What do you think?
Rate this book
Shanghai #2
The Immortals
Amalie Berenger is magnificently beautiful and monumentally bitter. Humiliated beyond measure in France during World War II, she has come to Shanghai with only one purpose - to murder the man who tormented her.
She doesn't expect to meet her long lost mother, one of Shanghai's most prominent women, and the father she never knew, a brilliant political leader.
She doesn't dream she will fall in love with Michael Cassidy - a Catholic priest.
She can't imagine amid the turmoil of China's communist revolution, she will finally become the woman she was always meant to be.
She doesn't expect to meet her long lost mother, one of Shanghai's most prominent women, and the father she never knew, a brilliant political leader.
She doesn't dream she will fall in love with Michael Cassidy - a Catholic priest.
She can't imagine amid the turmoil of China's communist revolution, she will finally become the woman she was always meant to be.
437 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1983
2 people are currently reading
76 people want to read
About the author
Natasha Peters
16 books39 followersNatasha Peters is a pesudonym for Elizabeth Jordan, who also wrote as Anastasia Cleaver.
Her ideas for her books have taken her to many foreign lands in the East and West, and through the volumes of history and biography. She was also an actress, an artist, a singer, and loved to grow roses.
Her ideas for her books have taken her to many foreign lands in the East and West, and through the volumes of history and biography. She was also an actress, an artist, a singer, and loved to grow roses.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
November 21, 2020
A page turning story about an alpha h who runs into her biological parents in Shanghai China during the take over by communists. The first 2/3 was 5 stars but then climax of book that should have raptured relationships apart forever, instead got all smoothed and tidied up for the HEA ending.
March 6, 2023
If I were judging this book by the writing alone, it would deserve five stars. It was beautiful and emotional. But the story itself was at times pretty anger-inducing, which is why it gets three stars from me.
I'm putting this book and its prequel on my favorites list because I love the characters so much, but they're really very flawed novels, especially The Immortals. The main character does some extremely unlikable things and most of the story is focused on her letting go of her vengeance and becoming a happier, kinder person. Because of this, her romance felt very underdeveloped. I was really excited for a passionate taboo priest romance, but it's really not that kind of book. It's more of a coming-of-age novel.
That's fine, Amalie is still fascinating to read about, but in the process of telling her story, Natasha Peters kind of damaged her previous heroine's life in the process. Anne is my favorite character in this duology, and the way she was treated by Amalie and Jamie was awful. Her character is supposed to be extremely forgiving and self-sacrificing, but the way she just got over her close family horribly betraying her in about two chapters didn't sit well with me.
The way her story ended was also so tragic, and the way she told her friend if anything happened to her she should marry her husband was just too much for me. I freaking hate the trope where the dying wife arranges a new wife for her grieving husband so so much. It's the worst. In my head, Jamie never gets with her friend and she finds someone else to love. I at least appreciate that Natasha Peters never states if they do ever get together, just that it's a possibility.
The love story between Jamie and Anne is really what I was most invested in throughout this whole book(their final scene together actually made me cry), but the warm familial scenes that this author created between them, Amalie, Michael Cassidy, and Amalie's father after the heavy angst of the first half of the book were also incredibly lovely to read about.
So yeah, I'm conflicted about this story. I loved it, I hated it, but if you like messy family dramas and you don't mind in-depth political arguments mixed in with your romance (seriously Natasha Peters is so into arguing about the pros and cons of capitalism, socialism, and communism this is like the third book I've read of hers where her characters are constantly talking about these topics and the main plot revolves around them) you'll probably like The Enticers and The Immortals.
TW: abuse, racism
I'm putting this book and its prequel on my favorites list because I love the characters so much, but they're really very flawed novels, especially The Immortals. The main character does some extremely unlikable things and most of the story is focused on her letting go of her vengeance and becoming a happier, kinder person. Because of this, her romance felt very underdeveloped. I was really excited for a passionate taboo priest romance, but it's really not that kind of book. It's more of a coming-of-age novel.
That's fine, Amalie is still fascinating to read about, but in the process of telling her story, Natasha Peters kind of damaged her previous heroine's life in the process. Anne is my favorite character in this duology, and the way she was treated by Amalie and Jamie was awful. Her character is supposed to be extremely forgiving and self-sacrificing, but the way she just got over her close family horribly betraying her in about two chapters didn't sit well with me.
The way her story ended was also so tragic, and the way she told her friend if anything happened to her she should marry her husband was just too much for me. I freaking hate the trope where the dying wife arranges a new wife for her grieving husband so so much. It's the worst. In my head, Jamie never gets with her friend and she finds someone else to love. I at least appreciate that Natasha Peters never states if they do ever get together, just that it's a possibility.
The love story between Jamie and Anne is really what I was most invested in throughout this whole book(their final scene together actually made me cry), but the warm familial scenes that this author created between them, Amalie, Michael Cassidy, and Amalie's father after the heavy angst of the first half of the book were also incredibly lovely to read about.
So yeah, I'm conflicted about this story. I loved it, I hated it, but if you like messy family dramas and you don't mind in-depth political arguments mixed in with your romance (seriously Natasha Peters is so into arguing about the pros and cons of capitalism, socialism, and communism this is like the third book I've read of hers where her characters are constantly talking about these topics and the main plot revolves around them) you'll probably like The Enticers and The Immortals.
TW: abuse, racism
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 30, 2015
I had never heard of this author, and I nearly decided to give the book to Goodwill after it was given to me. I decided to read it after all, and now I want to read every one of her books. It got to the point that I literally could not put the book down. I wanted to see how it turned out, and I couldn't wait. I loved this book.
March 13, 2025
This book was a rollercoaster! I really didn’t know what to expect going in, because although I found it in the romance section at a used bookstore, it took me till about the third chapter to realize this wasn’t really a romance at all. I was pleasantly surprised at the depth of research the author must have done, and before starting the book I didn’t even have a particular interest in the era she wrote this book in – I picked up the book purely because I was intrigued by the character of Amalie in the synopsis. And I loved seeing Amalie’s transformation throughout the story. She was my favorite part of this book, as the main heroine. I know the author was fleshing out the supporting characters quite a lot, but I really didn’t think any of them as interesting as Amalie—and also her father was an extremely interesting character and I loved how he was written. Amalie herself was a dramatic mix of toughness and vulnerability, and I expect some would find the way she—and the book overall—was written as too dramatic and cliché, but sometimes I like straightforward drama, especially in historicals. Amalie was a heartfelt depiction of a traumatized woman in my opinion, and to me well-written.
The romance part of the book didn’t really sell me, but I didn’t hate it. I didn’t like Michael throughout most of the story, but I think he redeemed himself for the most part, and The second half of the book is far less focused on their romance, and I actually enjoyed the second half a lot for this fact. I was hoping for an epilogue, but I didn’t feel cheated by the author’s choices.
Overall if you go into this book with an open mind, and enjoy the historical aspect of post-WWII Shanghai, I think this is a great read! I had no idea what to expect chapter to chapter and that made it exciting!
The romance part of the book didn’t really sell me, but I didn’t hate it. I didn’t like Michael throughout most of the story, but I think he redeemed himself for the most part, and The second half of the book is far less focused on their romance, and I actually enjoyed the second half a lot for this fact. I was hoping for an epilogue, but I didn’t feel cheated by the author’s choices.
Overall if you go into this book with an open mind, and enjoy the historical aspect of post-WWII Shanghai, I think this is a great read! I had no idea what to expect chapter to chapter and that made it exciting!
June 12, 2010
On my bookshelf for years.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews