacks, it is an entertaining police procedural with snippets of supernatural.

I wasn't sure how I felt about this book at first but once I got into it I was totally here for it. And I would really like some of her vampiric abilities! It felt like this book should be a part of a series, so I am going to hope for that and eagerly await the next book! This was my 1st book by D.B. Woodling but will not be my last!

#TheImmortalDetective
#NetGalley

Thanks to CamCat Books for the audiobook provided via NetGalley; this is my unbiased review.

🎧 The Immortal Detective by D.B. Wooding
Narrated by Lisa Larsen
CamCat Books, 21st March 2023
⭐️⭐️

Synopsis:
After Detective Celeste Crenshaw faces death and wakes up immortal, she reluctantly makes a promise to the Elders to grant immortality. But when she returns home, she battles mortal foes, and her world spirals out of control. 

Review:
The promise of an immortal detective and this being the first book in the series made it too hard to resist, which is why I requested to review it.
It started out so well, with the line: 'The only thing worse than never waking up is waking up dead.' But then it got confusing. Celeste is transitioning into a vampire, but it seems to be in the middle of a story, and very little back story is provided. A little digging, and I learn there's a prequel called The Immortal Twin. It would've been useful to know that, and to have read that prior to this.

The detecting really gets going in the second half of the book, where it becomes much more appealing. If readers manage to stick with it until then, there's a decent story here. Listening on audio, there was no opportunity to flip back and forth between pages to check out details, which is what I'd normally do if a book confuses me. I didn't find the narrator particularly engaging. It was a disappointing listen at first, which got better towards the end.

#TheImmortalDetective #NetGalley #CamCatBooks #Bookstagram #BookReview

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for this audio.

Umm this book just wasn’t for me. I didn’t like the narrator and the story was confusing. It could be a me thing but this was just not the book for me.

"The Immortal Detective" drew me in with its fascinating premise, following Celestine Crenshaw's journey from a regular detective to an immortal vampire. I loved how the author mixed in famous historical figures like Queen Elizabeth I and Leonardo Da Vinci, adding depth and humor to the story, which was beautifully captured in the audiobook's narration. As Celestine navigates her new life, unexpected twists kept me hooked, and the big plot twist at the end really surprised me.

While I enjoyed the mystery, romance, and supernatural elements, I felt a bit disappointed with the ending, especially when it came to Celestine and Tristan's relationship. Still, "The Immortal Detective" offers a fascinating exploration of what it means to be immortal, with plenty of action and intrigue to keep readers entertained.

A vampire detective story? Sounds great right?

The premise seems super promising and has a lot of great ideas, but just doesn't seem to hit the mark as well as it could. I found myself confused in the beginning chapters of the story and felt like there was a lot of context misisng. So much of this book was disjointed at times with characters that were introduced with little to no context.

The main character, Celestine, spends so much time lamenting her transformation into a vampire. She gives off extremely mixed feelings on whether she actually wants to be a vampire or not and spends o much time adjusting, that we don't get to see her actual detective work until close to halfway through the book. When we do get into her detective work, the story certainly picks up and catches your interest more. It's a whirlwind of crime solving that really makes up for the slow start

The general idea is great, but could've been executed a bit better with more context to better understand character dynamics and overall world building, alongside have a more cohesive flow to make details mesh better together. Overall, a fun interesting read!

Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book prior to it's release. (Note: I read this via NetGalley's audiobook option)

With a first line of "The only thing worse than never waking up, is waking up dead" I had such high hopes! Sadly, the opening line was quite possibly the best part of the book. While this is touted as the first book in a series it starts in the middle of a story clearly in progress, leaving the reader very confused for a couple of chapters. Not to mention so little of the backstory is even explained. Who are these "harvesters?" Why is there a war? Overall the book created more What/Who/How/Why than it answered.

A vampire detective on a the Kansas City Detective Squad was such an intriguing idea, yet even the police procedural drama/action aspect felt very flat, one dimensional. Dialogue was dull and unbelievable. Characters were entirely unlikeable and scenarios entirely unbelievable - Celine can basically do Jedi level manipulation at every turn? I'm sorry, no. I'll easily and happily suspend my disbelief for a vampire story any day, but this reeeaaaally tested my ability to do just that.

#TheImmortalDetective #NetGalley

I listened to the audiobook and the narrator seemed flat and didn’t add much to the storyline. The book itself was super confusing from the beginning and it felt like I was starting in the middle of even though this was supposed to be the first in a new series. I gave up at 33% as it wasn’t getting any better. I’m sure this will be a favorite for some but it wasn’t the book for me.

We are thrown into a bit of chaos upon the opening of this book. Celeste awakens in her newly turned vampire form and she doesn’t want it. As a detective in her human life, she yearns to return to that life and a sense of normalcy. However, with her new powers and new hunger for blood, she seems to be getting herself into quite a few situations which cause her job to be a bit more difficult.

I wanted to like this book, but thought there was a lot going on. I cannot say I was the biggest fan of the opening chapters of chaos and confusion. I did not know what was going on except this girl did not want to be the vampire which she now was. There were several things which didn’t feel fully explained and I kind of felt we needed to slow down just a bit in order for me to better grasp the situation. She is new in her abilities and “nightlife” so her family helps her along the way, but it’s still kind of a mess. I think towards the middle it evens out and we start to get into the actual immortal detective, but it takes a minute to get there.

Celeste is fiercely against being turned into a vampire, but that is exactly what is happening at the very beginning of the book. She is being taught of her newfound abilities by the Elders who have gifted them to her. After she has some semblance of control, she returns to her life. One of the most important people is her 5 year daughter, who also happens to be a vampire but is not aware of it. She is also a detective and has to find out how she can do her job without being tempted by blood and without going out in the sun.

I was so excited about the idea of this book. I hate to say that book fell short. The overarching plot was confusing and the characters were not developed very well. The only character we really got to know was her daughter. I would have loved to have a better understanding of everyone and also about the world her story takes place in. It had so much potential and ended up short.

Please don't say a book is the first in the series when it isn't. I was so lost in this book because there obviously was backstory well established just not in this book

This is one of the few books I didn't see through to the end. It was peculiar, I didn't expect it to be about vampires! I did stick with it as long as I could but in the end simply gave up through frustration at both the narration and the story. The narrator wasn't appealing. Afraid I wouldn't recommend or buy.

Thanks for the NetGalley arc of this audiobook.

I was slightly confused at first with this book as I did not know that there was a first. Aside from that, I was able to follow the story along and it makes me want to get the first book and then read this one again.

Different from what I’ve read about vampires and the paranormal that it was a refreshing and relief not to be some cookie cuter kind of book.

Even though read out of order I look forward to completing this series.

First I want to thank NetGalley and the books publisher for giving me an Audio ARC of this title in exchange for my honest review.

I’ll start by saying that I wasn’t aware that this was a second in a series as there was no indication on the cover nor in the description of the ARC. Had I known that I may have read the first one before consuming this one as maybe the first several chapters would have made more sense. However, by the end of the book you have enough sense of the first book for this one to be a stand alone. Except it didn’t make me want to go a read the first book.

The first half of the book comes off like a different writer than the second half completely. The first several chapters are disjointed, confusing and just poorly laid out. The reader (especially audio reader) is left completely lost. This books suffers from an author with too many ideas. They bring in people from history both real and fictional and try to weave them together but is unsuccessful.

The other issue is it’s clear that the author is trying to create a new world within the vampire genre. Except it’s not accessible to the masses. The world has no clear vision as it has a “everything under the kitchen sink” vibe to it of random details thrown in for no purpose.


However, all that being said, the actual half of the book that deals with the main character being a vampire whilst solving crimes is engaging and interesting. It’s why I have it 3 stars as that story was one I wanted to read and enjoyed. I just wish it was the entire book as you had to weigh through the absurd to get there. It’s a good thing I do not DNF books as I would have and then not gotten to its heart.


Link to my review on Goodreads https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6319654682