Immortal City (Immortal City #1) by Scott Speer - Review

❋ ❋ ❋ ❋

I'll admit I haven't read that many YA angel books, but I was pleasantly surprised by Immortal City. The summary on the book jacket was enough to catch my attention right off the bat. The story goes something like this: Guardian Angels only Protect and Save those that can pay through the nose (the wrong reason), but what happens when an Angel saves for love (the right reason). There's also a pretty interesting mystery involving a string of angel murders and the mystery surrounding Maddy, the leading lady. By the way, if you couldn't tell, Angel City and the Angels' lifestyle are an alternate take on Los Angeles, Hollywood, and celebrity life. I usually prefer my angels more traditional, but I was interested to see that the author took the creatures in a complete 180 degree turnaround from what I expected. Then again, I do enjoy watching Supernatural, so maybe that kind of prepared me for some of the concepts in place in the world of Angel City.

The greatest weak point for me is Maddy's friend, Gwen. Gwen is very annoying. I can't really figure out why a character like Maddy would even be friends with a character like Gwen in the first place. I also thought that at points the romance was predictable: a boy (super rich Angel) and a girl (poor in comparison) from completely different worlds fall in love with plenty of obstacles (Angels, demons, the law) between them and happiness.

I liked that the author was very much able to take the story where I didn't expect it to go - the last eighty to one hundred pages went so fast! One of Scott Speer's greatest strengths is in how visual his writing is - I think this story could easily be adapted to screen - and he is very good at writing action-packed sequences.

One final note: I thought the epilogue was unnecessary and felt tacked on. Speer could have left it out with no issue whatsoever. I believe it would have been much more effective to end it with chapter forty-one.

Overall, I enjoyed this light read and I'll probably be back for the sequel. If you see a copy for $1.99 at Ollie's Bargain Outlet, don't pass it up!


I read this from April 13 - 22, 2014 and my review is also on Goodreads.