The Deathless One (The Gravesinger, #1) by Emma Hamm 
Published by Gallery Books on August 5, 2025
Genres: Fantasy
Pages: 336
Format: eBook
Source: Publisher
I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
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A princess murdered at the altar makes a deal with the god of death for vengeance and to save her people in this first in a unique romantasy trilogy from USA TODAY bestselling author Emma Hamm.
Jessamine was raised to be a leader for her people, but when the land is overrun by an incurable plague, she must enter a political marriage to save them all. A union that should have brought hope only brings death as her new husband murders her at the wedding altar and seizes the throne.
But her death is just the beginning. Her spirit is met by the Deathless One, a god of death yearning to return to the mortal plane, and he needs her help. The two of them make a deal—her life and the return of her kingdom in exchange for his resurrection. But the Deathless One is a known trickster, and a deal with him is one made in blood.
Jessamine knows the Deathless One is a dangerous ally, but the longer they work together, the more she wants him and the less she can stay away. As their connection deepens, soon she wonders if she even wants this contract to end. Perhaps the more appealing throne is the one by his side, but she’d have to turn her back on her people to get it.
When your scary dark god is a sad sack and kind of beta, it loses its appeal.
This started out with a lot of promise. Even on her wedding day, Princess Jessamine is working in her lab, searching through old witch folklore and grimoires looking to find a cure for the undead plague which is ravishing her kingdom as well as the surrounding kingdoms. The witches have long been blamed for the plague and have all been hunted down. Jessamine isn’t concerned about standard royal things and leaves the wedding preparations to her mother. She comes off as more studious and scientific. This is so brief a meeting before her marriage/murder, we really don’t get much of a feel for what type of leader her mother or Jessamine are for the Kingdom.
Although we are told that Jessamine isn’t excited about her bridegroom, this marriage is important for her kingdom so she marries the king of the neighboring Kingdom. Her mother, the Queen isn’t excited about this marriage either. Jessamine’s father is dead, and her mother still rules as Queen. So why is she #1 marrying the neighboring King and not some noble or prince, and #2, why is he going to become the new King of the Jessamine’s Kingdom and not the consort of Queen Jessamine?
On her wedding day, the groom to be slits her throat (before the vows are read) and still puts the crown on his own head. Jessamine’s spirit is found in the in-between by The Deathless One, the only god still living in this world. Jessamine declares that she needs to avenge her death and reclaim her kingdom. She promises to “burn it all down” and rebuild in the name of the Deathless One. So the Deathless one breathes life back into Jessamine and she returns to the world with the visible scar across her throat.
Then Jessamine gets a bit pathetic. She returns in her filthy mud-covered wedding dress and spends the next month eating out of the trash and hiding from mobs of her people both alive and plague-ridden. She realizes how spoiled she was in her castle tower and cries about not knowing what to do.
That leaves the Deathless One finding one still living (in hiding) witch to go rescue the Princess who is being quite disappointing. He keeps calling her a gravesinger and a witch but Jessamine not only has no idea what a gravesinger is but she can’t seem to work simple magic. It is only when she gets pissed off that we see that fire within which suggested she could “burn it all down” but mostly she still spends a lot of time crying.
And you would think at some point the Deathless One would just get pissed off that Jessamine is such a disappointment but that whole gravesinger thing makes her the only one who can call him back into flesh. He even has to keep re-raising her from the dead because she doesn’t know how to protect herself, but she refuses to call him back to flesh since she knows he is pretty dangerous.
Wellll….except that the Deathless One is a deity who was pretty much made to be sacrificed by the witches for power. So we find out that over and over again, this god gets himself seduced by some witch who he thinks she really loves him for him, until she and her coven bind him and sacrifice him in order to absorb his power.
We started off with a strong princess who used her brain to try and determine what was killing her subjects. One who swore revenge for an unjust death. Who can’t wield a sword or magic and in the end keeps getting herself killed again…and again.
We also had the only surviving god, a dark god at that, the Deathless One who has made a “deal with the devil” agreement with a princess so she can raise him from the dead. A god who in his ink-black world has trapped the witches who once sacrificed him, then we find out he has been sacrificed over and over again by power seeking witches for century after century. Once we learn all this, he is less of a scary, dark god and more of the witches’ bitch.
The Deathless One sounds so very ominous until he remembers his name was Elric Hellebore. At this point, I lost all respect for the dark deity. Who is scared of Elric who just wants to be loved?
This story could have been so much more. The description…the idea of this story seemed so dark fantasy, blood and revenge. But these characters were so disappointing and there was nothing fun about the story, and several things that never made sense (the wedding, the betrayers, the kingdom).
This book is obviously a big set up for the whole trilogy but it really takes a long, long time to get to the point. While we watch Jessamine fluctuate between rage and wallowing in depression, Elric keeps trying to convince her to call him into the real world but everyone knows that letting a dark god loose in the world won’t be a great thing for the kingdom, He might have had a better chance if he tried to pretend that he would be harmless.
I would not recommend this story at all. The story ends on a cliffhanger and I have no interest in finding out more.
