Publication date: May 10th, 2011
Published by: HarperTeen
Genre: YA PNR
Rating: 2,5/5
Eligible for Debut Author Challenge 2011
My life had always been blissfully, wonderfully normal. But it only took one moment to change everything.
Suddenly, my sister, Georgia, and I were orphans. We put our lives into storage and moved to Paris to live with my grandparents. And I knew my shattered heart, my shattered life, would never feel normal again. Then I met Vincent.
Mysterious, sexy, and unnervingly charming, Vincent Delacroix appeared out of nowhere and swept me off my feet. Just like that, I was in danger of losing my heart all over again. But I was ready to let it happen.
Of course, nothing is ever that easy. Because Vincent is no normal human. He has a terrifying destiny, one that puts his life at risk every day. He also has enemies . . . immortal, murderous enemies who are determined to destroy him and all of his kind.
While I'm fighting to piece together the remnants of my life, can I risk putting my heart—as well as my life and my family's—in jeopardy for a chance at love?
I am not all that familiar with revenants, to be honest. In fact Amy Plum's debut novel Die For Me is the first book I read about them. Revenants, as described in DFM, are people who had died saving someone else, which means they had sacrificed themselves. Now they are dead and immortal, feeling the urge, the "compulsion" as they call it, to spend their immortal lives dying for other people, hence the title.
The revenant story and their arch enemies, the numa, along with the beautiful setting in Paris, were the best aspects of the book for me. I just wish they didn't keep calling the revenants "zombies". Why zombies? Because they are dead? Vampires are also dead but we don't call them zombies. Yes, vampires drink blood. But zombies eat human flesh, last time I checked, and thank God revenants did no such thing! So why call them zombies? I still don't get it...
Characters were OK enough I guess, but nothing extraordinary. I didn't detect strong personalities on either of them. Nor weak, for that matter. They were just meh, mediocre. Vincent, I never quite saw his God-like looks because I felt he was never described clearly and the same goes for Kate.
The best part of the book for me was when Vincent and Kate spent some time apart because Kate decided that she just can't handle the whole revenant thing. It was believable and honestly, an anticipated human reaction to hearing of people who cannot die! Unfortunately, as the story is told from Kate's POV, only her personality got to shine just a tiny bit when they were apart but alas, not Vincent's. As for the ending scene with the romantic date and the boat and all that, I don't know. Maybe I am getting old and grumpy because I thought it was way sappy for my taste.
All in all, if Die For Me took place in the US, it would have been like every other YA paranormal romance I've read. There is nothing in it that made it stand out from the other books of this genre. However, it isn't set in the US. It's set in Paris, which at least gave it an edge. Character-wise though, it just didn't do it for me.
Wow I guess I won't be reading this one. I'm tired of the same old same old YA paranormals anyways. Thanks for the honest review.
ReplyDelete