Blood, Vamps, and Love! Oh, My!

Oh.  My.  Gosh.  This book was fantabulous.  Everything about The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa was great!  I've been a huge fan of Julie's right from the start with The Iron Fey Series.  So, naturally, I aggressively attacked the request button for this book on NetGalley.  Just for kicks and giggles, my blood craved this book.  I could feel the need for it coursing through my veins.  It screamed for it.
Not to make you guess my rating for this book, I'll tell ya now.  FIVE STARS.  No doubt in my mind about it.  There was a lot of death, but that was to be expected when vampires rule the world and humans are 'bloodbags'.  It's not the main term used for the humans, but it is bandied about a few times.  This was nothing I expected this book to be.  Julie Kagawa, you are awesome!  I couldn't stop reading this book.  My eyes gulped down every word, wishing there was more when I was finished reading.  And let me tell ya, this was not your average vamp book.  Not at all . . .

In a future world, Vampires reign. Humans are blood cattle. And one girl will search for the key to save humanity.
Allison Sekemoto survives in the Fringe, the outermost circle of a vampire city. By day, she and her crew scavenge for food. By night, any one of them could be eaten.
Some days, all that drives Allie is her hatred of them. The vampires who keep humans as blood cattle. Until the night Allie herself is attacked—and given the ultimate choice. Die… or become one of the monsters.
Faced with her own mortality, Allie becomes what she despises most. To survive, she must learn the rules of being immortal, including the most important: go long enough without human blood, and you will go mad.
Then Allie is forced to flee into the unknown, outside her city walls. There she joins a ragged band of humans who are seeking a legend—a possible cure to the disease that killed off most of humankind and created the rabids, the mindless creatures who threaten humans and vampires alike.
But it isn't easy to pass for human. Especially not around Zeke, who might see past the monster inside her. And Allie soon must decide what—and who—is worth dying for.

This book had me at katana . . . I couldn't wait to see what would happen!  The Immortal Rules was a mix of I Am Legend and Priest.  Total loneliness with scary and illusive creatures and vampire domination with talented people who kill them.  Well, talented wouldn't exactly be the best word, but they're some pretty awesome vampire slayers, not by occupation, but by need of survival.
Allison Sekemoto starts off in the first part of the book as a human struggling to stay alive day by day.  It definitely isn't a pretty way to live, not on any body's terms.  But she manages without complaint and does her best, until she dies and becomes a vampire, the very kind she hates.  And thank you, Miss Kagawa, for not making Allie all self-loathing and mopey throughout the book!  I would have died if she did.  Allie, our main girl, persevered and did her best to maintain a life she once had.
Now don't think that she kept on trying to stay human and refrained from drinking human blood.  She didn't dwell on her human years and did drink human blood.  But, she tried to change the way people lived in this futuristic world.  Allie hated how the vampires mistreated humans and she hated how humans treated her when they found out she was a vampire.  She wasn't dumb and thought that things would happen over night, but she earned trust from a few humans.  And that begins the start of her adventures in The Blood of Eden Series
Part Two of the book is her as a vampire and how she escapes the city she once lived in, New Covington.  She travels the barren and broken roads, fighting Hunger and beating up some nasty rabids, once human slash vampire slash I Am Legend creatures.  They were scary and creepy and not something you would want skulking around your backyard.
There was something about this book that was incredible.  The romance with Zeke wasn't all passionate and lusty.  The pacing was great.  I couldn't help but mention in my head over and over again that the imagery was great.  I could practically feel Allie's katana in my hand as it sliced through rabids.  Awesome!
I was sad that the book actually had an end to it.  I didn't want it to; it was too good for it to end.  Luckily, there will be other books to tell Allison's story.  I want to know what will happen between her and Zeke!  Will she succeed in finding the key to saving humanity?  Where will she go next?  I NEED to know!
I hope that everybody will be able to read this book once it comes out.  It's too good to pass up.  I'm so glad I read this book!  Thanks NetGalley and Julie Kagawa!  Can't wait to know what happens next!