Review: Die For Me by Amy Plum

Die For Me by Amy Plum

• Pub. Date:May 2011
• Publisher: Harper Teen 
• Format:Hardcover, 352pp

http://www.amyplumbooks.com

"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 this time 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?"

Kate and her sister Georgia have just moved to Paris to live with their grandparents after the devastating death of their parents. 

Kate is still coping with her parents death,deep in grief when one day she meets the sexy,mysterious Vincent.She gets wrapped up in his world and soon finds out he is an immortal. A Revenant to be exact, an immortal who once human, died saving someones life and instead of having eternal death he comes back to life with an overwhelming urge to constantly sacrifice him self to save the lives of others.

As Kate gets deeper into Vincents world she meets his "family" and learns there are more like him. She also learns they have enemies, the Numas, and eventually gets caught up in the middle of their feud.

I had high expectations for Die For Me maybe due to all the hype surrounding it but in the end the book did not sweep me off my feet.

It felt way to familiar and at times I was bored because I felt I had read this before.

Kate's character has been done before. An insecure girl who thinks she was just plain jane and doesn't think that a guy as gorgeous as Vincent can ever be into someone as ordinary as her.I can't say I really liked Kate's character.She just lost her parents but her emotions just lacked the intensity that would make me sympathize for her. I also  couldn't stand how she kept snooping around and putting her self in places where she didn't belong.And top that off with her insecurities she just wasn't my favorite person.

I also felt like I've met Vincent before as well. The sexy, mysterious, dangerous guy who hasn't loved since he was human which by the way was several decades ago.Than meets Kate and is drawn to her.As a Revenant he also doesn't sleep so he spends some nights watching Kate outside her window.

Although I did think the romance between Kate and Vincent was just a little too mushy,I did like the fact that Plum didn't have the characters fall in love the minute they laid eyes on each other. She actually had them date and get to know each other and slowly fall in love.

I did enjoy the fact that unlike most YA books, Kate actually had a family that was very much involved in her life. Her sister was an interesting character. The popular party girl who was dealing with the loss of her parents in her own way while constantly trying to involve Kate in everything. Then there were the grandparents, who were very nice but way too lenient and unrealistic. It's hard for me to imagine grandparents who would allow their  under age grandkids to run around a foreign country all hours of the night and even allowing one of them to spend the night in a houseful of grown men. 

There were two characters that I did love and would love to read more about, Jules and Charlotte. They were a breath of fresh air. I loved Jules for his friendly,outgoing,and humorous attitude. And Charlotte because of the depth in her character, I would love to learn more about her and her past.

I did enjoy the world Plum created with the Revenant's and the Numa. The concept of someone dying saving someone else and than coming back to life only to have a intensifying urge to sacrifice them self repeatedly to save ones life was interesting not to mention if you died killing someone that you could come back to life but instead of saving lives you would have the urge to bring people to their deaths.Very unique concept. I did love how Paris was the center of everything that was going on. Instead of Paris just being a pretty place to stage the plot of the story Amy Plum intertwined the past human lives of the Revenant's with Parisian history.

The action scene in the book didn't pick up until the last few chapters. Die For Me mainly consisted of the relationship between Kate and Vincent,and Kate learning about the Revenant's in great detail. 

I am interested to see what book two could possibly be about since Die For Me was wrapped up in a way that it could have been a stand alone novel.