Review: Die For Me by Amy Plum

Die for Me (Revenants)

I thoroughly enjoyed Die For Me. I felt the Paris setting was exceptionally written, providing a romantic and beautiful background for this original story. From the small cafe where Kate would read to the Pont des Arts, the Parisian scenery was used effectively to enhance the romantic tone. Most paranormal novels could take place almost anywhere, but this story could only have taken place in Paris. The way the scenery was written was one of my favorite aspects of this book.

I enjoyed the characters too. They were rich in charisma, engaging, and each had their own distinctive personalities. Jules was the teasing and flirtatious bad boy, Charlotte, the sweet BFF, and her brother Charles, the moody teenager, and a few more Revenants were very entertaining in their interactions with one another.

I was surprised to find the main character, Kate, was not a badass heroine nor was she a weak and whiny damsel. She was an average teen dealing with the loss of her parents who enjoyed losing herself in books, museums, and art.  Very relatable and, well, normal. Vincent, too, was not over the top "alpha", he seemed very mature, perceptive, and sincere. The one drawback to Vincent's character is that he did have some extreme stalkerish tendencies. I don't know why authors do that, it is creepy, not romantic!

Anyway..other than that, I enjoyed their relationship. There was, of course, the instant chemistry, but from there, the romance grew between them at a believable pace and there was no declarations of undying love. It was nice. They were both very open and honest with each other about their feelings, there wasn't a lot of posturing or whining. It was absolutely refreshing.

I really felt like the Revenants themselves were a wholly original and interesting concept. I was fascinated by the bits and pieces of the Revenant mythology, I wish the author would have explored that further. The fact that they were driven by compulsion to save the lives of random strangers at the cost of their own lives was utterly intriguing.  I hated that they kept referring to themselves as zombies. I felt like I was more committed to the revenant idea than the author herself. I really hope that is one of the kinks that gets worked out as the series continues.

The plot itself was fairly simple, almost formulaic; bad guys vs. good guys. There wasn't a lot of action, but that was okay. I was definitely held captive by the writing and the interaction between the characters. The plot's resolution, I thought, was tied up a bit loosely, leaving me with many questions I'm sure will be addressed in later books. There was a bit of a Twilight feel to a lot of it. The Revenant family all living together, the obsessive stalking thing, the conflict between the good revenants and the bad revenants which was kind of a "this town ain't big enough for the both of us" type of thing. There were definitely some flaws, but none that were serious enough, for me, that it took away from my enjoyment of the story. I think that this was a wonderful debut from an author I am excited to see more from!

Rating 4

Author Amy Plum shows some of where Die For Me takes place