4.5 stars

"Just know that, whatever you choose, you will die today. The manner of your death, however, is up to you."

Just when you might be thinking the vampire genre cannot possibly have any more to give, Julie Kagawa unleashes her unfathomable talent onto us readers and proves that vampires aren’t quite past their sell-by date. Honestly, I have no idea how she does it. It seems everyone is ready to move on from the endless tales of blood-sucking and fangs, yet she effortlessly reins us back in with her powerful imagination. In Julie Kagawa’s world, vampires aren’t creatures to be admired under the sunlight, or even creatures you want to put your ‘bite me’ shirts on for. In new Covington, vampires are to be feared and avoided. Trust me, these vampires? They aren’t the sexy kind.

It’s hardly a secret that I worship Kagawa’s Iron Fey series. I adore her writing style and I love how easily she makes me fall in love with her characters. I am happy to say that the same applies here with The Immortal Rules. Once again, Julie Kagawa effortlessly manages to grab my attention with her beautiful descriptions and wonderful characterisation skills. There is very little I didn’t like (love!) about this story.

The world-building was perfect. The book opens with a scene at the gallows and it couldn’t have commenced with anything better. Instantly, the reader gets an understanding of the system in New Covington – the vampires are in charge and the humans are nothing but cattle. Allie, our heroine, is an Unregistered, one of the humans living in the Fringe, one of the humans who the vampires ‘ignore’. This also means Allie and her crew aren’t allowed any food or resources from the Inner City, because technically, the Unregistered don’t actually ‘exist’. There is a distinct dystopian feel in the air from the first chapter and I loved it. After a brilliantly strong start to one of my most anticipated reads of the year, I was giddy with excitement to read on at full speed. I knew I was going to adore this book.

And adore it, I did. There was action, excitement, suspense – everything I love in a gripping book. The story is structured impeccably well, flowing at a comfortable and natural pace. Once again, I am envious of people who can actually write, because Julie Kagawa certainly can. She doesn’t hold back with this story, giving us a thrilling and engaging plot.

I think it’s best to mention the romance now. After all, what is a Julie Kagawa book if not a brilliant recipe for creating the perfect boy? (I am trying hard – and failing - not to think about Ash and Puck at this moment). Zeke – also known as Ezekiel Crosse (Hey, don’t laugh!) – was the character I had been most looking forward to meeting in this book. The fact that we didn’t actually get to run into him until halfway through made it even better. That might sound strange, but I was glad Julie took the time to create the world and slowly unravel the plot before the romance took to the stage. When Allie and Zeke did finally meet, it was done beautifully. Not a smidgen of insta-love or love-triangle doom in sight. To watch as they grew to trust each other and then to care about each other was unbelievably sweet and perfectly handled.

I imagine the majority of people who won’t like this book will have had trouble warming to Julie Kagawa’s work in the past. But if that’s not you and, if like me, you are a self-proclaimed official fan of Julie Kagawa, it is very likely you will LOVE this book. In which case, I couldn’t recommend this more.

(This review also appears on my blog)