Die For Me by Amy Plum

Title: Die For Me
Author: Amy Plum
Publisher: Harper Teen
Published: 10 May, 2011
Genre: Young Adult / Romance / Paranormal
Source: Library

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.

This if the first book to have me smiling and tiredly rolling my eyes at the same time. It's a classic example of the well-known 'damsel in distress and a knight in shining armor' kind of thing, but a little twist, that twist being supernatural. Didn't see that coming..

The story begins with a depressed Kate, who just lost both her parents in an accident, and is living in Paris with her older sister Georgia and grandparents. Anyone who looses their parents is expected to grieve, that much is pretty obvious, despite how strong a facade they put on display. But, if by seven months later, you're still curled up in bed, refusing to get back into the world and interact with other humans, you know there's a slight chance you might be taking it a tad far. Don't get me wrong, I can't imagine loosing any of my parents, but were it to happen, I wouldn't expect to shut myself off from the world altogether, going to school, reading books, sleeping and repeating. I get it, it's tempting, just reading and sleeping, but it would get to the point where I would begin doubting my sanity.

I think it's safe to say that Kate wasn't exactly my favourite character. I just found that her character development was a tad off, what with her being so unbelievably weak and innocent in the first half of the book, and then later on, she's standing her ground in training, against the undead, and fight off Vincent's enemies? Personally I didn't think it was very realistic.
And Vincent, come on. The only opinion of him that will stay with me long after reading this, is that after Kate broke up with him, he completely broke down. I mean, he was even worse than Kate! I know it was all to show how strongly he loved her, but his drastic transformation after the break-up, was definitely unexpected and it made him seem too desperate.

In spite of all this, I couldn't actually stop reading the book. Though I wasn't particularly fond of the two protagonists, my fondness of the concept and plot was undeniable. I completely drank up the whole supernatural twist. With the reddish tinge of the cover and Kate's red dress, I have to admit that my mind jumped to vampires, and I was okay with that, but I was surprised to read something very different. Vincent and his family, albeit the similarities to vampires were numerous, they seemed so unique. And I think that, as well as proving an interesting concept, it was put across very important themes. Undying love, importance of inner-strength, selflessness, just to name a few.

Oh and another thing I loved was the action. You wouldn't think that a YA paranormal romance would have so much fighting and be so action-packed, but it did, which was one of the main reasons for my reading on. It was really exciting.

If you really like romance and action in a supernatural read, I would suggest this title.

Have you read the Revenant series yet? What were your thoughts on it?

Thanks for reading guys, see you next time!