If you're wondering where you've heard the name "Julie Kagawa" before, it's from her bestselling Iron Fae series, which I absolutely recommend. It's because I absolutely loved that series that I picked up a copy of this book from Netgalley. 
 The whole post-apocalypse thing has become rather popular in the last few years, but Kagawa takes it up a notch by adding in vampires. This hasn't been as fully explored in YA fiction as it has been in general fiction, so this should be still somewhat newish to some readers. For those who are pretty used to the mixing of vamps and gritty post-apocalyptic survival, rest assured that Kagawa brings enough creativity to the table to where you won't be constantly comparing it to what has come before. (Some comparison is to be expected, of course.) 
 I liked the characters in the book, especially Allison. She's tough, snarky, and unwilling to give up her humanity despite being undead. Allison might be a little "typical YA heroine" at times, but there's a reason that characters like this are so popular and that's because they're easy to commiserate with. I do wish that some of the other characters had been a little more fleshed out. Since the story is told from Allison's viewpoint we only get to see what she does, so many of her initial "friends" (if you can call Stick and the others friends) and later comrades are given relatively fleeting glances in comparison to Kanin and Zeke. It's frustrating because some of them seem like they could have been some pretty great characters to bring into the mix a little more, especially Ruth. She's given short shrift as she's mostly only jealous of Allison without doing much, which is a shame. She could've been made into a great rival character. 
 Overall though, this was a book that I just blasted my way through. I absolutely love Kagawa's work and the first books are always her strongest. The Immortal Rules is no exception to this and I look forward to the next book in the series. This isn't a perfect book, but I'm hoping that we get a deeper look into this world and its characters in the next entry. This is out now, so if you haven't picked up a book to take with you on that summer trip, this should absolutely be added to your reading pile. 
 Four out of Five stars 
 (ARC provided by Netgalley)