Reviewed by Jennifer Joyce
Since becoming a vampire, nearly two hundred years ago, Nathanial Gray has chosen not to feel any emotion. He is out driving with his best friend and fellow vampire, James when they are involved in an accident, running Rowan Locke off the road. Nate isn’t hurt during the accident, but something strange begins to happen to him. His body starts surging with emotions that do not belong to him, emotions so powerful that he is unable to function properly. It soon becomes clear that the emotions he is experiencing are coming from Rowan and there is no way Nate can block them out. For the first time in both his human and immortal life, Nate feels a connection to a woman. Not only does he experience every emotion Rowan feels, Nate can't help felling concerned for her welfare as she lies in hospital. He worries about Rowan and needs to be close to her to the point of obsession, which is all very alien to him especially since he shut off his feelings two centuries before.
Nate’s family are worried about him as he struggles to cope with Rowan’s onslaught of emotions and they are horrified when he insists on being close to her, feeling the irrepressible need to protect her. Nothing can change Nate’s mind, so his family are forced to go along with his plans. Fellow vampire Madeleine is compelled to investigate Rowan and is puzzled by the lack of information on Rowan's Aunt Hetty. Nate felt there was something very off about the woman when he met her at Rowan’s bedside, which only adds to Madeleine’s intrigue. She is determined to discover what secrets Aunt Hetty holds, particularly when it appears Rowan’s safety is in jeopardy and Aunt Hetty may be the only one who knows how to keep her out of harm’s way.
No Such Things As Immortality is ultimately a tale of love. Nate and Rowan experience a sudden, but all consuming connection and although Nate wants to be with Rowan, he knows it can never happen. He is a vampire, while Rowan is a human, and he's aware that she would be terrified and repulsed if she ever discovered the truth. I loved the chemistry between the pair and could feel Rowan’s frustration as Nate backed away with no real explanation. It was also very sweet the way Nate, who has never been in love before, becomes consumed by his need to protect Rowan from any possible dangers, including walking up and down sets of stairs.
As well as the romance between Nate and Rowan, there is also the mystery of Aunt Hetty. She seems to know everything about Nate and his family, while they know very little about her. I wish more had been revealed about Aunt Hetty as Nate – and the reader – still aren’t completely sure what the deal is by the end of the book. There is a lot of humour in No Such thing As Immortality. My favourite scenes in the book either contained Nate’s attempts to fit in with Rowan’s world, despite his lack of knowledge of the modern world, or his brotherly relationship with James and Frederick and their teasing about his infatuation with Rowan. There is also a cheeky reference to Twilight, which made me laugh. It took me a while to get into No Such Thing As Immortality and I was probably a hundred pages in before I began to enjoy it. However, by then the humour really kicked in, followed by the action as Rowan’s life becomes endangered and the pages began to fly by so I was glad I persevered.
8/10
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