The Immortal Rules (Blood of Eden, #1)

The Immortal Rules
Julie Kagawa
480 pages
Publisher: HarlequinTeen
Source: NetGalley
★★★★★

You can read the Goodreads summary here.

The Immortal Rules is the first novel I've ever read by Julie Kagawa, not that her other books haven't been on my radar.  I've never read anything bad about a Julie Kagawa novel, so I knew I was in for a treat and I surely was!

The Immortal Rules stars Allison, a young woman coming of age in a very broken society.  In her city, the vampires live in the center protected by a huge wall, but Allison and her human friends live on the fringe, unregistered meaning they do not have a quota of blood to donate to the vampires.  But when she's attacked and left to die, a strange vampire named Kanin comes along and gives her a choice - die or become what she hates the most, a vampire.  She chooses "life" and must come to grips with her new lifestyle on the run, forced to leave the city and venture into the unknown.

I loved this book!  Julie Kagawa is an awesome writer.  Her writing is so concise and beautiful, I don't know how to describe how wonderful it is.  But considering I'm the last YA reader in the universe to jump on the Kagawa train, you probably already knew that.  She has the ability to write a scene that really draws you in and makes you feel apart of the action.

Speaking of action, The Immortal Rules is not lacking for it.  It begins with action as Allison, still human, leaves her safe spot in an abandoned school to venture out for food.  There's action when she's turned, there's action after she must flee, there's action when she joins up with a ragtag group of humans who don't know she's a vampire, there's action all the way until the very last word.  Whew!  Yet there are also down times, times when we get to learn more about Zeke, one of the travelers she's joined up with; times we think there might be a budding romance between the two.  He was a pretty dreamy guy!

But my favorite character would be Allison.  Finally a vampire novel where the female heroine is not weak, needing a man to come save her.  Instead, The Immortal Rules features quite the opposite - a strong heroine who swoops in multiple times to save her love interest.  It was very cool.

Five stars!  The Immortal Rules is a fantastic piece of YA literature.  Even if you think you're done with vampires, you must give this book a try if not for the new twist of vampire lore, but to experience the amazing writing of Kagawa.  Do it!