The Calling

Author: Jennifer Ashley
Published: May 2007 (Love Spell)
Category: Paranormal Romance
Series: Immortals #1
Rating: 7/10

The Immortals is a series of four books, the first and last being written by Jennifer Ashley, and the middle two written by two other authors. I've never read an entire multi-author series, but

In order to keep life and death magic in balance, different aspects of the Goddess (i.e. Isis, Cerridwen, Kali, etc.), decided to create the Immortals, a group of five demigod warriors, sired by a human and birthed by an aspect of the Goddess. They were sired by humans so that they would care for humans, and they were granted magical powers and immortality from their mothers. They apparently can't die, as a sword through the heart won't do the job either, but there was no mention of what chopping off an Immortal's head would do. If that's not a big enough hint, don't read this book if you're squeamish about violence and other forms of bloody torture.

The Calling focuses on Adrian, son of Isis. Cool thing about him: He has a silver cobra armlet named Ferrin, who is actually a living snake that has the ability to morph into silver or a huge sword. Bad thing: Sorry, my dislike of long-haired fellows comes into play here. Adrian has looooong hair (I guess in a play on that "big shoes - big tool" thing?) that he has to bind twice (ponytail and then halfway down the ponytail) that goes down to his waist. I think that's overkill, but I guess he hasn't cut his hair since the pyramids were built.

While on the trail of a demon that knows something about his long-lost brother Tain, he saves Amber Silverthorne, a hereditary witch. Her sister was murdered by the same demon that Adrian is tracking. Then bang, she and Adrian are instantly attracted to each other, despite the fact that he annoys her with his macho-ness. She wants to help Adrian in his quest to find Tain, which is linked to the growing unbalance in favor of death magic in the world. If the magic leans too far in one direction, the world ends. All the magic details in the book were really interesting. It appears Amber does most of her magic with crystals, and I haven't seen much of that since I read Mindy Klasky's Girl's Guide to Witchcraft.

As a couple, Adrian and Amber were kind of bleh to me. Amber kept saying that she wasn't good enough, and that her murdered sister was a better witch than her. Adrian has a tendency to withdraw into some depressing corner and sulk, and he's set on leaving Amber because he's an Immortal and it's just not meant to be.

Supporting characters were hugely amusing. In fact, I think that without them, the book would kinda suck, as the plot is directionless at times and the big Beltane ritual at the end left me with a big "Huh? What was the point of that, other than an excuse for magical sex ritual." There's Sabina, Amber's best friend, and a werewolf, and Valerian, Adrian's closest friend, and a dragon (when he's not in human form) with a sense of humor. There's a strong hint of romance between the two and hope to see more of it in the later books. And there's Kelly, a human actress with an thing for vampires, and Septimus, the powerful vampire who loves her. I was actually more interested in those romances than that of Adrian and Amber.

It was still an interesting read despite the negatives and I've already ordered the last three books in the series from Amazon.