Review: Die For Me

Die For Me by Amy Plum
published by Harper Teen
Genre: YA
$17.99 (US Hardback)
352 pages

What it's about:
In the City of Lights, two star-crossed lovers battle a fate that is destined to tear them apart again and again for eternity.

When Kate Mercier's parents die in a tragic car accident, she leaves her life--and memories--behind to live with her grandparents in Paris. For Kate, the only way to survive her pain is escaping into the world of books and Parisian art. Until she meets Vincent.
Mysterious, charming, and devastatingly handsome, Vincent threatens to melt the ice around Kate's guarded heart with just his smile. As she begins to fall in love with Vincent, Kate discovers that he's a revenant--an undead being whose fate forces him to sacrifice himself over and over again to save the lives of others. Vincent and those like him are bound in a centuries-old war against a group of evil revenants who exist only to murder and betray. Kate soon realizes that if she follows her heart, she may never be safe again.

My thoughts:
This book was a little odd for me and I don't know if I can give an unbiased review for it.

It started out only being okay. Kate was a character who annoyed me to no end for most of the book. Yes I understand the mind numbing depression that would follow the deaths of my parents and that is not what bugged me about her. I can handle the depression in the characters I read about. What bugged me was how she handled the whole Vincent is immortal situation. She kept calling him a "monster." That really, really, really, really bugged me. If I was dating a guy who's purpose in life was to save people, the last thing I would call him is "a monster." She was always bringing him down.

I also had a problem with it being set in Paris. This is where my bias comes in. I disliked Paris, a lot. I thought that there was too much emphasis that the story takes place in Paris. There was a lot of describing how the characters get to one place or another, and then they had to talk about every single place that they passed along the way. I could have done without all that. Paris itself was almost a character in this book. I don't think that Paris needed to be in it so much.

Besides my dislike of Kate and Paris, I loved the other characters! I sort of wish that the book was just about the group of revenants and not a love story between a human and a revenant. Or if it was from Vincents point of view, it could have been a lot better. Those characters were much more enjoyable for me. I particularly like Charlotte and Jules. The problem with being in Kate's head for the whole book was an issue because she spent a lot of time mopping around and reading. Vincent would have been more entertaining.

All the complaints out of the way, the story was actually pretty good the second half through. I got pretty into it about half way through. I enjoyed it, but I don't see myself racing to the store to pick up the second of this series when it comes out.

My rating: 7/10