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Book: “The Deathless One” by Emma Hamm
Publishing Info: Gallery Books, August 2025
Where Did I Get this Book: ARC from the publisher!
Where Can You Get this Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | IndieBound
Book Description: Jessamine was raised to be a leader for her people, but when the land is overrun by an incurable plague, she must enter a political marriage to save them all. A union that should have brought hope only brings death as her new husband murders her at the wedding altar and seizes the throne.
But her death is just the beginning. Her spirit is met by the Deathless One, a god of death yearning to return to the mortal plane, and he needs her help. The two of them make a deal—her life and the return of her kingdom in exchange for his resurrection. But the Deathless One is a known trickster, and a deal with him is one made in blood.
Jessamine knows the Deathless One is a dangerous ally, but the longer they work together, the more she wants him and the less she can stay away. As their connection deepens, soon she wonders if she even wants this contract to end. Perhaps the more appealing throne is the one by his side, but she’d have to turn her back on her people to get it.
Review: My main take away after finishing this book was a reflection on the importance of pacing. Most of the time, complaints about pacing present in the form of things moving too slowly or dragging. But pacing that moves too quickly can be just as disconcerting! And that’s what I found right when I picked up this book. Yes, action was happening, sometimes at a nonstop rate! But I spent most of that time wondering what was going and, more importantly, why I should care.
This could be seen in both smaller and greater examples. Here is a kind of throwaway scene/example, but it came right in the first few chapters. A character is described as entering a room, and then there is a description of a crunching sound and gore on this character’s shoe. So, what happened here? What did he step on? Well, believe it or not, I had to go several pages further to find a passing reference to the fact that it was a rat (as opposed to a cute kitten, fluffy bunny, who knows what!) that he had stepped on. So yes, action was happening, but it was so poorly described that I literally didn’t know what was happening for a decent chunk of time, until the actual descriptive word “rat” was finally thrown in.
So, too, I struggled to connect to the main characters. The action was galloping along, but I never felt like I was given any time to get to know them, to understand why I should feel invested in what is happening to them, and to be excited to see where the story was going. Bam! Meet the main character. Bam! She’s murdered horribly. Bam! Enter shadow daddy love interest.
On the other end, once I got to the middle of the book, the author slammed the brakes on the pacing and the story lulled almost to a stop. Much of the action here came in the building of romantic tension between the love interests. Many pages were devoted to these two fighting their attraction for one another. Some of this was well done and compelling, but it did feel as if the primary revenge plot that was set up at the beginning of the book was lost in the romantic angst.
I did like the general premise of the story and the world-building, especially what we got about the deathless one himself. I was incredibly interested in hearing more about his backstory, and gobbled up the tidbits we received throughout. He did get a lost a bit to the general “brooding” romantic interest role after a while. But I think the second book has a lot of potential now to explore some of these world-building/magical elements to a greater degree.
Overall, this was just an ok read. I could enjoy the basic story that was being told, but I struggled with the pacing, having a hard time connecting to the characters early in the story and then getting lost in the doldrums a bit towards the middle. Things picked up towards the end again, and I’m definitely curious to see where the story goes from here. Readers looking for a unique romantasy read will likely enjoy this one, especially those who enjoy spending a decent amount of time in the dramatics of relationship tension that makes up the majority of the middle of this book.
Rating 7: Too fast at the start and too slow in the middle. The ending was just about right, though!
Reader’s Advisory:
“The Deathless One” can be found on this Goodreads list: Can’t Wait Sci-Fi/Fantasy of 2025
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