The Book Depository Die for Me by Amy Plum

Author: Becca (Pretty Little Memoirs)

Rating: 5

Review: *Contains a few minor spoilers* I was immediately drawn in by the concept that the move from Brooklyn, New York to Paris, had already taken place as the book began. I loved that it also gave more time for the back-story to be told of Kate, because she was a pretty fascinating character. Kate Beaumont Mercier, American, though fluent in French through her father's parents, her Papy and Mamie who she and her older sister; Georgia, live with now. Kate was still very much in a state of mind that circled around her old life, her parents and grief. She had lost contact slowly with her old friends from New York, because the memory of who she used to be with her parents was just too fresh and painful. For the most part of the beginning, Kate is still an interesting, bright character who was a very selfless person, and usually told her Grandparent's and sister that she was okay, even though she was struggling. Georgia, Kate's sister, is the life of every party. She was in New York, and she is in Paris. That's her own little way of dealing with things, and it seems to work for her throughout the book, whereas Kate is very withdrawn to start...until...enter; Vincent Delacroix. He's the stranger with his friends at the cafe, the face Kate can't seem to get out of her mind. For a while, it seems as though he could be a distraction from things, and when he finally talks to her, things seem to head in the right direction. She thinks that things will be...better from here. But, see, Vincent's actually a Revenant. So, yeah...he's undead. A Revenant is a "zombie-esque" type of undead, immortal being that saves human lives for a living. It's usually because they originally died in their human lives saving someone else, and therefore, a Revenant is born. They "animate" and come back to life, and thanks to someone who can see when someone has come back from the dead in their sort of "family" or group, they can detect who is now one of them, although that doesn't happen to everyone. Kate on the other hand, is shocked to find out everything about what Vincent and his friends, or "Kindred" are, and what their lives entail. But he also saved her life, thanks to Charlotte, another Revenant, (sort of like a fiery, feisty girl who would be the most amazing friend ever,) who is part of twins. Charles, her twin, is quite troubled after not being able to save a life, and because of their compulsive need to save a person's life, he takes a turn for the worse and heads to the baddies (Numa; definition; a bad Revenant) for a way out. “I had feared that love would make me vulnerable. Instead I felt empowered.” This is nothing like Twilight, but I see why people would assume it is similar. Yes, there's a group who aren't family, though live together in a big house (La Maison) because they are all one kind, but it stops there. That is the only similarity. I actually found it quite interesting reading about all these different characters who seemed to have this spark of their own that shone though, though they never overshadowed each other. There was Jules; flirty, constantly with a different date, and very impulsive. He is always super nice to Kate, and flirts with her like it's his job. I always feel like there's something sincere about it, though. Then there's Ambrose; with leader quality and a good heart, he is very impulsive too, and always likes to pick a fight with the Numa when he can. Charlotte and Charles, like I mentioned before, hate being apart. Charles is very withdrawn, not shy per say, but he isn't very open to Kate being at La Maison either. Charlotte is just so nice. She was one of my favourite characters, for definite. Both twins died quite young in their human lives, and I'm sure they were about fifteen years old. Like Kate described her, she was small, but she was stronger than people assumed. There's also Gaspard, Jean-Baptise, and Jeanne; the only other human in the house (the housekeeper). Vincent adored Kate, and since his wife-to-be died a very long time ago, he had never found someone he loved so much, or anyone, actually. Kate is just so frightened of this world that revolves around death, with her being so close to it already with the grief of her parent's death. But their love and relationship was something that was just easy. It came naturally. He would literally die for her, he was obsessed with her (in a good way, although he did kind of stalk her to start with) and she felt the same. There's just that doubt that what if that world brings her into danger? She hated being so close to death, on the edge...but the question of the novel was; was her love for Vincent and keeping him safe, worth the sacrifice to stay and fight with him and be in that world? Could she be that girl? I adored Amy Plum's writing style. It was effortlessly beautiful and flawless. I wouldn't change a thing, and think she really nailed it with Die For Me. It was one of the best debut books I have ever read, and I just love what she did with the history of Revenant's, whilst creating her own history and gaining followers of the astonishingly amazing trilogy. There was something about Die For Me that just made me want to drop everything and read it whenever I saw it sitting there. I just couldn't wait to find out what was going to happen next, and could never leave it long before picking it up and reading it again. 2 days! I read it in two days!?!

Author: smcbrum93

Rating: 2

Review: times like these I want to question my own sanity for reading these "twilight inspired" books, cant authors come with anything original any more?? we have a heroine kate, who lost her parents in an accident and has to shift her life from New york to paris.... how many more times has this been done before?? why does the protagonist always seem to move to a new place surrounded by mystical good looking boys??? if i were to get really critical this is a twilight knockoff in paris, kate the protagonist loves to read, mostly classics and is an introvert, sounds familiar doesnt it? she spends her time in art museums cinemas and cafes where she discovers a boy who looks otherworldly, cant seem to take her eyes of him? please! now onto vincent - a boy who is slightly arrogant and dominating alpha male,( hang on, I think I have seen this character before some one named Edward perhaps??) authors please!! I urge you come with something new, yes twilight was great but had many flaws so why replicate it? also the fact that this was set in Paris was the reason why i picked this up, its a city i wish to visit some day but the descriptions of Paris were quite pathetic to be honest, dont get me wrong I wasn't expecting da vinci code style intricate descriptions of paris but this was really bad - river seine was like just mentioned randomly, eiffel tower and museums? which museums ? what art is she staring at all the time?? ... also a lot of the characters are copied straight out of twilight, jean baptiste sounds a lot like carlisle cullen, charlotte sounds a lot like alice cullen, her grandparents are cardboard characters they dont seem to be playing a very strong parental character at all....... so what did I like about this series? the idea of revnants for starters, vampires and werewolves have been done before time and time again, so now we have revnants, ghosts/zombies that save other peoples lives by literally dying themselves instead of the human that is suppose to die, hence the title "die for me" so that was something new and interesting, also the idea of numa... it is implied that some older residents of paris such as kate's granddad are well aware of numa but are keeping it quiet.... again why? why not tell your children the dangers of underworld paris so they would stay away? also there is a huge fight sequence towards the end of the book that I really liked, it was slightly gory sword fight and we see that despite all what she has gone through kate does have a backbone and can be an alpha female .... this is also a trilogy, ... this is young adult fiction so might appeal to 13 yr olds, I am 19 so only slightly outside the target readership. The writing is okay, this is an easy read.. i would read the second book, because there were aspects that I did enjoy a lot and also to see how the story progresses.. ...