Book Review: Immortal City by Scott Speer

Title: Immortal City (Immortal City #1) 
Author: Scott Speer
Genre: Paranormal Romance, Contemporary, Angels 
Publisher: Penguin
Publication Date: April 2012
Pages: 384
Rating: 4 stars

Synopsis (from goodreads):
WE PAY THEM TO PROTECT US. AND WE’RE THEIR BIGGEST FANS.
They are our celebrities, and we worship them with paparazzi and endless gossip and speculation. To us, they are glamour. To them, we’re assignment. Their job is to guard us-that is, those of us who can afford them… Because the only thing stronger than a Guardian Angel is the rule they must obey.


So what happens when one of them falls for one of us?

In the city of Angels,
the rules are about to be broken. 

My Review:

I’m not normally a fan of book trailers but this one caught my eye and before I knew it I was rushing out to a bookstore to purchase myself a copy. Angels as celebrities, forbidden love – oh I’m so there.

I was surprised at just how much was going on in this novel.

Maddy is a seventeen year old waitress who can’t wait to get into college and get out of Angel City. As far as she is concerned Angels are over hyped celebrities who only save the wealthy and don’t spare a thought for the rest of the population.

Jackson “Jacks” Godspeed is the hottest new Angel who is just days away from everything he’s ever wanted – being commissioned as a Guardian Angel.

After a chance encounter between Maddy and Jacks, neither one of them can go back to how their lives were before. But an Angel and a human? There’s no way the powers-that-be will stand for that. Maddy and Jacks’ relationship seems doomed from the start and now with an immortal serial killer is on the loose – with Jacks as his next target.

There’s romance, there are celebrities and there’s a fantastic serial killer story that I was not expecting from the trailer and blurb. And to be honest, whilst the mystery plot line was my favourite I also enjoyed how Maddy and Jacks came together. But by the time I finished reading this novel I realized that I didn’t like any of the characters (with the exception of Detective Sylvester). Maddy and Jacks were a little too two-dimensional for my liking. She hated him because she hates all Angels. He wanted her because she didn’t like him based on the fact that he was an Angel and everyone loved Jacks Godspeed. I didn’t feel like there was much substance to either of the main characters. I would have liked them to be a little more complex with more hidden layers and motivations that weren’t apparent at first glance. In terms of the characters’ characters, I felt like I didn’t know any more about who they were as people at the end of the novel than I did in the first few chapters.

One of the highlights of this book for me was how vivid the storytelling was. From the first chapter I was right there with the characters. I could almost believe that I was in the sports car riding along and listening to old school hip hop. It comes as no surprise to me that the author is a director of music videos and films. This book is written in a way that’s beautifully illustrative.

I also liked how very “now” this book was – twitter, facebook and other social media sites were shown to be very important. It helped add to the atmosphere that the Angels are the ultimate in celebrity and that as such they are going to have followers follow them in any way possibly.

This novel is the first in a series and I will be reading the next book. Whilst I didn’t care one way or another what happened to the main characters I thoroughly enjoyed the journey that they took me on. I did want to know how everything was going to go down.

Purchase the novel from:

Amazon / Book Depository 


Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.