Spoiler Free
Die For Me is the first book I had read by Amy Plum and it did not leave much of an impression on me if I am quite honest. I wanted to write a review for this book as I don't want every review on this blog to be a positive one; what would be the point in that? So for variety I chose this book to review. I didn't hate it, the book is apart of a trilogy (Revenants series) and I read them all in a period of about a week or two. Therefore expressing that obviously, at the time, I did partially enjoy the books enough to finish each one and pick up the next. However looking back at the series, I do not remember the protagonist's name. I remember little of the plot point and I do not feel the want to reread any of the books. I will only be reviewing the first book: Die For Me. This is to avoid spoilers, however I can always review the others (Until I Die & If I Should Die) another time. Or open discussion is available - you can contact us by email at readdithc@gmail.com or our Instagram @biblio_topia .
Doing my research, the premise of the book is coming back to me - Kate Mercier wants a new life after she becomes an orphan due to her parents dying in a tragic car accident. So her and her sister, Georgia, move to Paris to live with their grandparents. Kate has a passion for reading and art so her pain is weakening when she loses herself in the Parisian culture, distracting her from her recent torment. Then she meets Vincent. Vincent is the light at the end of her tunnel. The happiness in her depressing world. Soon, Kate begins to fall in love with this charming, sexy, cultural, and of course handsome young man, only to discover that he isn't quite normal. Vincent is a Revenant, an immortal guardian who is destined to sacrifice himself repetitively to save other peoples lives. Kate learns all about Vincent's life and his past, as well as his enemy: the evil revenants.
I think the reason why I found this book a little disappointing was because it had so much potential to be a great book. The story could have been interesting and intense however I found that when issues occurred in the book, it was always sugar-coated. Which I think ruined the intensity the majority of the time. There were occasional fight scenes but the characters would whip out old fashioned swords which became almost comical instead of the bad ass action. But if you find fencing sexy... You'll love this.
I also didn't particularly feel much towards the two main characters. Our heroine, Kate, is an intelligent individual who has similar interests as myself; art and reading. However I did not find myself relating to Kate. And she was a bit annoying at times as she had the all so predictable and stereotypical "what could Vincent possibly see in me?" attitude. I don't want my protagonist to be vain and overconfident but this went on for a while and I just wanted her to shut up and kiss him already! Vincent also left little impression on me. It was instantly clear that he was the mysterious knight in shining armour our heroine was to fall for, but he wasn't anyone special for me to swoon over. I'm sure I cracked a smile or two at his charming charismatic personality and their romance but there will be no fighting between Kate and I over him. The character that I particularly liked was Jules, Vincent's best friend and also a Revenant. Although his relation to other characters and his personality were a little predictable, whenever his name popped up on the page, I liked the book little more.
The aspect of the book that I did really like was the setting. I adore everything about France, and I think having the book set there instead of America like so many of these paranormal teen fiction books are was a good change. Kate may have isolated herself and lost all contact from her old friends from America, but she goes out a lot and we get to walk around Paris with her thanks to Plum's descriptive writing.
Overall I would rate this book 5/10. I read the series in a short period of time. This could possibly be because the writing was good, not that it has made be immediately buy all of Amy Plum's books but enough to enjoy a book with flowing writing and dialogue. But it was mainly because there was not a lot to read. Not a lot happened in these books, I believe I read them all and so quickly because I was waiting for something amazing to happen. But, alas, I was not rewarded when the books ended. The ending, well the entire plot was predictable and the books lacked the element of surprise. However, I think the issue was the story and characters and not Plum's writing. So I will be buying another book by Plum, one that I have had my eye on for awhile now in (After The End), and hope that it does not include limp, laughable fighting scenes, calm, soppy romance and an unexciting storyline. If you want an effortless read where you don't want to feel heavy emotion maybe choose this book, and you may not be disappointed. All these books do for me now is that they add beautiful colour and spiral filled spines for me to look at on my bookshelf.
Hannah
♥
