Monday, February 4, 2013

Review: Die For Me by Amy Plum

In the City of Lights, two star-crossed lovers battle a fate that is destined to tear them apart again and again for eternity.

When Kate Mercier's parents die in a tragic car accident, she leaves her life--and memories--behind to live with her grandparents in Paris. For Kate, the only way to survive her pain is escaping into the world of books and Parisian art. Until she meets Vincent.

Mysterious, charming, and devastatingly handsome, Vincent threatens to melt the ice around Kate's guarded heart with just his smile. As she begins to fall in love with Vincent, Kate discovers that he's a revenant--an undead being whose fate forces him to sacrifice himself over and over again to save the lives of others. Vincent and those like him are bound in a centuries-old war against a group of evil revenants who exist only to murder and betray. Kate soon realizes that if she follows her heart, she may never be safe again.


Hardcover, 341 pages
Published May 10th 2011 by HarperTeen
(info grabbed from GoodReads)


Die For Me surprised me by not being nearly as brooding as I expected it to be.  Honestly, I wasn't expecting to like this one, but alas, I did.  Though Kate does start out a bit mopey (understandably since her parents just passed away), she doesn't stay in her totally depressed state.  The story follows Kate's journey back to the normal world of the living sparked by the love of a sexy Frenchman.  Who just happens to be a zombie.

...yeah.

But seriously, I felt Die For Me read more like contemporary with paranormal elements than fantasy.  The author pulled off making the fantastical seem normal in a sense I have never read before.  By focusing on the great chemistry of the characters and how a relationship can bloom around one character being slightly dead made for a much more interesting read than I anticipated.
  
But moving onto the fantastical: Amy Plum’s Revenants were refreshing in how the PNR genre is not saturated with them.  Though they share traits with more common paranormal creatures, they still felt unique.  With the richer and romantic history surrounding them, I felt that the Revenants tied in better into the backdrop of Paris than some of the other more commonly used paranormal beings would have.

Which, by the way, did I mention I heart Paris?

I heart Paris.  So I especially loved the mini lessons in French culture and exploring the city through the prose.  We get to read at a cafĂ©, go to a museum, sword fight on a bridge… ahh… all typical things I would want to experience in my own visit to the City of Lights.

The only con I have is that Vincent seemed too perfect, but I guess depending on the reader, that’s not really a con.  For me, I felt it a little hard to believe.  I found zero faults, and I tend to find characters more interesting for what their faults are and see how those faults add to the story.  Maybe I’ll get my wish in the next book, but so far the only thing resembling a fault is that he is too altruistic.  …yeah, that doesn’t count.

Final Thought: 3 out of 4 toadstools

This review is also posted on GoodReads

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