Review: Die for Me by Amy Plum

Die for Me by Amy Plum

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Right then...this is a toughy...but only because I've just read about 30 reviews caning the story for being a Twilight rip-off....I mean, honestly? First though here's the...

Synopsis
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?

Review:
So, lets begin with the 'Twilight'ism's shall we?
To put it simply, there is no comparison with Twilight. Both books are written in 1st person POV, yes, but the writing style is completely different. Personally I think Twilight could have been written by an 8 year old. The language and use of English was appalling whereas Die for Me was written with depth, insightfulness and charm that is rarely seen these days. Often YA books tend to be too basic in the English but it's about time that authors starting opening teenagers minds to diversify and that's exactly what this book does.

What's lovely is that it's set in Paris - not America. How refreshing! The characters are all fleshed out, and easy to relate to - especially Kate.

The romance was gorgeous, and Vincent definitely gets the heart swooning. Plus all his revenant kinsmen are equally amiable. Charlotte is a delight and Georgia is a great feisty sister who alas gets in with the enemy by mistake.

The descriptions were beautiful and sparkling, with a true sense of Paris that was believeable and the essence behind the story was a new direction that paid off.

I have a couple of gripes though.
1) French people who speak English do not use the word 'gotten'. This is an American word. They would have said 'got'.
2) The word 'normalcy' crops up a few times. To my knowledge this is a newish word that has only been used in our modern lingo for the past few years. I'm pretty sure older people wouldn't use it.
3) Vincent's age. I'm pretty sure that he was nineteen, but then we're told he's eighteen. The way I understand it, its because when he saves someone and dies he then reverts back to his former age. Somewhere along the line this got confusing but I think its just me.
4) Overuse of the 'zombie' concept. Yes, we know they're not zombie's or undead or vampires or werewolves but why not settle on a trope that we get, like unofficial guardian angel (without the angel wings or direct line to god). The zombie comparison almost pulled the story in another direction that I didn't enjoy.

Apart from that, I loved the book. The subject of Revenants is discussed in length and if you have a look at history books there are plenty of examples of strange things happening throughout WW1 and WW2 to dead or dying soldiers that cannot be explained so this is an old concept with a new twist. It's so nice to read something that wasn't stereotypical.

I can't wait for the second book! An amazing read!

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