Title: Die For Me (Reverants #1)
Author: Amy Plum
Genre: paranormal romance; urban fantasy; zombies
Publisher: HarperTeen
Publication Date: 10 May 2011
Pages: 341 pages
Rating: 5 stars

Synopsis (from goodreads):
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 Review:

Kate Mercer is devastated after her parents are killed in a car accident. Her sister (and now technically her guardian) decides that the best thing for the two of them is to relocate from New York to their grandparents’ house in Paris. Still reeling from the tragedy to strike her family, Kate becomes a shadow of her former self. Then she meets Vincent – strange and mysterious yet chivalrous Vincent. Feeling like she should hold her heart back from the odd gorgeous boy but not being able to resist his charm, Kate falls for Vincent only to find out she might not be able to handle his special kind of supernatural abilities.

I love books that are set in a far off distant land and the city is well and truly a part of the story. I recently read a book apparently set in Italy and it could have been set anywhere. But in Die For Me, Paris is almost a character itself. One of those books where after I read about the places Kate goes and the vibe of the city and it makes me want to go to Europe.

I loved the pace of this novel. I know, it might sound a little weird for the pace to be the first thing that comes to mind for me but some first in the series books can be a bit of an info dump – too much too soon with too many details that I keep feeling the need to flick back and re-read those sections all the time. But I really liked learning about Vincent and the others along with Kate and their specific supernaturalness. The secondary characters are brilliant – I thought the way they got to tell their stories and the way they interact with each other was fantastic to read. I loved seeing Kate evolve as a character but seeing the others flourish around her (like Georgia and Jules) was amazing.

Fun characters, interesting and fantastic zombies (and coming from a zombie hater that’s something) and not too much of that teen angst that some YA novels seem to be bursting to the brim with. It’s probably not surprising to hear that as soon as I finished Die For Me (at 1am) I instantly jumped online to buy a copy of the second book in the series, Until I Die.

Purchase the novel from:

Amazon / Book Depository 

Read for the 2013 TBR Pile Challenge