Sue Lynn Tan’s Immortal is an epic fantasy packed with gods, kingdoms, and betrayal. Liyen’s journey as the heir to Tianxia is full of political drama, forbidden romance, and high stakes battles, all set against a richly built world steeped in mythology.

While the writing is undeniably beautiful, it leaned too lyrical for my taste, occasionally bogging down the story with overly elaborate descriptions. The pacing also felt off at times, with some sections dragging in the middle.

The romance between Liyen and the God of War had its moments, but it didn’t fully click for me, so it felt more tropey than authentic in the end.

Still, if you’re into slow burn celestial romances and intricate political intrigue, this one might be your jam. For me, it was an okay read. Solid in some places but missing the spark to make it truly memorable.

Fans of Asian mythology inspired fantasy will probably love it more than I did.

What a wonderful read!

I was so incredibly ready to come back to this world and I am not disappointed. It was well worth the wait. The world building and the characters are chef's kiss. Sue Lynn Tan has such a way with words and it makes me come back for more every single time. The way I squealed and almost cried when I got approved for this ARC was inhuman... Thank you for the opportunity to read this book. It was world changing😭❤️

Sue Lynn Tan has done it once again. This is her fourth book that I've read, and each one has been beautifully written and crafted to tell a story about romance and history.

I've long searched for books that aligned with my own cultural background, to explore the myths and legends told to me when I was younger but books like this did not yet exist. As an adult, getting to read these stories is like a homecoming.

The author does a wonderful job creating a world that is familiar and yet new all at once. Her writing is incredibly atmospheric and you feel pulled into the story immediately. Watching the main character's story unfold was also thrilling. She is bold and noble and fierce, and watching her history unravel to reveal a mysterious past was extra exciting as someone who dies for reincarnation and lost loves. I don't know if I'm sad or grateful that this book is a standalone as it was wrapped up well by the end, but I also want more from the main characters and their romance.

I LOOVEEEDDD this!!

We've got two beautiful worlds--one of the mortals and one of the immortals. We've got betrayal. We've got banter. We've got sass. And it's so beautifully written, I couldn't put it down!

I really love Liyen and her entire character arc. She really goes through it in this one between illness, loss, betrayal, and being forced to rule Tianxia far earlier than she expected with no real guidance. She's emotional and strong at the same time, and doesn't let anyone bring her down or fight against her for long. I honestly want to be her when I grow up. Plus, she's super sassy and has an attitude problem (rightfully so), and that is my personal brand. Obviously, no notes.

The world building is so nice too! This takes place in the same world as Tan's other series, but you can read it as a standalone without feeling lost. There's beautiful descriptions of the worlds and characters without feeling like there's an information dump and you truly get to experience the worlds. I want art of every single one of these places done by a million different artists.

My only complaint is that I want a million more books like this and in this world. At LEAST a million. I will read anything and everything by this author until the dawn of time, including a grocery list if I'm being honest.

Immortal by Sue Lynn Tan is a standalone Romantasy taking place in the Immortal realm but not in the Celestial Kingdom from Daughter of the Moon Goddess. I think those who have extremely high expectations from Sue Lynn Tan's previous books should do their best to keep them in check. My expectations were relatively low since I did not love the Heart of the Sun Warrior and I ended up enjoying Immortal. Also there are no cameos other than mentions of the Celestial Emperor which didn’t really count.

Plot: When Liyen becomes the ruler of Tanxia she gets an opportunity to journey to the Immortal realm and swear her loyalty to the Queen of the Golden Desert. While she is there Liyen intends to find information to free her kingdom and exploit any weakness the Immortals have. During her stay she and the God of War start to grow close despite Liyens efforts to hate Immortals.

Characters:
Liyen - the lady (ruler) of Tianxia after her grandpa dies. She is a very selfless/caring leader who values her people. Although she is extremely prejudiced against immortal people there are good reasons for her too. Overall I thought she was a good main protagonist with realistic flaws

Zhangwei - The “cold” god of war who is actually super nice and caring. Very typical love interest who is also kinda overprotective so if that's your thing you'll like him. Did I mention he is tall 😐

The main issue I had with the book was with the pacing. I found the beginning to be a bit slow since it was mostly just romance and no plot (I know it’s romantasy but the plot/romance balance was just off). Around 40% the plot started to pick up and really pulled me in. If you are thinking of DNFing early in the book, I would wait until at least getting halfway through, because you might like the second half. Personally I thought the ending could have been better but there were many things I did enjoy about this book. Some things I loved were Sue Lynn Tan's writing and the character development of Liyen. She writes the most beautiful descriptions and created so many highlight-worthy sentences. (I might add some of my favorite quotes after the book comes out). The prejudice and innate bias against the Immortals is wonderfully written and it was nice to see Liyen change her perspective and realize that she shouldn’t judge those she truly doesn't know. Anyone who loves Asian myths/setting, romance, and good characters should consider reading Immortal.

Thank you to Harper Voyager and Netgalley for providing this ARC

I really enjoyed this book! The world-building was stunning, and the way it drew from Chinese mythology made it feel so rich and immersive. The writing is beautiful but also easy to follow, which made it a quick and satisfying read for me.

Liyen is such a great protagonist. She’s stubborn and flawed, but that just made her feel so real. I loved seeing her grow from someone unsure of her place into a confident leader willing to risk everything for her people. She faces impossible decisions and challenges, and she never backs down when it counts.

The dynamic between her and the God of War had me hooked. The tension, mistrust, and slow-burning attraction between them were so well done—it had me rooting for them despite all the obstacles in their way.

What I really appreciated was how this story managed to feel complete as a standalone but left me wanting more. The different realms were so vivid, and I’d love to see more stories set in this world.

If you love enemies-to-lovers, high stakes, and fantasy grounded in mythology, this book is absolutely worth picking up. It’s one I’ll definitely be thinking about for a while!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Really loved this one! My only reason for giving it 4 stars was the beginning. It should’ve talked more about her beginning and her life to make it believable and start out with more rooting for the character. It jumped right into her being strong and as if she can conquer anything at all after one sentence about her being weak. It made it hard to believe she was capable of everything. The lotus healed her but why should we believe she is now a warrior?

Tentative 3.75 Stars

I am unfortunately not entirely sure how to feel about this book -- I liked the world-building and the extension of the world introduced in the Daughter of the Moon Goddess duology (especially with the primary setting being in the mortal kingdoms, rather than the immortal world), but unfortunately for a lot of the book the romance fell short and the pacing was a bit off to me. While the reveal at around 70% helped things make a lot more sense and caused the relationship to start to grow on me, I still was not wholely invested by the end (though I did like the god of war as a character!). I'm also very glad this subverted the typical hundreds-of-years-old immortal man falling in love with a super young mortal trope because that is literally the worst and we need to eliminate it immediately!

I would recommend this if you enjoyed Daughter of the Moon Goddess (though you definitely don't have to read it first to understand this!) or are looking for a standalone fantasy!

A spellbinding standalone romantasy with excellent world building, great and complex characters, and a slow-burn enemies to lovers romance. The action scenes, political intrigue, and unexpected twists kept the pages turning. I appreciated that the world building stands on its own so that readers who haven't read the previous books in Tan's Celestial Kingdom can just dive right in and read it.

Many thanks to Netgalley and Harper Collins for an advanced reader's copy of the book.

Wavering between 2 and 2.5 stars.

While not the worst book I’ve read this year, this was a very disappointing read. I loved Daughter of the Moon Goddess (even if the second in the duology let me down a bit), so I was excited to return to Tam’s writing.
However, I felt like this book had none of the lush, magical writing of her previous books.

The characters felt like stiff stereotypes - the plucky young royal, the hot but outwardly cruel warrior. It was supposed to tell this grand love story, but I couldn’t care less about the their story. The dialogue felt so cringey and awkward, and the plot felt all over the place. The book was split into 3 parts and it almost felt like 3 different stories. There was a lot of story exposition in the form of dialogue (just characters telling each other what happened), which I generally get annoyed with when it’s overused.

Thank you to NetGalley for an eARC of this book.

Liyen, the young mortal queen of Tiaxia, must learn to navigate politics of the immortal gods after the death of her grandfather...even if it means choosing between her people and her heart.

Tan is the indisputed queen of romantic fantasy drawn from Asian legends, and she's done it again her. Her description of the scenery, the food, the clothing, is incredibly masterful. But I admit, tthe Winged Devils will haunt my nightmares. I also loved the way the side characters pop - Liyen's childhood friends Chengyin is a scene stealer. I also really appreciated the dynamic of the ttwo romantic leads - Liyen may be a mortal, but she has plenty to teach the God of War, Zhangwei.

I would recommend, particularly for those interested in Asian mythology.

From start to finish, this book was incredibly vivid, from the setting to the characters to the plot. I was enthralled from the beginning and absolutely ate this up. I loved each character's progression and reveals throughout, and really enjoyed the twists that this took. Sue Lynn Tan has definitely proven herself as an auto-buy author for me, and I can't wait to see what she gives us next.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

This book caught me by surprise. In such a good way.

I loved the writing and how the story developed. The pacing is perfect and I never felt bogged down by the details. In a sense, I felt this writing as fresh and unique. It kept me engaged which as of late has been difficult for books to do.

The journey Liyen must go through is exceptional in terms of her character development. It isn't easy and she must adapt while also finding out how to stay true to herself. She must uncover secrets kept from her and accept the reasons why they were kept. She has to remain steadfast in the most difficult of situations while also still wishing the best for humanity. She is flawed but also worthy. She is different but also accepting of what may or may not be.

I loved her relationship with the God of War. It felt complex from the very beginning but even I was surprised as to why. That even Gods can have layers makes him so relatable. I mean, he is a ride or die which just elevated the relationship between Liyen and GoW. I loved it.

This book has a little bit of everything for every reader, but most importantly, the story is exceptional.

Thanks to NetGalley and Avon and Harper Voyager for the copy of this book. It is amazing.

I requested this arc knowing that I'm not a huge fan of romantasy, so that's all on me. Even with that, I still try to find something I like because fantasy is my favorite genre. (I mean, I did like The Hurricane Wars, even though the romance was corny.)

But Immortal was definitely not my thing.

It's been almost two weeks since I read this, and the only things I remember is that this book read like a mix of Marvel movies, specifically the big reveal in Thor 1, with the villain plot/arc in The Marvels. I wasn't really impressed at all to the point where I wondered if I should've DNF.

It read like your typical run of the mill romance novel, but with fantasy aspects as set dressing. Reading the synopsis, I honestly thought this was going to be enemies to lovers (which is my favorite romance trope). The first 30% played into that, but after that, it was just a normal romance with cheesy declarations of love and all that jazz. ('Where you go, I go,” he whispered into my ear. “Now, and always.”') I know others might be into this, but I'll pass.

But!

If this were a movie or TV show, I absolutely loved how the set, the costumes, makeup, etc. were so gorgeous that my imagination went full blast with all the beautiful colors and magical elements. Honestly, that was the only thing that kept me going.

Thank you to Harper Voyager and NetGalley for this arc.

I had previously read (and loved) Tan's Daughter of the Moon Goddess, and was excited to hear she had more work.

The positives:

-Immortal has the same lush worldbuilding as Tan's previous books, and I always love her descriptions. I enjoyed learning more about the Immortals and the Wuxin.

-I really enjoyed Liyen as a protagonist. She is unapologetic and fierce, despite entering the story from a position of poor health and political weakness. She grew as a character over the course of the book, but she never lost her strength.

The not-so-positives:

-The pace was very inconsistent, with some chapters I had to force myself through reading.

-I never warmed up to the Immortal characters, including the God of War (Liyen's love interest), which made it hard to be invested in the main romance. The villain was also a bit one dimensional.

All and all it was a decent read, but not on the same level as Daughter of the Moon Goddess.

I have the same issue with IMMORTAL as I did with DAUGHTER OF THE MOON GODDESS - the book starts off intriguingly and steadily enough, but loses its structural integrity about a third of the way in. There are too many plot turns and characters that feel arbitrary - the qilin, the husband tournament, the Ancient Grandmaster, the Tree of Life, etc. All of these appear and disappear without real set-up - making them seem utterly random. A few are explained by the fun twist that occurs about 2/3 of the way through the story - which I did quite delight in (even though it inspired as many questions as it answered) - but not all. This randomness has the unfortunate effect of making Tan’s stories feel rudderless, even chaotic at times. As with DAUGHTER, I never knew where IMMORTAL was going - in a mostly frustrating rather than engaging way. One gets the impression that Tan is dealing out plots points like playing cards: they don’t really build upon one another other organically so much as simply stack up.

I also think it’s worth mentioning that the phrase “God of War” appears in the text 233 times. I know that’s his title; even so, it’s rather excessive.

What a lovely standalone novel! I loved the rich world building. And star-crossed lovers romance. And I loved the twists. Recommend for lovers of epic fantasy!

I deeply regret not having read Sue Lynn Tan's book(s) prior to starting this ARC but I immediately can't wait to dive into her backlist and read more from her in the future. I really enjoyed this one! I tend to give standalone novels a lot more grace in terms of world building and character background/intentions, etc. There's only so much an author can do without info dumping and disengaging the reader, and with a standalone you essentially have one shot to really make an impact. But despite that I think the world building was lush and the characters (esp the God of War) were fantastic. Without being spoilery, I will say the second half of the book really solidified this as a minimum 4 star (great) read for me. I was instantly looking forward to re-reading this again and seeing what I could pick up the second time around. 🤭

Thank you Avon & Harper Voyager for the eARC!!

I adore the luscious writing of Sue Lynn Tan and her amazing, epic romantasy adventures. The Celestial Kingdom Duology was one that will forever think about. I struggled a bit with this one though. I loved how the God of War was portrayed, but it was hard to really put he and Liyen together, I don't know if it felt a bit too "insta love" for me, or if it was because Liyen didn't really feel all that different from the FMC she had in her previous books. If she was sick and struggled with illness, it did not really match her personality or character arc. The dialogue in this one was gosh, so so so sweet.
Still, I am a huge fan of SLT and will definitely continue to read anything she writes.

Actual rating 3.5/5 stars.

There's no doubt, Sue Lynn Tan is an incredible writer, especially in terms of her prose. Her writing can sweep you into a story and carry you along the story without much clumsy turbulence.

I struggled with the beginning of this story in terms of pacing and lack of world building. But I did feel it progress and sucked me in the further the plot progressed. It became exciting and well paced and very enjoyable to read. One thing I really struggled with was the hypocrisy and judgemental tones of the MC. I hate when characters get mad over something people do and then turn around and do the same exact thing to them. Plus, her attitude problem for a lot of the book was quite overdone to the point where she was annoying and unlikeable. It quite hindered my enjoyment of the book, actually, and continuously had me putting it down. But I will she the MC went through some good character growth and was a genuinly good character by the end of the story.