Die For Me - Amy Plum

Reading level: Young Adult
Hardcover: 352 pages
Publisher: HarperTeen (2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0062004018
ISBN-13: 978-0062004017

About the Book:

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 Review:

Die For Me is the first book in Amy Plum’s “Revenant’s” series. In this first book, she introduces Kate, a teenage American girl who has moved to France with her sister to live with their grandparents after their parent’s death. Once there, she begins to fall for the mysterious Vincent, an incredibly handsome boy who seems strangely drawn to her as well. Things are not easy, however, because Vincent is a ‘Revenant’; an immortal being who continually sacrifices his own ‘life’ repeatedly in order to save others.

What I liked about this book was that it was unique. I had never heard of a ‘Revenant’ before; some type of semi-human guardian angels that live among mortals. I have read over reviews that compare this series to Twilight, saying that it is a ‘watered down knock-off’. I disagree. Yes, the Protagonist is an independent, albeit mopey, teenage girl who is mature for her age. Yes, her love interest is constantly described as beautiful and her feelings for him border on obsessive. But none of these are things I would attribute directly to Twilight, but rather to the young-adult genre in general.

Overall, Die For Me was a great introduction to a series I definitely intend to read! Amy Plum has added a unique twist to the genre normally taken up by vampires and werewolves.