Die For Me by Amy Plum - Review

I sit here, starting to review Die For Me (Revenants #1) by Amy Plum, and I am stumped. First, let me back up and give a little background on why and how I came to even reading this book. For those that follow this blog, many of you have figured out by now that I am a huge fan of historical fiction - and a few other genres. Paranormal romance is just NOT my thing...and I realize this makes me a little "weird" in the blogger world. I have run as far away from the Twilight books as I can get. But traveling around the blogosphere, I KEPT coming upon this striking cover and the description on Goodreads didn't seem so bad, so I threw caution to the wind and clicked purchase.

Book Summary:

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 Thoughts:

Now, I am not saying I hated the book, but I am saying that I definitely had a few issues with it. I must admit, right up front, that I was DYING to finish reading it just to see what happened! I couldn't put it down, which really is a sign that maybe I should give this paranormal romance thing a chance more often. I liked the overall storyline, and really enjoyed the premise behind the novel.

On the other hand, I definitely had some issues with the novel. The biggest one for me was the writing style - I just didn't jive with it. Maybe it is because I just finished The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown, and her writing style was captivating and my expectations were in turn, too high. Maybe it is that I am just not that used to reading YA paranormal romance, maybe it is just the author...I have no idea, but I felt like the writing was very juvenile. Some parts choppy, and some of it just seemed to come out of nowhere. I always put little tabs throughout books along the way to remind myself of things, or note parts I want to remember, and I actually found myself writing a post-it that said, "WTH?" See?


She makes a HUGE deal out of the fact that Vincent and his kindred are "revenants," and not "normal" dead people such as monsters, ghosts, or zombies, but then she makes multiple references to all of the other types of dead, and some of the descriptions that Kate (the main character) uses include those words...just hard to follow what the author wanted you to believe they were.

I have read tons of GREAT reviews about this book and realize I am in the minority with my thoughts, but this book has done one great thing - sparked an interest in paranormal romance for me. In the future though...right now, I desperately need a shot of historical fiction!

My Rating:

Favorite Passages:

"Unable are the loved to die. For love is immortality." - Emily Dickinson (opening quote in the book)

"I realized how vast the gulf was between my real life and the fictional one I created for everyone else."

"But first I had to let go of what I was grasping in white-knuckled fear: the past."

Up Next?

These Is My Words by Nancy E. Turner