Immortal Dark by Tigest Girma

 Immortal Dark

by Tigest Girma

My Rating:🟊🟊🟊🟊🟊🟊

Spice Rating: 🫑

Blurb:

The Cruel Prince meets Ninth House in this dangerously romantic dark academia fantasy, where a lost heiress must infiltrate an arcane society and live with the vampire she suspects killed her family and kidnapped her sister.

It began long before my time, but something has always hunted our family.

Orphaned heiress Kidan Adane grew up far from the arcane society she was born into, where human bloodlines gain power through vampire companionship. When her sister, June, disappears, Kidan is convinced a vampire stole her—the very vampire bound to their family, the cruel yet captivating Susenyos Sagad.

To find June, Kidan must infiltrate the elite Uxlay University—where students study to ensure peaceful coexistence between humans and vampires and inherit their family legacies. Kidan must survive living with Susenyos—even as he does everything he can to drive her away. It doesn’t matter that Susenyos’s wickedness speaks to Kidan’s own violent nature and tempts her to surrender to a life of darkness. She must find her sister and kill Susenyos at all costs.

When a murder mirroring June’s disappearance shakes Uxlay, Kidan sinks further into the ruthless underworld of vampires, risking her very soul. There she discovers a centuries-old threat—and June could be at the center of it. To save her sister, Kidan must bring Uxlay to its knees and either break free from the horrors of her own actions or embrace the dark entanglements of love—and the blood it requires.

My Review: 

Immortal Dark completely redefined vampire fiction for me. It isn’t just dark and dangerous, it’s emotionally relentless. This is the kind of story that forces you to confront a brutal question: What would you sacrifice to save someone you love? And not in a hypothetical, romanticized way. This book drags you through the cost of that devotion, the guilt, the rage, the moral lines you swore you’d never cross.

I actually had to sit with this one after finishing it. I needed space to let it marinate, to unpack everything the author layered into the story. It’s not just plot driven; it’s feeling driven. Every choice, every betrayal, every ounce of fury lingers.

When I first heard people say there wasn’t much romance, I hesitated. Romance is usually a huge draw for me. But what Immortal Ruin delivers is far more volatile and fascinating than a conventional love story. This is enemies-to-lovers in its rawest, most feral form, so raw that by the final page, you’re not even entirely sure they’re lovers… or whether they even like each other. And honestly? That ambiguity makes it even better. The tension is sharp, complicated, and charged with resentment as much as attraction. It feels dangerous rather than dreamy, and that’s exactly the point.

At the center of the story is a fierce, relentless FMC who believes vampires kidnapped her sister. Her mission is simple: get her back. The methods? Not so simple. She will do anything, and she does. The book doesn’t shy away from the moral consequences of her actions. Whether she buries her guilt or truly believes the ends justify the means, her determination is unwavering. It’s a powerful portrayal of feminine rage, not softened, not beautified, but allowed to burn.

The setting adds another layer of tension: a school system where humans are bound to vampire Houses as companions. Vampires can only feed from their designated humans, which sounds structured and safe… until you realize how fragile that system actually is. The academy is designed for most human companions to fail. Survival isn’t guaranteed, it’s earned.

When the FMC is placed in a House with a vampire who despises her (and the hatred is mutual), the emotional temperature skyrockets. She’s thrust into a culture she wasn’t raised in, forced to navigate power dynamics, political undercurrents, and a social hierarchy that sees her as expendable. And then there’s the House itself, sentient, cursed, emotionally volatile. It doesn’t just shelter them; it reacts to them. The eerie, shifting atmosphere gave me serious Howl's Moving Castle vibes, alive, unpredictable, and full of secrets.

What I loved most is that this book doesn’t hand you comfort. It gives you rage. It gives you revenge. It gives you morally gray choices and characters who don’t always do the right thing, but do the necessary thing. The world-building is immersive, the tension is suffocating, and the emotional stakes are sky high.

If you’re looking for a vampire story wrapped in soft romance, this isn’t it. But if you want feminine fury, vengeance, dangerous alliances, a truly toxic enemies-to-lovers dynamic, and a gothic setting that feels alive and watching, Immortal Ruin is absolutely a book you need to pick up.