Customer Reviews

The Calling (Immortals, Book 1)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

While not quite as enthralling as the Black Dagger Brotherhood ( And what is? that sereis is sooooooo yummy!) this storyline does seem to be pulling me in and I'm looking forward to meeting the rest of the men in this odd family.

Adrian is the oldest brother in a family of Immoratals created to keep the balance of power between good & evil. He is 5,000 years old and was born to Isis in Egypt. He's a six and a half foot tall warrior with a huge amount of magical power, the ability to kick butt, and a magical silver sword that turns into a cobra that coils on his arm and speaks telepathicaly to him. And he's been looking for his kidnapped baby brother for over 700 years. The stress has made a once merely disfunctional family fracture and he's lost track of his entire family.

He enters suddenly into the life of Amber Silverthorn, a witch whose sister was murdered a month ago by a demon. As he looks into the murder for Amber, Adrian starts to find clues to his brothers disappearance, his first lead in centuries. Struggling to protect Amber from the powerful and homicidal demon and still stay hot on the search for his brother brings the couple together. They adventure from the vampire clubs of L.A., to the covens of Seattle, to the frozen and desolate northern Alaska terrain in search of answers while building a tender romance.

In the end Tain, the immortal brother has gone stark raving mad from years of torture and seems possibly an even bigger threat than the uber powerful demon. Witches all over the world are asked to look for the remaining Immortals in order to stop both threats. The other 3 brothers must be found to ensure the worlds survival.

The cast of secondary characters including a dragon, a werewolf, a starlett, and a not-so-bad master vampire are entertaining and worthy of their own books. I'm definitely looking forward to the next book even though it won't be written by the same author. We'll have to see how that turns out.

My only gripes were these:1. The writing in some of the early scenes was a little stilted. 2. How come everyone knows of the existance of supernatural creatures such as vampires & demons? This doesn't seem to surprise anyone. And 3. How did he get the name Adrian, which is very Eurpoean ( first the Romans than the Brits)when he was born in 3,000 BC Egypt?? That seemed very odd to me.

Having trouble tracking down this series?
The Immortals series is a joint venture for three different authors. The first, fourth and fifth books are by Jennifer Ashley (AKA Allyson James). The second book is by Robin T. Popp, and the third by Joy Nash.

The Immortals Series:

The Calling

The Darkening

The Awakening

The Gathering

The Redeeming (Tain's Story) September 2008


I actually delayed reading this book. I wasn't really looking forward to it after reading the mixed reviews. Then I realized that many of the lower reviews were from people who don't like erotic love scenes. If you like the love scenes in series such as BDB, you'll like these.

I really enjoyed the story. With so many paranormals out there, I like reading a book that had some unique characteristics.

The story takes place in modern day Seattle, California, and the Arctic. The paranormal beings are witches, demons, vampires, "The Immortals", and shapeshifters. "The Immortals" are five sons of the Celtic gods and goddesses. They were created to protect the world from death magic. (Death magical beings include demons and vampires.) After several millennia, the Immortals have been all but forgotten. In the past, witches would chant "The Calling" spell to summon the Immortals for help whenever evil threatened. Those of the 5 whom are still fighting evil today, are doing so at their own leisure. Once these brothers realized that they could live in freedom, they each went their own way. They have not seen one another for hundreds of years.
The world of magic is divided between those who live in "life magic", and those who live in "death magic". Life magic lives in the Immortals, good witches, the Celtic gods/ goddesses, and shapeshifters. Death magic lives in demons and vampires. For millennia, they have battled. Adrian, the oldest of the 5 sons, has formed a truce with the vampires of Los Angeles. They work together to prevent demons from overtaking the world.


For 700 years, Adrian has lived in anguish. He had a special bond with his youngest brother, Tain. When Tain was taken prisoner by a demon, Adrian began to search the world for his brother. Not a corner of the world has gone unsearched. Not a day has passed that Adrian has given up the hunt. Tain is in Adrian's dreams every night, calling for Adrian's help, crying in pain from the demon's torture. In 700 years, not a clue to Tain's whereabouts has been found.

Sensing a demon presence in Seattle, Adrian races to the location to kill it. He finds that a young witch is about to be murdered by his enemy. Fighting off the demon, Adrian saves Amber's life. Now he wants to know who she is, and why she summoned a demon.

Amber is alone in the world. Her one relative, her sister Susan, was murdered by a demon 4 weeks ago. Setting up a witch circle in the warehouse where Susan died, Amber is determined to find out who killed her and why. While performing the spell, a powerful demon shows up to slay her. As he attacks, a man crashes into the room through a window. Whomever he is, Amber is glad he's there. He has fought the demon off. Now Amber wants to know why he is here. Perhaps he has answers about Susan. With questions for one another, Amber and Adrian leave the warehouse together to talk.

When Amber and Adrian realize their quests are connected, they begin to work together to find the demon who is Susan's murderer and Tain's captor. Between them they have unbelievable strength and power. Before long, they find they also have an intense bond. Knowing that Amber is mortal, Adrian wants to avoid becoming too attached to her. He fears the day that she would die of old age, leaving him to grieve her for eternity.

Tain's demon captor has come out of hiding. He wants to capture Adrian next. This demon is an "Old One", a being that has lived since the dawning of time. He is stronger than any opponent Adrian has ever faced. Using Tain as bate, the Old One begins to attack and taunt Adrian. Seeing how Adrian has come to care for Amber, the demon plans to use her as well. Hoping to destroy Adrian's good soul, the demon makes Adrian choose between Tain and Amber. One of them will be tortured. Adrian will be forced to watch. Instead of weakening him, Adrian becomes stronger as he begins to recognize that he is willing to stay by Amber's side for as many years as her mortal life lasts.

For the first time in his existence, Adrian has met a demon he can't best alone. His only choice is to call his brothers to his side. With their combined powers, the demon won't stand a chance. The Calling spell has not been used in centuries. With the help of Susan's coven friends, Amber will find and use the spell to bring Adrian's brothers to their side. Tain is in the Old One's hands. When The Calling reaches Tain, the demon comes forward to fight "The Gathering".


Want to read the whole series? Here are the links for the next three:

The Darkening (Immortals, Book 2)

The Awakening (Immortals, Book 3)

The Gathering (Immortals, Book 4)


If you enjoy paranormal roamnce, give these series' a try:


The Psy/ Changeling Series:

Slave to Sensation (Psy-Changelings, Book 1)

Visions of Heat (Psy-Changelings, Book 2)

Caressed By Ice (Psy-Changelings, Book 3)

Mine to Possess (Psy-Changelings, Book 4)


The Immortals After Dark Series:

A Hunger Like No Other (The Immortals After Dark Series, Book 1)

No Rest for the Wicked (The Immortals After Dark, Book 2)

Wicked Deeds on a Winter's Night (The Immortals After Dark, Book 3)

Dark Needs at Night's Edge (The Immortals After Dark Series, Book 4)

Dark Desires After Dusk (The Immortals After Dark, Book 5)

This is your basic cookie-cutter style romance but with a Highlander-esque storyline. The characters are likable but not especially deep. Things progress about as you might expect.

The storyline, though, offers some hints of more maturity to follow, perhaps. Also, this series is a collaboration - the second in the series is by Robin T. Popp, so it will be interesting to see her take on this world.

All in all, a decent opener, but it didn't rock my world. However, I will be interested to see where the series goes with the addition of other authors and new twists in the story. I will definitely pick up the second in the series.

The Immortal series has it all. A great paranormal world, with interesting supporting characters, a truly evil bad guy that can't be vanquished in a mere handful of pages, a bunch of hunky immortals to save the world, and lots of love scenes. Gosh with all that going on Immortals the Calling should have been a great book, but it was just so so and I am trying to figure out the reason why.

I suppose that being the first book in the series the author was at a bit of a disadvantage in that she had to spend time introducing the world in addition to telling the story. It takes a long time to warm up to the hero Adrian. Although Adrian was created to be a protector of humanity, he comes across as someone not so noble. His focus is the battle and he relishes killing the enemy. The author tries to make him a tormented hero, wracked with guilt at not being able to find his brother even though he's search the world for 700 years. Yet for someone whose brother is so important to him, he hasn't bothered touching base with his other three brother in all that time. The heroine Amber is great though, she is also tormented by the loss of a sibling, but her loss feels more real. She is a witch and even though she's not magically in Adrian's class, she more than compensates for the difference by using her intelligence instead of just her power.

The numerous love scenes are actually another problem with this book -- as strange as that may sound. The love scenes between Adrian and Amber are clumsily written and with there being so many of them, they actually get a bit tedious. Adrian's relationship with Amber is lusty but not a romance that builds into a love that defies death. It would have been better to have spent more pages building the tension between them and had one or two truly satisfying love scenes instead.

In spite or the problems with this book the things that should have made this book great, will be carrying through the rest of the series so there is still hope for the rest of the Immortals.

I have been getting burnt out on some of the scores of lackluster paranormal romances out there, but having read a Jennifer Ashley Historical before and enjoyed it-I decided to give this book a try. I am so glad I did:)

While I loved the book and found it VERY erotically romantic and very fast paced and adventuresome-I did want to forewarn a few readers who may not like erotica.

First-I throughly feel this is erotica and not just a highly sensual romance. Why? Well-there are explicit love scenes as well as scenes in the beginning that are more about sex than love. Very explicit language, over half a dozen bedroom scenes as well as a love scene written about 2 other characters besides the H/H-so to me that constitutes erotica or at least being labeled an erotic romance. Again, not a problem for me personally, but I wanted to warn those who are disturbed by this.

Second-there is lots of violence and bloodletting-integral to the story-but again, be forewarned if you're squeamish.

Finally-witchcraft-which I found very interesting-is heavily involved in the storyline. The heroine is described as a "hereditary witch"-meaning her family has been witches for generations. I thought this part of the book very well done and not too "over the top"-but I did want to mention it for those who don't read romances with witches (though I would question why anyone with a problem with witches would read paranormal romances to begin with-LOL).

I read the book in a little over half a day and didn't want to put it down. I loved that Amber was a very strong, brave heroine! The secondary characters were very interesting and you want to see their stories as well. All in all, a fun, sexy, romantic adventure that I highly recommend! A great escape from the everyday grind.

5 stars!

Adrian, an immortal warrior, has a dream involving a demon and he hears a woman's cries. Four weeks later he has finally managed to track down the demon to a warehouse and encounters Amber Silverthorne, a witch whose sister Susan has been murdered. Adrian fights off the demon, but the demon manages to escape. Adrian and Amber team up to find out who was responsible for Susan's death and eventually also locate Adrian's Immortal brother, Tain, who has been missing for seven hundred years.

If you like paranormal romance with great action, you will like this book. It had it all, immortals, witches, a dragon, a werewolve, vampires and demons. The writing was impeccable, the action exhilarating, the love story was spellbinding. Since this is the first book in a four book series, the story is left open at the end for the continuation of the next Immortal's story and how the calling of the Immortals' plays out.

This book was really surprising. I read every romance i can get my hands on that has to do with the paranormal. Some are great and some are truly awful. This book is filled with plenty of supsense, angst, heartbreak and a truly horrible torture scene. I could not believe how realistic it was or how much it got to me. I love the leads. Found the main man to be super hot. Ok-now to the bad stuff. I really hated the fact that the vampires were the bad guys. You know they were pretty creepy and coarse. There was one good vampire but that just didn't do it for me.
Overall I really did like the book and plan on getting each one that comes out in this series.

I saw the article about Jennifer Ashley and this series in Romantic Times Book Reviews (June 07)and thought "Cool!" I stopped by the bookstore that afternoon and bought it. That was 10 days ago and I just finished it.
For me it moved too slowly for most of the book, it didn't really pick up the pace until about 3/4 of the way through. I really wanted to care about the characters, but found myself waiting for the scenes with the secondary characters. I enjoyed them more than the main hero/heroine. The idea that our hero and his brothers defend the human race against all the big bad evil stuff out there and yet never really connects with or cares about them didn't really work for me.
I realize this is the first book of a series, and therefore has to set everything up, but it wasn't what I'd hoped for. I'll probably still read at least the next one and see if it gets better.
If you haven't read Sherrilyn Kenyon, try her Dark Hunter series. And JR Ward's Black Dagger Brotherhood series as well. Those are more than worth the time and money spent on them.

About two-thirds of the way through this so-called paranormal romance changes into a very nasty, gory horror and sex story. Where the hero is brutalised and his brother tortured. Just the kind of story I do not like at all. So much so that I had to skip to the final chapter just to make sure of the HEA. Which turns out to be very half-hearted. The heroine is brought back to life by a goddess.

But more than anything. I really felt that Adrian's brother Tain deserved a much better ending. The poor guy is still destined to be flayed alive every 3 days. The descriptions of which were really too much for me. I'm not surprised Tain yearns for the end of the world seeing that is the only way his torture will be finished. And the traitorous vampire Septimus thoroughly deserved to take Tain's place for a few decades at least. Instead he gets to remain Adrian's good buddy. Despite the fact that he nearly drained Adrian dry of blood. So for me the ending was highly unsatisfactory. And once again no other reviewer warned me of that fact.

What a nincompoop Adrian turned out to be. He searches for Tain for hundreds of years and then when he finally finds him he gives him up for the sake of 'true lurve' with a former college good-time gal. I'm just grateful my freedom doesn't depend on him. I felt that Adrian and Amber's dubious HEA came at too high a cost.

ps. This story also features lots and lots and lots of pretty useless trivial magic of all forms. Just bring along a few weapons next time dearies.

What saved this book from the trash pile was one very weird love scene. Where the main couple are infused with the spirit of the hero's mother and father. And I really couldn't work out whether they performed in public or not. Shame on me!

Overall. Not too bad.

Awaking from a dream of his long lost brother, immortal Adrian sees a demon hanging over his bed. When something distracts the demon, he turns from Adrain and disappears with a distant woman's scream. Created to keep the balance of good and evil, Adrian must follow.

In a dark warehouse, witch Amber Silverthorn tries to find the reason why her sister had died. Her circle of protection is suddenly tested by a demon, a very old demon. The sudden entrance of our "hero" Adrian, saves Amber, however the demon escapes. And so the adventure begins with betrayals, demons, vampires, and dragons.

THE CALLING is a fast-moving and a well written story with likeable characters. I personally do not care for books with an occult theme but, I admit that shape-shifters are my favorite (you've got to love that dragon). As the first of four books, THE CALLING is a great hook. I anticipate the next three in the series will make great summer reads.

Reviewed by Michele Patrykus
For eBookIsle