Immortal City by Scott Speer, UK edition cover.

Title: Immortal City (Immortal City #1)
Author:Scott Speer
Genre: Paranormal Romance, Young Adult
Publisher:  Scholastic Children’s Books (5th April 2012)
Blurb:

Jackson Godspeed is the hottest Angel in a city obsessed with Immortals. Everyone loves him.

Everyone except Maddy Montgomery, that is. She’s not interested in shallow celebrities . . . Until Jackson takes refuge in the diner where Maddy works and an irresistible connection pulls them together.

But as Maddy is drawn into Jackson’s glamorous world, she’s exposed to more than the paparazzi. A serial killer is murdering Angels. Maddy and Jackson could lose each other for ever.

Rating: **** (4 stars)
Review:

Immortal City is Scott Speer’s debut novel. It tells the story of a mortal and an Angel falling in love in the city of Los Angeles.

I really enjoyed reading this book. I loved the premise of the book, and I loved the characters in it. I also loved the plot. However, there was a LOT of name dropping of brands in this book, and that kind of bugged me a little bit. In part because it is just plain lazy. I understand why Speer used name dropping of brands – it helped to create the idea that Angels were like celebrities; rich, powerful, and attractive. Personally, I would have preferred it if Speer had done a little less name dropping.

There are three main characters in this book – Maddy, Jackson, and Detective Sylvester. I thought they were all interesting main characters. I liked the way Speer wrote the interactions between Maddy and Jackson, and showed really clearly how disparate their worlds are. Both Maddy and Jackson are very secure in their worlds, it is only when they collide that things begin to change for them. I liked the fact that both of them had to change and had to deal with the repercussions of these changes, that it wasn’t just one of them.  I enjoyed reading about them both. At times their interactions made me smile. Detective Sylvester was an interesting and mysterious presence in the book, but a very important one.

The plot of this book was an interesting mix of coming of age, romance, and detective fiction. For me this mixture worked, and worked well. It provided so many twists, that I wasn’t really sure how things were going to turn out – what choices the characters were going to make. I liked this; it made me sit down and read the book, hating any and all disturbances. There is a lot of potential in this book. The ending gives a certain sense of closure, but I’m hoping that Speer will write more books set in this world. I really would like to see the world of Immortal City explored more, and I would like to see more of Detective Sylvester, Maddy, Jackson and their friends and family.

If you like Angels then you should definitely pick up this book, if you haven’t already. If you like Paranormal Romance, then ditto. This is one of my absolute favourite reads of 2012 so far. I am eagerly awaiting any and all sequels.