DNF Review--The Immortal Crown by Richelle Mead

The #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Vampire Academy and Bloodline series returns with the second installment in her acclaimed Age of X series.

Gameboard of the Gods introduced religious investigator Justin March and Mae Koskinen, the beautiful supersoldier assigned to protect him. Together they have been charged with investigating reports of the supernatural and the return of the gods, both inside the Republic of United North America and out. With this highly classified knowledge comes a shocking revelation: Not only are the gods vying for human control, but the elect—special humans marked by the divine—are turning against one another in bloody fashion.

Their mission takes a new twist when they are assigned to a diplomatic delegation headed by Lucian Darling, Justin’s old friend and rival, going into Arcadia, the RUNA’s dangerous neighboring country. Here, in a society where women are commodities and religion is intertwined with government, Justin discovers powerful forces at work, even as he struggles to come to terms with his own reluctantly acquired deity.

Meanwhile, Mae—grudgingly posing as Justin’s concubine—has a secret mission of her own: finding the illegitimate niece her family smuggled away years ago. But with Justin and Mae resisting the resurgence of the gods in Arcadia, a reporter’s connection with someone close to Justin back home threatens to expose their mission—and with it the divine forces the government is determined to keep secret.

I received this ARC from the publishers via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review, I was in no way compensated for this review.


Sadly, Richelle Mead's The Immortal Crown ended up being a DNF book for me. I can't quite be sure what it is about this particular series, but I am just not into it as I was all her previous books. I am a huge fan of Richelle's books, and I kept pushing myself to read more and more. But I couldn't even make it halfway.

I think my problem with this one is that it reads like a contemporary. It's got some sci-fi elements, but not enough "weirdness" to it to keep me entertained. There's a mix of religion factors in it, that being there are a different array of gods too. The gods are coming back, but they aren't totally in power and they need "followers", so to speak, to believe in them, worship, etc in order for them to be powerful.

It's Justin's job to investigate these "religions" and try to put an end to the phony ones. Ones that are causing more harm then good. He is sort of halfway bound to Odin, but not entirely. Odin's ravens are in his head and talk to him constantly. 

Then there's Mae who pretty much acts as Justin's bodyguard while he goes to these religious sects. Justin has made a few enemies and needs all the protection he can get. He and Mae once had a fling of sorts, where Mae thought there could be something more. Justin too, in a sense, but then he learns that if he were to ever do so, he would be completely bound to Odin.

There's also Tessa, the young girl from Panama that Justin has taken under his wing. She's attending school for the gifted and gets an internship with a reporter. I still don't quite understand her role in the scheme of things. As she gets point of view page time. This is a multiple third person point of view kind of novel as well. So in part, some of my confusion towards the storyline might have come from her segments.

I barely got to the main part of the story where Justin, Mae and their coworkers go to Arcadia to look into this other group. That's about where I stopped, my attention was drifting and I realized when it comes to that, it's time to stop reading.

I wanted to like this one. I wanted to soooo bad. I love Richelle Mead, but this novel just wasn't for me. It seriously read like a contemporary. I can't handle contemporaries. There was little pieces of action in the amount I read, but even that's not enough to keep me entertained unless there's some paranormal or "weirdness" coupled with it. The amount that we have of that really comes from Justin talking to Odin's ravens. The gods don't even appear to people and have a chat. There's just nothing odd going on. It feels more like a sci-fi novel where there's a lot of investigating and conspiracy theories going on. And that's really just not my kind of read. 

If you like sci-fi or contemporaries with bits of sci-fi in it, then this might be the read for you. But speaking as a paranormal reader, this one just didn't hold up to my expectations. I am still a fan of Richelle and will definitely check out anything else new that she brings to us readers, pending that it will have more paranormal or, as I keep saying, "weirdness" to it.


No rating for this one as I did not finish it and therefore, I feel like I cannot rate it.


The Immortal Crown releases May 29, 2014