Saturday, May 7, 2011

Die for Me by Amy Plum Review

Die for Me (Revenants, #1)

From Goodreads:  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?

My take:  What I liked is the new take on the immortal being in love with the plain mortal girl.  Vincent is part of a group that dies over and over again in order to save someone else's life.  Oft times it is a person committing suicide.  It's a little fuzzy how it works but essentially the revenant jumps in after the jumper, saves the jumper from dying then dies.  The trick is to retrieve the body and place it in a safe spot where it will recover in three days time.  Completely.  

Then there's the bad guys who do the same thing only they encourage death somehow.  They also try to grab the bodies of the revenants on the good side and burn them because then they have no bodies to return to.  It's all rather macabre but not a lot of attention is spent on dying, blood and gore.  This book is mostly about Kate and Vincent trying to figure out how to be together, how the group can trust Kate with this secret and how the leader of the bad guys is holding a grudge against Vincent after decades for being with people who killed him and his wife during WWII.  He came back.  His wife did not.

The storyline is interesting and somewhat riveting because it is just a tad on the macabre side. You can't help but like Kate because she is funny, sarcastic without being toxic, and pretty.  She's also in pain from the recent death of her parents.  I really liked the relationship she shares with her sister and the respectful relationship she has with her grandparents.  My favorite revenants are Charlotte and Jules, however.  Not Vincent.  

This is where I will go into why I don't give it a 5 star rating.  It was Vincent.  Petty as it sounds, he is too perfect.  The other major characters are flawed and show some vulnerability.  Vincent's vulnerability is that he loves so strongly which is why he avenges his girlfriend's death and becomes a revenant.  See, that's just a little creepy.  When he doesn't see Kate for a few weeks, he becomes gaunt and gets circles under his eyes.  He also stands outside her apartment until the light goes out.  Stalker, creepy.  My advice to Kate is to hang out with Charlotte because she's spunky.  Date Jules.  Let Vincent find another soul mate.

3.75 stars
Sex: Implied rape of Vincent's girlfriend from another life
Violence:  A lot
Dialog: Clean
Language: Clean

1 comment:

Julie said...

I love this review! "Stalker, creepy" ... love it! I think this one is on my review pile, too, and I will probably like it in spite of (or maybe because of - I'm weird like that) the stalkerish Vincent :)