Immortal Longings

I should've DNFd this but I didn't want to because I paid full price. It was the most convoluted book I've ever read. Once I started skimming it, I enjoyed it more. There is too much pointless detail.

My son loved this book. It was on his birthday list. I was able to get it quickly and surprise him.

Every year the twin cities of San-Er play host to a bloody series of games televised to the populace of Talin. The last player standing in this fight to the death will receive unthinkable wealth in a city where the bridge between the poor and the wealthy was long since burned.This year Calla Tuoleimi is coming out of hiding to compete. Five years ago Calla killed the rulers of Er--her own parents--and now the time is finally right to continue her mission to free the twin cities from their dictatorial monarchic rule. Winning the competition is the only guarantee Calla has to get close enough to King Kasa to finally assasinate him.The king's current heir, August, is willing to help the competition along while supporting regicide to leave himself better positioned to take power.The one wrinkle in their plans is Anton Makusa. Deprived of his birth body after his exile from the palace, Anton uses his ability to body jump to stay alive and continue paying the massive medical bills to keep his comatose lover on life support. Winning the games could solve most of Anton's problems.Set on a collision course Calla and Anton form an uneasy alliance to get to the final rounds of the games. As their attraction grows so does their rivalry. Two lovers prepared to do anything to succeed. But only one of them can win in Immortal Longings (2023) by Chloe Gong.Immortal Longings is Gong's adult market debut and the first book in a trilogy. The story pulls in elements from Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra for a loose retelling with the fantastical elemeny of body jumping grounded in the Chinese concept of qi life energy.Cinematic descriptions highlight the sharp contrast between the rampant poverty of Talin's common class and the gross opulence within the palace. With inequity at the base of Talin society, Gong's world building feels eerily plausible with corruption and struggle informing nearly every aspect of daily life. The uneasy blend of sophisticated surveillance and broadcasting of the games compared to the city's barely functional power grid and other analog technology further underscores San-Er's precarious position on the verge of collapse--immediately bringing to mind Ptolemaic Egypt when Cleopatra came into power.In a competition where it's kill or be killed, there are no clear winners. Similarly the moral line between good and bad is nonexistent here with no clear heroes and plenty of villains or at least anti-heroes. Although it isn't always clear if any character is fully deserving of our sympathy, thoughtful characterization makes it easy to understand the choices that brought each character--particularly Calla and Anton--to the choices they have made.Immortal Longings is a sexy, high concept adventure where (even without the body jumping) nothing is as it seems.Possible Pairings: From Blood and Ash by Jennifer L. Armentrout, The Serpent & the Wings of Night by Carissa Broadbent, The Combat Codes by Alexander Darwin, Race the Sands by Sarah Beth Durst, The King of Infinite Space by Lyndsay Faye, The Games Gods Play by Abigail Owen, The Stars Are Dying by Chloe C. Penaranda, The Stars Undying by Emery Robin, Antony and Cleopatra by WIlliam Shakespeare, The Foxglove King by Hannah Whitten

“You’re a wild, terrifying thing. Do you know that?”Book details: Body jumping and trials like the Hunger Games where there is only one victor at the end. A girl on a mission and a boy who we don’t know why he’s in the game.Thoughts: This was okay! It kept me interested enough, but I wasn’t dying to know more. I’m not going to read the second book, but it was set up nicely and all the surprises and twists were believable and intriguing.Read this one if you enjoy:⚔️ Fight to the death❤️ Forbidden love👯‍♀️ Body snatchers👑 MonarchyAudiobook Length: 12 hoursNarrator: Jeena YiWonderful narration! I would definitely recommend the audiobook to anyone who enjoys listening.

A death game that was mostly boring and very predictable. Also I did that thing where I didn’t read the back cover, though to be fair that’s because I read the shortened synopsis on my library page. This meant I didn’t realize right away that one of the three perspective characters were the love interest. Though when I started thinking he might be my favorite but die, I realized it was possible he could be the love interest and instead be ruined as a character. The second thing happened.The MC was a bog-standard past princess with a huge chip on her shoulder and gray morality that somehow was boring in a he magic system that was created. In our story, Calla (whose name I had to look up to do this review) has put her name down in a death match so she can get her revenge. Which lines up neatly with her cousins who makes sure her name is chosen from the random lottery as he’s sure their goals for bloodshed align. Then there’s Anton who is a banished aristocrat who currently jumps from body to body because his birth body is held away from him. He joins for the money as he is in deep debt trying to keep his childhood friend alive while she’s in a coma.Some of the themes and questions brought up because of this magic system are interesting and even explored in interesting ways. Anton will move himself between bodies, preferring those that are beautiful and often male. Gender fluidity is thus explored a little in the book, but not very deeply. Also the question of personhood and bodily autonomy. These are explored a little deeper, but often clumsily.Overall though, the death match didn’t interest me much and the themes failed to reach a certain amount of depth to keep me entertained. I could see a lot of people liking this, but for me it was mostly meh.